Four finalists celebrated as Shetland poet Jen Hadfield and book The Stone Age is named the winner of the Highland Book Prize 2021
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
Shetland-based poet Jen Hadfield has won the Highland Book Prize with her collection The Stone Age.
The Highland Society of London and Moniack Mhor Writers’ Centre announced the win at the end of an evening from The Straw Bale Studio at Moniack Mhor in front of both a virtual audience and a special one present at the writing centre.
The centre’s Kirsteen Bell introduced the four finalists David Alston for Slaves And Highlanders: Silenced Histories of Scotland and the Caribbean, (non-fiction, Edinburgh University Press), Cal Flyn for Islands Of Abandonment: Life In The Post-Human Landscape (non-fiction, William Grant), Jen Hadfield for The Stone Age (poetry, Picador) and Donald S Murray for In A Veil of Mist (fiction, Saraband).
Each writer spoke about their book, read from it and answered questions from a volunteer readers’ panel.
And between each author, Highland musicians Ingrid and Megan Henderson played a selection of atmospheric Highland tunes and Gaelic song.
Named as the winner, Jen Hadfield laughed and said this was one of the speechless moments she had been talking about earlier on with reference to her poetry.
“I’m feeling it is a rich world to be part of tonight and it is amazing to be in a room together with folk, I have really come to appreciate that over the couple of years we couldn’t do it, so it is a very precious thing that you have all pulled together tonight.”
The poet then chose to read the poem Rockpool – “ it is short which is why I have chosen it!” she smiled.
The prize celebrates the finest work that comes from, or is inspired by, the Scottish Highlands and seeks to recognise the talent, landscape, and cultural diversity of the Highlands and Islands.
Volunteer readers picked an initial longlist of 12 books which a team of judges then whittled down to the final four.
The initial 12 were selected from more than 70 submissions: An Seachdamh Tonn | The Seventh Wave, Sandaidh NicDhòmhnaill Jones (Gaelic poetry, Acair); Ben Dorain: A Conversation With A Mountain, Garry MacKenzie (poetry, The Irish Pages Press/Cló An Mhíl Bhuí); Borges And Me: An Encounter, Jay Parini (autofiction, Canongate); Deep Wheel Orcadia, Harry Josephine Giles (poetry, Picador); Hiort, Iain F Macleod (Gaelic fiction, CLÀR); In A Veil Of Mist, Donald S Murray (fiction, Saraband); Islands Of Abandonment: Life In The Post-Human Landscape, Cal Flyn (non-fiction, William Collins); Of Stone and Sky, Merryn Glover (fiction, Birlinn); Regeneration: The Rescue Of A Wild Land, Andrew Painting (non-fiction, Birlinn); Slaves And Highlanders: Silenced Histories Of Scotland And The Caribbean, David Alston (non-fiction, Edinburgh University Press); The Stone Age, Jen Hadfield (poetry, Picador); VEEVE, Christine De Luca (poetry, Mariscat Press).
The judging panel were Alex Ogilvie, chairman of the panel from previous years, joined by Jenny Niven, freelance producer and director, and chair of Literature Alliance Scotland; Kapka Kassabova, poet and writer of fiction and narrative non-fiction whose book Border (Granta) won the 2017 Highland Book Prize; and Mark Wringe, senior lecturer in Gaelic language and culture at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, University of the Highlands and Islands. They were joined by a ‘shadow Gaelic judge’ novelist, poet and playwright Kevin MacNeil.
Alex Ogilvie, Highland Society of London trustee, said: “Already celebrating its fifth anniversary, the Highland Book Prize goes from strength to strength in terms of the quality of the longlist title – also in the engagement by authors, publishers, bookshops, and the reading public.”
