Press Release: Prizes and Awards
Shortlist Announced For Sceptre Prize For New Writing
Posted at 8:04AM Friday 05 Feb 2010
The shortlist for the annual £1,500 Sceptre Prize for emerging novelists has been announced.Three MLitt graduates from the University of Glasgow's Edwin Morgan Centre for Creative Writing – Elinor Brown, John Jennett and Martin Shannon – have been shortlisted for the award. The winner will be announced at the Aye Write! literary festival on 13 March. Member of the judging panel, publisher Bob McDevitt said: "The Sceptre prize judges were once again very impressed by the standard of the work in this the third year of giving the prize. There was an impressive range of new voices who seemed fearless even when approaching difficult subject matter and complex characterisation." The novels-in-progress have contrasting themes: in Elinor Brown's mystery, The Recklessness of Water, a young English woman moves to a claustrophobic Sardinian village and becomes obsessed with the disappearance of a local girl; John Jennet's novel, Manadh, tells the story of a reluctant wartime sea-captain who longs to return to his native Hebrides. Sixty years later his visions, or second-sight, link him to a midwife on the trail of a vanished twin brother; and Martin Shannon's Thwarted Little Redskins describes an introvert in an extrovert world asked to face his greatest fear. The Sceptre Prize – established in 2007 to mark the literary imprint's 21st anniversary celebrations – is jointly run by the University of Glasgow and Sceptre (an imprint of Hodder and Stoughton) to encourage new Scottish novelists. Students from the University of Glasgow's acclaimed Edwin Morgan Centre for Creative Writing who achieved Distinctions in their final projects are eligible to enter. Last year, MLitt graduate Fiona Rintoul won The Sceptre Prize for Leipzig.
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