Scotland's National Book Awards 2021 Winners Watch the ceremony again! Scotland’s National Book Awards 2021 Fiction Book of the Year Duck Feet Ely Percy Monstrous Regiment Publishing Ltd Duckfeet is a rare thing in contemporary literature; a novel with heart and humour which is also a feat of language and style. A micro landscape of teenagehood painted masterfully in Scots, it nonetheless speaks to the universal. It enchanted the judging panel and we have no doubt it will enchant the world. Book synopsis: "Duck Feet is a coming-of-age novel, set in the mid-noughties in Renfrew and Paisley, Scotland. It follows the lives of 12-year-old Kirsty Campbell and her friends as they navigate life from first to sixth year at Renfrew Grammar school. This book is a celebration of youth in an ever-changing world. It uses humour to tackle hard-hitting subjects such as drugs, bullying, sexuality, and teenage pregnancy. But moreover, it is a relatable and accessible portrait of figuring out who you are, plunging into the currents of life, and most of all, finding hope. By celebrated Scottish author Ely Percy, this is a relatable, quirky, and sometimes heart-wrenching story that paints an authentic portrait of growing up working class in Scotland." Fiction Book of the Year Judges: Sarah Barnard - Bookseller Ken Cockburn - Poet, translator, editor and writing tutor Camila Grudova - Writer Rosemary Ward - Programme Director, Scottish Book Trust Eris Young - Writer and editor of SFF and nonfiction First Book of the Year Bleak: the mundane comedy Roddy Murray Saraband Here’s to Roddy Murray’s Bleak. A fantastic debut ready to speak up for the bleak, wonderful spirit of life. Travelling from the Outer Hebrides to Scotland’s West Coast, from childhood to Glasgow’s Art School, from ceilidhs to rock-band ambitions, and beyond. Packed with stories and observations, let it regale you. Synopsis R.M. Murray has a story. Quite a few of them. Of seasickness, hangovers, the wrong kind of weather. Of the joy of woe, and disappointments fairy-lit with hope. From fishing in the endless rain on the Isle of Lewis to performing in a band with Peter Capaldi and Craig Ferguson at Glasgow School of Art. A stargazer, looking through the wrong end of the telescope. This is a memoir... of sorts. A join-the-dots journey through a life. A series of vignettes and minor personal fables, sardonic and self-deprecating. If it were a wine it would be very dry with an insolent nose and a desperate finish. Complex but approachable. And affordable. First Book Award Judges: Niall Campbell - Poet Kelly Kanayama - Arts and Culture Editor at Scottish BAME Writers Network Vineet Lal - Literary Translator Jeantte McLaughlin - Public Judge Shirley Whiteside - Writer, reviewer, radio presenter Non Fiction Book of the Year 2021 A Tomb With a View Peter Ross Headline Publishing Group A book about death that is never morbid or mawkish; a celebration of the frequently strange and often beautiful world of the graveyard, from the grandeur of Highgate to long-forgotten corners in passed-over places. Ross shines a light on the dark recesses we often want to ignore and discovers a world teeming with memory, wisdom and hope. An unforgettable journey. Synopsis Enter a grave new world in this acclaimed book as Peter Ross uncovers the stories and glories of graveyards. Who are London's outcast dead and why is David Bowie their guardian angel? What is the remarkable truth about Phoebe Hessel, who disguised herself as a man to fight alongside her sweetheart, and went on to live in the reigns of five monarchs? Why is a Bristol cemetery the perfect wedding venue for goths? All of these sorrowful mysteries - and many more - are answered in A Tomb With A View, a book for anyone who has ever wandered through a field of crooked headstones and wondered about the lives and deaths of those who lie beneath. So push open the rusting gate, push back the ivy, and take a look inside... Peter Ross is a freelance journalist based in Glasgow. I have written for titles including The Guardian, Sunday Times, The Times, National Geographic Traveler, Scotland On Sunday and the Boston Review. I’m a nine times winner at the Scottish Press Awards and an Orwell Fellow. Non-Fiction Award Judges: Laura Beattie - Public Judge Kevin Guyan - Researcher and Writer Donna Heddle - Director of the University of the Highlands and Islands Institute for Northern Studies Kirsten MacQuarrie - CILIPS: The library and information association John Miller - Bookseller Ross Roy Medal The Ross Roy Medal, commemorates the outstanding contribution to Scottish literature made by Professor G. Ross Roy of South Carolina University. It is awarded annually to the best PhD thesis submitted on a subject relating to Scottish literature and judged by the UCSL committee. The first medal was given in 2010 and many of the winners are now colleagues teaching and researching Scottish literature in our universities and colleges. This year’s winner: Nia Clark – PhD candidate, University of Glasgow (2021) Title of thesis: ‘[N]ew connections strung out over time’: a study of Liz Lochhead’s poetry and drama from 1972–2016 Warm thanks to the reader panel: Donna Heddle (UHI), Scott Hames (Stirling) and Corey Gibson (Glasgow) Reader’s comment: Nia’s thesis on Liz Lochhead’s oeuvre is the work of a very diligent scholar. The careful contextualisation of Lochhead’s life and work provides a vital new excavation of the devolutionary and post-devolutionary periods in Scottish literature - one that sometimes circumvents, sometimes complicates, some of the most familiar debates around the national paradigm, and provides a view from the coal face with one of the most important writers of the period. The detailed chronological account opens up into a study of overlapping cohorts of Scottish writers, the publications, review cultures, institutions, and networks they worked with and through, and the slow and nuanced shifts between generations of writers in a small country. Though Lochhead is surely a canonical figure, Nia’s study shows how her writing still works to ‘burst the bloody canon’ as she set out to do. This kind of treatment of Lochhead was overdue. One of the minor points that really struck me was the injustice that can be done to the popular reception of a writer when they are reduced to their most anthologised, curated, taught, and publicised works. The persistent focus on Lochhead’s relationship with Morgan, and with the visual arts, were especially fascinating, as were the later reflections on entanglements and revisitations in Lochhead’s oeuvre - where persistent questions about self-image, power and agency, feminist critique, class struggle, everydayness, material culture, aesthetics, voice, intimacy, myth, and the role of the artist in society, are met with shifting answers, methods, and modes. This comprehensive study spans all of Lochhead’s preferred forms, and places her carefully in social, intellectual, and artistic histories. It will be a wonderful resource for students and scholars in the future. Poetry Book of the Year Life Without Air Daisy Lafarge Granta This book is a strange concoction of biology, chemistry and personal relationships that somehow come together in poetic form. It is innovative in structure and form, always thought-provoking and sometimes humorous. An impressive debut collection. Synopsis When Louis Pasteur observed the process of fermentation, he noted that, while most organisms perished from lack of oxygen, some were able to thrive as 'life without air'. In this capricious, dreamlike collection, characters and scenes traverse states of airlessness, from suffocating relationships and institutions, to toxic environments and ecstatic asphyxiations. Both compassionate and ecologically nuanced, Life Without Air bridges poetry and prose to interrogate the conditions necessary for survival. Poetry Award Judges: Pat Corbett - Poet Jennifer Morag Henderson - Writer, Biographer, playwright Ian Spring - Writer, Poet, Editor, Publisher Rhian Williams - Writer, Reader, Recovering Academic History Book of the Year Stuart Style Monarchy, Dress and the Scottish Male Elite Maria HaywardYale University Press Delightfully produced, a book that in a highly original way - through the prism of dress and jewellery - complements what we know of the Stuart kings during the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Superbly – and aptly - illustrated and clearly written, the author demonstrates the ways in which the Stuart monarchs’ and their Scottish courtiers’ clothing styles and designs influenced elite fashion in both England and Scotland. Synopsis This is the first detailed analysis of elite men’s clothing in 17th-century Scotland and its influence on English male fashion. Focusing on the years 1566 through 1701, it centers on the clothing choices of five Stuart royals: James VI and I, Prince Henry, Charles I, Charles II, and James VII and II. The engaging text brims with details about the wardrobes and habits of Scottish royalty, such as how the men selected fabric and kept clothes clean. The book is organized along three themes: the significance of the Stuarts’ Scottish heritage in the style they developed; the role of Scots in exporting their style to London and beyond; and the reception of Stuart style among the male elite in Scotland. Maria Hayward explores how Stuart style was displayed in sport, at political and social events, and at church. The book also reveals the importance of vital supporting players―namely, the courtiers who helped kings and princes develop their style, as well as the tailors who disseminated it to men beyond the royal court. History Book Award Judges: David Caldwell - Archaeologist/historian/museum curator Paul Malgrati - Research Assistant (Scottish Literature), University of Glasgow Annie Tindley - Professor of British and Irish Rural History, Newcastle University Chris Whatley - Emeritus Professor of Scottish History at the University of Dundee Research Book of the Year Darkness Visible The Sculptor’s Cave, Covesa, from the Bronze Age to the Picts Ian Armit and Lindsey Buster Society of Antiquaries of Scotland This scholarly book presents a definitive study of a cave on the south coast of the Moray Firth, which seems to have been uninhabited and was used for various purposes down the centuries, including burial and killings. It recounts the findings of a team of experts in different archaeological techniques, who together have re-examined over 1,000 objects found during two periods of excavation in the 1920s and 1970s. Their work is linked by an ethical approach which allows the finds to speak for themselves. Despite the technical complexity of data, the book remains an accessible account of how careful archaeological analysis can reveal a narrative of the use of this unique place over time, on the edge of the land and the edge of the societies who were drawn to it for different reasons. Synopsis The Sculptor’s Cave is one of the most enigmatic prehistoric sites in Britain. Excavated in the 1920s and 1970s, new analysis of the archive has revealed a complex history of funerary and ritual activity from the Late Bronze Age to the Roman Iron Age. Using innovative methods and new techniques, this volume re-examines the results of earlier excavations and places the site in its wider British and European context. Research Book Award Judges: Daniel Cook - Reader, English, School of Humanities Robin Smith - Head of Collections and Research, National Library of Scotland (stood down in Sept 2021) Heather Yeung - Lecturer, University of Dundee Book Cover Book of the Year Fate by Jorge Consiglio Designed by Pablo Font Published by Charco Press Pablo Font’s design for Jorge Consiglio’s Fate is a retro, dynamic and fun cover that holds a great graphic impact. Fate Synopsis This novel focuses on a group of characters who are all in different ways endeavouring to take control of their fate. Their desire to lead a genuine existence forces them to confront difficult decisions, and to break out of comfortable routines. Karl and Marina have been together for ten years and have a young son, Simón. Karl is a German-born oboist at Argentina’s national orchestra, and Marina is a meteorologist. On a field trip, she meets fellow researcher Zárate, and what might have been just a fling starts to erode the foundations of her marriage. Then there is Amer, a dynamic and successful taxidermist. At a group therapy session for smokers, Amer falls for the younger Clara. While the relationship between Karl and Marina disintegrates, the love story between Amer and Clara is just beginning – or is it already at an end? One of Argentina’s leading contemporary writers, Jorge Consiglio portrays the inner worlds of these characters through the minute details of their everyday lives, laying bare their strivings and their frustrations with a wry gaze, and seeking in this close-up texture a deeper truth. Book Cover Award Judges: John Brennan - Programme Director, Advanced Sustainable Design - MSc and Senior Lecturer, Environmental Design, Edinburgh College of Art Brian Cairns - Artist and Illustrator Jules Danskin - Freelance book publicist working with independent publishers Zoe Patterson - Programme Director, Graphic Design - BA, University of Edinburgh Emerging Publisher of the Year Presented jointly to: Ceris Jones, Campaigns Manager, Sandstone Press It was clear to the judges that through hard work, adaptability, and talent Ceris Jones has played a pivotal role at Sandstone Press in the last 18 months, helping build its online presence and capabilities. Jamie Norman, Campaigns Executive, Canongate Books With imagination, innovation and confidence Jamie Norman has become a key member of Canongate Books. Leading on a number of successful and original campaigns. Emerging Publisher Judges: Grace Martha Balfour - Co-chair SYP Scotland Aly Barr - Deputy Director/Head of Operations at the Scottish Poetry Library Jenny Brown - Literary Agent Jules Danskin - Freelance book publicist working with independent publishers Marion Sinclair - CEO Publishing Scotland Gill Tasker - Lecturer Digital Creative Econ. & Publishing, University of Stirling Publisher of the Year Canongate Books Canongate is an independent publisher founded in 1973 and based in Edinburgh. We publish brilliant and unique voices of all kinds from all over the world, and publish an eclectic mix of fiction and non-fiction, with authors like Matt Haig, Barack Obama, Amy Liptrot, Samin Nosrat and Maaza Mengiste. Highly Commended Charco Press Charco Press is an Edinburgh-based independent publisher focused on bringing the best in contemporary Latin American fiction to English-speaking readers. In the five years since beginning, they have had two finalists for the International Booker Prize and twice won Scottish Small Press of the Year at the British Book Awards. Publisher Award Judges: Aly Barr - Deputy Director/Head of Operations at the Scottish Poetry Library Jenny Brown - Literary Agent Jules Danskin - Freelance book publicist working with independent publishers Marion Sinclair - CEO Publishing Scotland Gill Tasker - Lecturer Digital Creative Econ. & Publishing, University of Stirling Callum MacDonald Memorial Award Roncadora Press with Donald S Murray’s pamphlet Achanalt. The judges were unanimous in their praise for Roncadora’s daring and inventive focus on producing beautiful pieces of art across the three examples submitted: Storm Glass, Nith, and Achanalt. Design choices on illustration, binding, paperstock, and typesetting all complemented one another, with Achanalt by Donald S. Murray marked out as a lyrical, haunting narrative, complemented by its retro stylistic that, paradoxically, is also resolutely contemporary. Lifetime Achievement Award Douglas Dunn Recipient of the 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award, Douglas Dunn is a major Scottish poet, editor and critic, whose Elegies (1985), a moving account of his first wife’s death, became a critical and popular success. Dunn was born and brought up in Renfrewshire and currently lives in north Fife. His books – including ten collections of poetry and two of short stories, and a translation of Racine’s Andromache – are consistently well reviewed in the national press, while his work has been the object of much academic attention and has been extensively translated (there are editions in French, German, Spanish, Italian, Norwegian, Slovak, Armenian and Japanese). Dunn has never been a great reviser of his work: “A painter sells his work and it goes away and he might never see it again. As a poet, I think I’d prefer it that you wrote something and it was published and you would never see it again.” 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award: Ian Campbell - Emeritus Professor Scottish & Victorian Literature, University of Edinburgh Kay Farrell - Assistant Publisher at Sandstone Press Marcas Mac an Tuairneir - Writer and singer Book of the Year 2021 Duck Feet Ely Percy Monstrous Regiment Publishing Ltd Duckfeet is a rare thing in contemporary literature; a novel with heart and humour which is also a feat of language and style. A micro landscape of teenagehood painted masterfully in Scots, it nonetheless speaks to the universal. It enchanted the judging panel and we have no doubt it will enchant the world. Book synopsis: "Duck Feet is a coming-of-age novel, set in the mid-noughties in Renfrew and Paisley, Scotland. It follows the lives of 12-year-old Kirsty Campbell and her friends as they navigate life from first to sixth year at Renfrew Grammar school. This book is a celebration of youth in an ever-changing world. It uses humour to tackle hard-hitting subjects such as drugs, bullying, sexuality, and teenage pregnancy. But moreover, it is a relatable and accessible portrait of figuring out who you are, plunging into the currents of life, and most of all, finding hope. By celebrated Scottish author Ely Percy, this is a relatable, quirky, and sometimes heart-wrenching story that paints an authentic portrait of growing up working class in Scotland." The Book of the Year Award is decided by representatives from each of the Book Award categories. Gaelic Readers: Sim Innes Beathag Mhoireasdan Mark Wringe