BOOKER Prize winner Douglas Stuart could be set for another major honour after his debut novel Shuggie Bain was shortlisted for the Scotland's National Book Awards.
Stuart's autobiographical tale of a young boy growing up in the 1980s council estates of Glasgow under Thatcher is the second work by a Scottish author to take the coveted Booker, the first being How Late it Was, How Late, by James Kelman in 1994.
Now it's amongst five titles in the running for the fiction book of the year category in the annual awards run by the Saltire Society.
Edinburgh-set Luckenbooth, by Jenni Fagan, and Kirstin Innis' hit Scabby Queen have also been shortlisted, as has coming-of-age novel Duck Feet, by Ely Percy and There's Only One Danny Garvey by David F Ross.
The winner will be announed at a ceremony in Glasgow on Saturday November 27. Prizes in nine other categories will also be awarded, as will the title of Saltire Scottish Book of the Year and the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award.
The first such title went to polymath Alasdair Gray in 2019.
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Sarah Mason, Saltire Society director, said: "We are delighted to be back celebrating Scottish books and publishing through Scotland's National Book Awards.
"The last two years have been difficult for everyone, but the strength and resilience we have seen from our publishers, authors and designers is inspiring. Scotland"s National Book Awards have a long history of celebrating the richness of work happening in Scotland and the 2021 awards are another stellar year. Congratulations to all our shortlistees."
Percy is also up for the First Book award, as is The Young Team by Graeme Armstrong.
A wide range of topics ranging from Scotland’s abandoned islands, video games, early forensic detective work and graveyards are all covered in the non-fiction category, while three books exploring the Gaelic language and legacy have made the shortlists – Nàdar De by Peter Mackay in the Poetry Category; Wilson McLeod's Gaelic in Scotland: Policies, Movements, Ideologies in the research category and Gaelic Influence in the Northumbrian Kingdom: The Golden Age and the Viking Age by Fiona Edmonds in the history category.
The Scottish National Book Awards have been awarded by the Saltire Society since 1937 and in 2021 are supported by The Turtleton Charitable Trust. All entrants must be born in Scotland, live in Scotland or their books must be about Scotland.
The winners of each category will receive a bespoke award created by Inverness-based artist Simon Baker of Evergreen Studios.
The ceremony at Waterstones in Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, will be live-streamed. Tickets to watch online are available from Wednesday November 17 at www.saltiresociety.org.uk.
THE SHORTLIST
Scotland’s National Book Awards Poetry Book of the Year
Peter Mackay, Nàdar De | Some Kind of
Owen Gallagher, Clydebuilt
Thomas A Clark, The Threadbare Coat
Daisy Lafarge, Life Without Air
Andrew Greig, Later That Day
Garry Mackenzie, Ben Dorain: a conversation with a mountain
Scotland’s National Book Awards First Book of the Year
Vanessa Harryhausen, Ray Harryhausen: Titan of Cinema
Graeme Armstrong, The Young Team
Elle McNicoll, A Kind of Spark
Roddy Murray, Bleak: the mundane comedy
Aoife Lyall, Mother, Nature
Keith Broomfield, If Rivers Could Sing
Scotland’s National Book Awards Fiction Book of the Year
David F Ross, There’s Only One Danny Garvey
Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain
Jenni Fagan, Luckenbooth
Kirstin Innes, Scabby Queen
Ely Percy, Duck Feet
Scotland’s National Book Awards Non-Fiction Book of the Year
Patrick Laurie, Native: Life in a Vanishing Landscape
Cal Flyn, Islands of Abandonment
Tom Wood, Ruxton: The First Modern Murder
Shelly Klein, The See-Through House: My Father in Full Colour
Peter Ross, A Tomb With a View
Joe Donnelly, Checkpoint
Special Mention:
Kenneth Roy, In Case of Any News
Scotland’s National Book Awards Research Book of the Year
Wilson McLeod, Gaelic in Scotland: Policies, Movements, Ideologies
Ian Armit & Lindsey Buster, Darkness Visible: The Sculptor’s Cave, Covesea, from the Bronze Age to the Picts
Frank Rennie, The Changing Outer Hebrides
Nigel Leask, Stepping Westward: Writing the Highland Tour c 1720-1830
Richard Whatmore, Terrorists, Anarchists and Republicans: The Genevans and the Irish in Time of Revolution
The Saltire Scottish History Book of the Year Award
Ness Historical Society Editorial Team with Rachel Barrowman, History with Heart and Soul
Ewan Biggs, Coal Country: The Meaning and Memory of Deindustrialization in Postwar Scotland
Laura Stewart and Janay Nugent, Union and Revolution: Scotland and Beyond 1625 – 1745
Fiona Edmonds, Gaelic Influence in the Northumbrian Kingdom: The Golden Age and the Viking Age
Richard Oram, David I: King of Scots 1124 – 1153
Maria Hayward, Stuart Style: Monarchy, Dress and the Scottish Male Elite
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