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17 January 2021

Douglas Stuart wins the Booker Prize 2020

19 November 2020

Huge congratulations to US-based Glaswegian Douglas Stuart who was announced as the winner of the Booker Prize 2020 on 19 November. As well as the prize of £50,000, he can expect international recognition. His debut novel Shuggie Bain is published by Picador.

Congratulations also to the others on the shortlist, particularly Maaza Mengiste for The Shadow King  published by Canongate Books based in Edinburgh.

The Booker Prize for Fiction is open to writers of any nationality, writing in English and published in the UK or Ireland.

The 2020 shortlist was:

  • Diane Cook (USA) - The New Wilderness (Oneworld Publications)
  • Tsitsi Dangarembga (Zimbabwe) - This Mournable Body (Faber & Faber)
  • Avni Doshi (USA) - Burnt Sugar  (Hamish Hamilton, Penguin Random House)
  • Maaza Mengiste (Ethiopia/USA) - The Shadow King (Canongate Books)
  • Brandon Taylor (USA) - Real Life (Originals, Daunt Books Publishing)      
  • Douglas Stuart (Scotland/USA) - Shuggie Bain (Picador, Pan Macmillan) - WINNER

The shortlisted authors each received £2,500 and a specially bound edition of their book. 

For comment on this year's winner, see Alison Flood in The Guardian of 19 November 2020 and Brian Ferguson in The Scotsman of 19 November 2020.  Shuggie Bain has also been selected as Waterstones Scottish Book of the Year 2020.

Douglas Stuart is the second Scot to win the prize. The first was James Kelman in 1994. For a round up of Scottish writers and publishers on the Booker lists over the years, see our Booker Prize page.