Inside Arts
The loss of the Saltire Literary Awards is a big own goal, says Brian Ferguson
The concept of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory is a one more usually associated with Scotland’s footballers and rugby players in modern times.
But that seemed to be the over-riding feeling within the S cottish publishing world at the news, revealed in this newspaper on Monday, that the countr y’s annual literar y awards had been left on the shelf for a year.
Less than a week after authors and publishers celebrated the B ooker Prize -winning success of Douglas Stuar t’s debut novel Shuggie Bain, which had coincided with S cotland’s annual week-long celebration of all things literar y, confirmation of the absence of the Saltire Literar y Awards this year was the equivalent of a wet blanket being thrown over the festivities.
For the Saltire S ociet y, the decision was a purely pragmatic, financial one, after its annual application for funding to Creative S cotland, which had backed the event since 2014, was turned down in the summer. The societ y delayed opening this year’s awards for submissions in the hope of attracting an alternative backer but, unsurprisingly given the current climate, drew a blank.
Creative S cotland’s decision not to spend £40,000 on the awards – one of the main events in the social calendar of writers, pub - lishers, agents and publicists – makes some sense given that the prospect of an actual event being able to take place was highly unlikely.
Yet an actual awards ceremony is way more than a boozy soiree. That’s why the organisers of the S cottish Album of the Year Awards, the S cots Trad Music Awards and the Bafta S cotland Awards have pulled out all the stops to ensure they went ahead.
Not only are they absolutely vital in recognising the best new work created over the previous 12 months, they are all vital to help promote new work. One only has to look at the kind of publicit y secured by Nova S co - tia, the Leith rapper who won the S cottish Album of the Year title.
One of the more exasperating elements of the loss of the Saltire Literar y Awards is that it appears to have been something of a vintage year, despite bookshops being closed down for months and the impact of the restrictions on live events and festivals.
Apar t from the success of Shuggie Bain, this year has also seen t wo Edinburgh-based authors, Lucy Ellman and Maggie O’farrell, secure t wo of the UK’S biggest literar y awards, the James Tait Black Prize and the Women’s Prize for Fiction.
Francine Toon and Kirstin Innes have been hailed as t wo of S cotland’s most exciting new writers, while Ian R ankin, Ali Smith and Val Mcdermid have all published new novels recently.
When the publishing industr y has been as agile as any S cottish cultural sector in staging online festivals, talks and book launches, and other awards have been able to stage judging processes over the last few months, it does seem bizarre for the Saltire Literar y Awards to have no presence at all this year.
S omewhat belatedly, the Saltire S ociet y has issued a plea for sponsors to come for ward to help ensure the awards can bounce back. It might also be an idea to galvanise the pub - lishing industr y behind a drive to persuade the S cottish Government and Creative S cotland that it is not left looking like the poor relation of the ar ts world this time next year.