Saltire Society announce the Longlists for Scotland’s National Book Awards
The Saltire Society has today (Thursday 19th September) announced the Longlists for Scotland’s National Book Awards, one of the oldest literary prizes in the UK.
The Longlists present a snapshot of Scotland’s vibrant literary landscape across Fiction, Non-Fiction, First Book, Poetry and Research.
From literary and historical fiction to poetry, through memoirs, biographies and nature writing, the Longlists reflect the breadth of style and genre, scope of imagination and international outlook to be found in the outstanding literature of modern Scotland.
In this year’s Fiction Book of the Year Longlist, comprising ten titles, themes of power, corruption, complicity and collective morality loom large, in settings ranging from unspecified northern extremes to outlying islands, inter-war Glasgow and modern-day London.
The judges’ selected fiction Longlist is bound together by exploration of connection – through shared history, shared trauma or experience, place or time, or – simply – common humanity.
The FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 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)
A sense of place and identity is equally as strong in this year’s Non-Fiction Book of the Year Longlist, made up of nine titles, with stories both epic and intimate told by memoirists, biographers, naturalists, politicians and historians. The diverse Longlist sweeps through the epic vastness of outer space to the very personal, domestic tragedies of poverty, loss, dissociation and suicide, and individual experiences of parenthood, grief, recovery and restoration.
The NON-FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 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)
Telling stories publicly, in print, for the first time, is celebrated in the First Book of the Year Award, with this year’s Longlist comprising nine titles. Power is, again, a dominant theme in a Longlist which celebrates fiction, non-fiction and poetry. The judges said, ‘for First Book, we are not necessarily seeking perfect accomplishment but rather distinctiveness and promise. 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 OF THE YEAR 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
Not the End of the World by Hannah Ritchie (Chatto & Windus)
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
The Poetry Longlist for 2024 is exciting and emotional in equal measure, containing as it does the last collections of two giants of Scottish poetry, Aonghas ‘Dubh’ MacNeacail and John Burnside, neither of whom lived to see the books longlisted. Their works sit aside a raft of well-known and more emergent voices. The judges said, ‘We saw a great diversity of poetic expression, from collections arising from the performance tradition to lyrical work. The longlist embodies the exciting range of genres, languages and modes in Scottish poetry right now.’
The POETRY BOOK OF THE YEAR 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)
On announcing the 2024 Longlists, Mairi Kidd, Director of The Saltire Society, said:
“We are delighted to publish these wonderfully vibrant Longlists that amply demonstrate the great breadth of quality writing happening in Scotland today. There is something here for every reader and we hope that book lovers across Scotland, the UK and indeed the wider world will be inspired to dip into these exciting works.”
The Shortlists will be announced on Wednesday 30th October, with the winners in each category then announced on Thursday 28th November along with the overall Book of the Year and Lifetime Achievement Awards.