THE Saltire Society has announced the shortlisted titles for Scotland’s National Book Awards.
Nominees this year include books in both Gaelic and Scots vernacular with stories taking readers from Scotland to Tahiti, the Caribbean and 1930s Berlin.
The winner of all six prizes, as well as the Saltire Scottish Book of the Year, The Lifetime Achievement Award, The Ross Roy Medal, and three industry awards, will be announced at a ceremony in Edinburgh on December 8.
Director of the Saltire Society Sarah Mason said: “Scotland’s National Book Awards celebrate the extraordinary richness in the work of our authors, publishers, and designers.
“The awards reflect the strength of the literary scene in Scotland today and the 2022 shortlists showcase a wonderful variety of depth and storytelling.
“Congratulations to all our shortlisted authors.”
A full list of all the nominees in every category can be seen below.
Fiction Award
- Be Guid Tae Yer Mammy by Emma Grae (Published by Unbound)
- Blood and Gold by Mara Menzies (Published by Birlinn Ltd)
- Cwen by Alice Albinia (Published by Serpents Tail)
- News of the Dead by James Robertson (Published by Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Randomhouse UK)
- The Pharmacist by Rachelle Atalla (Published by Hodder & Stoughton)
- Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart (Published by Pan MacMillan/Picador)
Non Fiction Award
- Alison Watt: A Portrait without Likeness by Alison Watt (Published by National Galleries of Scotland)
- Alternatives to Valium by Alastair McKay (Published by Birlinn Ltd)
- Homelands by Chitra Ramaswamy (Published by Canongate Books)
- One Body by Catherine Simpson (Published by Saraband)
- The Eternal Season: A Journey Through Our Changing British Summer by Stephen Rutt (Published by Elliott & Thompson)
- Seven Ways to Change the World by Gordon Brown (Published by Simon & Schuster UK)
History Award
- Blood Legacy by Alex Renton (Published by Canongate Books)
- Mael Coluim III, Canmore by Neil McGuigan (Published by Birlinn Ltd)
- R. B. Cunninghame Graham and Scotland: Party, Prose, and Political Aesthetic by Lachlan Gow Munro (Published by Edinburgh University Press)
- Slaves and Highlanders: Silenced Histories of Scotland and the Caribbean by David Alston (Published by Edinburgh University Press)
- Embroidering Her Truth by Clare Hunter (Published by Hodder & Stoughton – Sceptre)
- Putting the Tea in Britain by Les Wilson (Published by Birlinn Ltd)
Research Award
- A Long and Tangled Saga by Bob Chambers (Published by Acair Books)
- Ainmean Tuineachaidh Leòdhais /The Settlement Names of Lewis by Richard A V Cox (Published by Clann Tuirc)
- Craftworkers in Nineteenth Century Scotland: Making and Adapting in an Industrial Age by Stana Nenadic (Published by Edinburgh University Press)
- Recovering Scottish History: John Hill Burton and Scottish National Identity in the Nineteenth Century by Craig Beveridge (Published by Edinburgh University Press)
- Surveying the Anthropocene: Environment and Photography Now Edited by Patricia Macdonald (Published by Studies in Photography)
- Scripting the Nation: Court Poetry and the Authority of History in Late Medieval Scotland by Katherine H Terrell (Published by The Ohio State University Press)
Poetry Award
- At Least This I Know by Andrés N Ordorica (Published by 404 Ink)
- Blood Salt Spring by Hannah Lavery (Published by Birlinn Ltd)
- How to Burn a Woman by Claire Askew (Published by Bloodaxe Books)
- Polaris by Marcas Mac an Tuairneir (Published by Leamington Books)
- The Luna Erratum by Maria Sledmere (Published by Dostoyevsky Wannabe)
First Book Award
- A Sky Full of Kites by Tom Bowser (Published by Birlinn Ltd)
- I Am Not Your Eve by Devika Ponnambalam (Published by Bluemoose Books)
- In: The Graphic Novel by Will McPhail (Published by Hodder & Stoughton - Sceptre)
- Limbo by Georgi Gill (Published by Blue Diode Press
- The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley by Sean Lusk (Published by Doubleday/Transworld)
- The Voids by Ryan O’Connor (Published by Scribe Publications)
Lifetime Achievement Award
The Award was open to online public nominations from May until 15 August. The Awardee will be decided by a panel of individuals from the literary community.
Previous winners have included Alasdair Gray (2019) and Douglas Dunn (2021).
