Book awards cancellation feels like fate is having a laugh at me

Of all the gongs out there, the Saltires’ First Book prize was the one I might have had a shot at, writes Laura Waddell

It reads like a tragedy. Days after a Scottish writer won the Booker Prize, for only the second time in the prize’s 50-year history, came the announcement that Scotland’s own literary prizes, the Saltire Awards, have been cancelled for the first year in 40 years following an unsuccessful funding bid to Creative Scotland. It’s a blow.

Last night I sat watching the starry, televised An Post Irish Book Awards, celebrating Doireann Ni Griofa's winning non-fiction book A Ghost in the Throat. I once again admired and envied the confidence with which Ireland celebrates its literature, and the great interest taken in them by both broadcasters and the public. But this year, I can’t even compare the two ceremonies, because Scotland’s awards will not take place.

Literary criticism – among which nestles the affirmation from awards – is fragile in Scotland, not only because much of it relies on public funding with its ups and downs but because much of it also once relied upon newspaper space and arts editor roles which have been cut and cut and cut.

And yet as part of a healthy literary ecosystem, criticism is a necessity. It’s useful for commercial sales and reaching readers, but it’s also an important pillar in itself, in discussing, understanding and building upon the books that are crafted here. Art does not exist in a vacuum. Beneath every artwork, book or otherwise, are foundations: financial, personal and cultural.

Scottish literary culture does not slot neatly into wider UK lit culture, but rather, kind of overlaps; working together when possible, but also doing its own thing. The Scottish publishing industry is distinct in how it operates, with its own systems of arts funding and network bodies, operating far from London’s media bubble which too often views Scottish themes as other and parochial.

Scottish literature draws on its own distinct storytelling traditions, artistic communities, and languages. And so we need our own awards, our own systems of esteem, our own historical record, criticism, and appraisal of Scottish books.

But it’s not to say the awards in their current form are without issues, or that they have served all well. Amidst the disappointment in the trade, not least because cancellation has come late in the year when judging would usually be done and dusted, is a quiet acknowledgement of this.

A year ago, academics Stevie Marsden and Claire Squires published their report, “The First Rule of Judging Club… Inside the Saltire Society Literary Awards”. It’s worth reading in full for anyone interested, but it brought to light weaknesses in the judging process and persistent issues with gender imbalance, something which has plagued many literary awards for decades.

And in the last few years alone, more than one woman has spoken publicly about their discomfort with the process, from both the judging and the winning sides. When I write that critical esteem and awards are important to writers, that must include Scottish woman writers.

As Squires and Marsden summed up in the abstract to their study: “Book awards are a pervasive aspect of contemporary book culture, attracting both substantial media and scholarly attention. They confer prestige, create marketing opportunities, push sales, and contribute to the early stages of canon formation.”

Questions remain as to what exactly these book awards should look like and how they are operated, or whether a separate award for Scottish wom