Where are the Scottish Literary Awards?

Those of you who have read my other blog post and profile information will note that I am currently researching the history of the Saltire Society’s literary prizes.  But while my research leads me down a very specific path, I ended up on this yellow brick road because of my interest in literary prize culture in general.  To me, literary awards are the ‘alternative’ celebrity gossip.  They create a buzz, stimulate debate and get the literary Twitterati all in a flutter…

But when I started my research into the Saltire Society Book Awards (whose winners back catalogue is a who’s who of brilliant Scottish writing) I realised that Scottish literary awards, which short list and reward some of the finest living writers today, are barely mentioned in contemporary news media.  Despite hearing everything about the Man Booker/Costa/National Book Award short lists, award ceremonies, winners and losers, here in Scotland we very rarely hear about the book awards that are administered on our own doorstep.  Scottish literature is one of the richest, most interesting and most consistently critically acclaimed areas of literature in the world, yet when its innovations and aspirations are rewarded it goes unnoticed by the mainstream media. 

This modest blog hopes to rectify this.  My aim is to create somewhere for those interested in Scottish literary awards to come and discuss, argue and rejoice in our healthy literary culture.  I will create profiles for the current awards based in Scotland, and timelines following the awards from the opening of their applications, to final deadlines and ultimately to the announcement of the winner of the award. 

On a side note, I am a new and modest blogger, but will try my best to make this an insightful, and interesting read.