Hadfield in line for prize
Shetland-based poet Jen Hadfield has been shortlisted in the poetry category of the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust Book Awards which are run in partnership with the Scottish Arts Council.
This latest achievement adds to the list of accolades she has received for her poetry collection Nigh-No-Place which recently won her the TS Eliot prize.
The awards are Scotland’s richest, with the overall book of the year winning £30,000 and the four categories – fiction, literary non-fiction, poetry and first book – each winning £5,000.
Twenty titles were shortlisted last Thursday from an initial long list of 120.
The judging panel comprises: Prof Alan Riach, poet and head of the department of Scottish Literature at the University of Glasgow; Lillias Fraser, readership development officer at the Scottish Poetry Library; Pat Kane, writer and musician; and Dr Gavin Wallace, head of literature at the Scottish Arts Council.
Ms Fraser said of the poetry shortlist: “The range is especially impressive. The vastly different books are by poets at the top of their game, all using their formidable craft as a rock-steady foundation for adventures in form and imagination.”
A winner will be selected in each category in April, with the overall winner will be announced at an awards ceremony at the Borders Book Festival in Melrose on 19th June.
