The Saltire Society Literary Awards 2024 Longlist We are delighted to announce the Fiction, Non-Fiction, Poetry, First Book and Research longlists for Scotland’s National Book Awards 2024.FICTION BOOK OF THE YEARThemes of power, corruption, complicity and collective morality loom large in our 10-strong longlist, with settings ranging from unspecified northern extremes to outlying islands, inter-war Glasgow and modern-day London. These are exciting, challenging and infinitely rewarding titles. The Fiction Longlist is:A Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein (Granta)What Doesn't Kill Us by Ajay Close (Saraband)Beethoven's Assassins by Andrew Crumey (Dedalus)Clear by Carys Davies (Granta)Lost People by Margaret Elphinstone (Wild Goose)Caledonian Road by Andrew O'Hagan (Faber)Deliver Me by Elle Nash (VERVE)Hazardous Spirits by Anbara Salam (Baskerville, an imprint of John Murray)Secrets of Blythswood Square by Sara Sheridan (Hodder)Catch the Moments as they Fly by Zoë Strachan (Blackwater Press)NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAROur longlist titles from memoirists, biographers, naturalists, politicians and historians take canvases epic and intimate, from the vastness of outer space to personal, domestic tragedies of poverty, loss, parenthood, recovery and restoration. The NON-FICTION Longlist is:More Richly in Earth: A Poet's Search for Mary MacLeod by Marilyn Bowering (McGill-Queen's University Press)Thunderclap by Lauren Cumming (Chatto and Windus, Vintage, Penguin Random House)Night Vision by Pippa Goldschmidt (Broken Sleep Books)The Unfamiliar: A Queer Motherhood Memoir by Kirsty Logan (Virago)Already Too Late by Carl MacDougall (Luath Press)O Brother by John Niven (Canongate Books)Ian Fleming: The Complete Man by Nicholas Shakespeare (Harvill Secker, Vintage, Penguin Random House)Politics on the Edge by Rory Stewart (Jonathan Cape, Vintage, Penguin Random House)Windswept: Life, Nature and Deep Time in the Scottish Highlands by Annie Worsley (William Collins)POETRY BOOK OF THE YEAROur Poetry longlist is exciting and emotional in equal measure, containing as it does the last collections of two giants of Scottish poetry, neither of whom lived to see the books longlisted. Their works sit aside a raft of well-known and more emergent voices embodying the exciting range of genres, languages and modes in Scottish poetry right now. The POETRY Longlist is:QuickFire, Slow Burning, Janette Ayachi (Pavilion Poetry, Liverpool University Press)RUIN, BLOSSOM, John Burnside (Jonathan Cape, Vintage, PRH)May Day, Jackie Kay (Pan Macmillan)Anamnesis, Iona Lee (Birlinn Ltd)From Our Own Fire, William Letford (Carcanet Press)The Wrong Person to Ask, Marjorie Lotfi (Bloodaxe Books)beyond, Aonghas MacNeacail (Shearsman Books)Three Births, K Patrick (Granta)The Cat Prince: & Other Poems, Michael Pedersen (Corsair (Little, Brown Book Group))Long Field Loop, Rebecca Sharp (Tapsalteerie)DWAMS, Shane Strachan (Tapsalteerie)Firebird, Em Strang (Shearsman Books)FIRST BOOK OF THE YEARIn making their selection, our judges sought distinctiveness and promise, saying, ‘the books on the list are well-written, compelling and above all, intriguing. We enjoyed each and every one and are excited to see what this diverse cohort of writers do next.’ The FIRST BOOK Longlist is:Dark Island by Daniel Aubrey (HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd, HarperNorth) (fiction)Mephistopheles by CD Boyland (Blue Diode Press) (poetry)Fragile Animals by Genevieve Jagger (404 Ink) (fiction)Remember, Remember by Elle Machray (HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd, HarperNorth) (fiction)The Dictionary People by Sarah Ogilvie (Chatto & Windus, Vintage) (non-fiction)The Old Haunts by Allan Radcliffe (Fairlight Books) (fiction)Night Train to Odesa by Jen Stout (Birlinn Ltd) (non-fiction)The Department of Work and Pensions Assesses a Jade Fish by Nuala Watt (Blue Diode Press) (poetry) Not the End of the World by Hannah Ritchie (Chatto & Windus, Vintage) (non-fiction)RESEARCH BOOK OF THE YEAROur Research longlist showcases exciting original research for both academic and general readerships. The books are engaging, intriguing, well researched, edited and produced. The RESEARCH Longlist is: Nan Shepherd's Correspondence by Kerri Andrews (Edinburgh University Press)Women of the Hebrides | Ban-eileanaich Innse Gall by Joni Buchanan (Acair)Somhairle MacGill-Eathain na Bhriathran Fhèin by Mairi Sine Campbell, Jo Macdonald & Ishbel Maclean (Acair)Literature for the People by Sarah Harkness (Pan MacMillan)Sex and Violence in 1920s Scotland: Incest, Rape, Lewd and Libidinous Practices, 1918-1930 by Louise Heren (Bloomsbury Academic)England’s Insular Imagining by Lorna Hutson (Cambridge University Press and Assessment)The Afterlife of Mary, Queen of Scots by Steven J. Reid (Edinburgh University Press)Salt: Scotland’s Newest Oldest Industry, eds. Christopher A. Whatley, Joanna Hambly (Birlinn)Scotland's Royal Women and European Literary Culture, 1424 – 1587 by Emily Wingfield (Brepols Publishers)