Jane McKie shares her experience of winning the 2008 First Book award for her poetry collection Morocco Rococo (Cinnamon Press):
The phone rang. I was in the lounge attempting some art with my one and a half-year old girl. I picked it up and listened to Aly Barr tell me that Morocco Rococo had [...]
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Andrea McNicoll writes about her experience of winning the 2009 First Book Award:
I was at work when I heard I’d won the 2009 prize for first book. I was in my car, having just finished a visit with a service user who was hearing voices (I was working for a mental health service [...]
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Nicola Morgan discusses winning the 2005 Children’s Book of the Year Award:
Where were you when you heard that you had won the award?
I was just about to walk the dog. I’d already opened the door when the phone rang and I nipped back in to answer it, leaving the door open [...]
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Writer/musician/consultant/player/theorist/activist Pat Kane was on the judging panel for the awards in 2010. Here’s the text of his speech on the 2010 Book of the Year A Passion for Nature: The Life of John Muir by Donald Worster (Oxford University Press).
“As Scotland grows in confidence and stature, through waves of cultural [...]
Continue Reading →James Robertson writes about winning the 2004 award with his novel, Joseph Knight:
I first came across a brief mention of the story of Joseph Knight in a book about Dundee in, I think, 2000. At the time I was just beginning to sketch out something quite different, a novel [...]
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Anne Donovan talks about being shortlisted for the 2004 award for her novel Buddha Da (Canongate):
Buddha Da was on the shortlist for the Scottish Arts Council Book of the Year Award in 2004. Each book on the shortlist also receives a Scottish Arts Council Award, which is great, as it means no [...]
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Janice Galloway (in her role as a judge for the 2008 awards) gave this speech in appreciation of Robert Macfarlane’s The Wild Places (Granta), winner of the 2008 Non-Fiction Book of the Year Award:
“The wind was rising, so I went to the wood. Rooks haggled in the air above the trees. [...]
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Robert Macfarlane discusses winning the 2008 Non-Fiction Book of the Year Award for The Wild Places (Granta):
Where were you when you heard that you had won the award?
I was part-way through an afternoon’s teaching (I’m an academic in the day-job) and checked my e-mail to find a request for me to ring [...]
Continue Reading →Tom Pow writes about winning the 2009 poetry prize for Dear Alice: Narratives of Madness (Salt).
I was at home, thankfully sitting down, when I received the call to tell me I’d won the poetry award. It was a very strong shortlist and I was honoured to be part of it. [...]
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