The Man Booker Prize promotes the finest in
fiction by rewarding the very best book of the year. The £50,000
prize is the world's most important literary award and has the
power to transform the fortunes of authors and publishers.
The 13-strong longlist for the 2018 Prize was
announced on 24 July and features The Long Take (Picador) by Scottish poet
Robin Robertson. In his capacity as Associate
Publisher at Jonathan Cape, Robertson acquired the UK rights to
Michael Ondaatje's Warlight which is also on the longlist
(see The Bookseller 21 September 2017). Sabrina by Nick Drnaso (Granta Books) is
the first ever graphic novel on the longlist.
The shortlist will be announced on 20 September and the winner
on 16 October 2018. For details, see the Man Booker
Prize website.
SCOTTISH WRITERS
James Kelman is the only Scot to have won the
Booker Prize. How Late it Was, How Late (first published
by Secker & Warburg) won in 1994.
Others who have been listed are:
- Muriel Spark shortlisted for The Public
Image (Macmillan) in 1969; The Driver's Seat
(Penguin) in 1970; and Loitering with Intent (Bodley Head)
in 1981
- William Boyd (who regards himself as a Scottish writer) was shortlisted for An
Ice-Cream War in 1982; and longlisted for Any Human
Heart in 2002 (both published by Hamish Hamilton)
- George Mackay Brown shortlisted for Beside
The Ocean of Time (John Murray) in 1996
- Shena Mackay shortlisted for The Orchard
on Fire (Heinemann) in 1996
- Andrew O'Hagan shortlisted for Our
Fathers in 1999 and longlisted for The Illuminations
in 2015 (both Faber & Faber)
- Ali Smith shortlisted for Hotel World
in 2001; The Accidental in 2005; How to Be Both
in 2014 and Autumn in 2017 (all published by Hamish
Hamilton)
- A L Kennedy longlisted for Serious
Sweet (Jonathan Cape) in 2016
- Graeme Macrae Burnet shortlisted for His Bloody Project (Contraband) in
2016
- Robin Robertson longlisted for The Long Take (Picador) in 2018
SCOTTISH PUBLISHERS WITH BOOKS ON THE LISTS
Canongate
A book published in the UK by Edinburgh-based Canongate Books won
in 2002. Life of Pi by Yann Martel (first published in
Canada) is to date the biggest-selling Booker winner. It was also
made into an Oscar-winning film. Other books published by Canongate
have been shortlisted:
- The Secret River by Kate Grenville (2006)
- Carry Me Down by MJ Hyland (2006)
- The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng (2012)
(which won the Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction 2013)
and longlisted
- Jamrach's Menagerie by Carol Birch (2011)
- A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki (2013)
- Solar Bones by Mike McCormack (2017).
Contraband (an imprint of Saraband)
His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae
Burnet was on the 2016 shortlist.
Polygon
Under the Frog by Tibor Fischer was shortlisted in 1993.
The Edinburgh-based publisher was then an imprint of Edinburgh
University Press but is now an imprint of Birlinn.
Sandstone Press
This small Highlands-based publisher has had two books
longlisted:
- The Testament of Jessie Lamb by Jane Rogers in 2011,
and
- The Marrying of Chani Kaufman by Eve Harris in
2013.
The Salamander Press
This Edinburgh publishing house (1981-1993) published Flying
to Nowhere by John Fuller which was shortlisted in 1983.