Inverness-born author Ali Smith and late poet Aonghas MacNeacail on longlist for Highland Book Prize 2024
New fiction by Inverness-born writer Ali Smith is among the work longlisted for the Highland Book Prize 2024.
Poetry from the late Aonghas MacNeacail and Saltire Award winner Jen Stout’s experiences as a journalist in war-torn Ukraine also features among the 12 books longlisted.
The annual award celebrates literature that comes from the landscape and culture of the Highlands and Islands.
It is open to books of any genre written by authors who live in the Highlands or were born there, as well as books whose content is Highland themed.
It is presented by the Highland Society of London and run in conjunction with Moniack Mhor, Scotland’s Creative Writing Centre, near Kiltarlity.
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The 12 longlisted books were chosen by a team of volunteer readers with a diverse range of backgrounds and experience, in conjunction with Moniack Mhor, the Highland Society of London and the 2024 judging panel.
The list includes Gliff by renowned writer and academic Ali Smith, a former pupil of St. Joseph's RC Primary school and Inverness High School.
She has been four times shortlisted for the Booker Prize, has won the Goldsmiths Prize, Orwell Prize, Costa Best Novel Award and the Women’s Prize and was appointed CBE in the 2015 New Year Honours for services to literature.
The full list is:
Between Two Waters by Pam Brunton (Canongate, Non-fiction)
Beyond by Aonghas Macneacail (Shearsman, Poetry)
Birds / Humans / Machines / Dolphins by Genevieve Carver (Guillemot Press, Poetry)
Clear by Carys Davies (Granta, Fiction)
Gliff by Ali Smith (Hamish Hamilton, Fiction)
The Island at the Edge of Night by Lucy Strange (Chicken House, Fiction - YA)
The Island in the Sound by Niall Campbell (Bloodaxe, Poetry)
Night Train to Odesa: Covering the Human Cost of Russia’s War by Jen Stout (Birlinn, Non-fiction)
Remember the Rowan by Kirsten MacQuarrie (Ringwood, Fiction)
Storm's Edge: Life, Death and Magic in the Islands of Orkney by Peter Marshall (William Collins, Non-fiction)
Sweeney: An Intertonguing by Rody Gorman (Francis Boutle, Poetry)
Women of the Hebrides | Ban-eileanaich Innse Gall by Joni Buchanan (Acair, Non-fiction)
The judges are Jen Hadfield, poet and essayist, and winner of the 2024 Windham Campbell Prize, multi-award winning fiction writer Cynan Jones and broadcaster Peter Mackay who was recently appointed as Scotland’s Makar (national poet).
Each longlisted title will be celebrated in a series of springtime events including online and in-person readings and workshops in bookshops, community venues, and schools. They are supported by the William Grant Foundation.
The shortlist will be announced in May , and the winning announcement is to follow in June.
