We are delighted to welcome Stuart Kelly, author and Literary Editor of Scotland on Sunday to Imprint for this very special event with James Kelman.
The future of Scotland and its independence (or not) has been a contentious topic since the Acts of Union in 1707. Recent publication Headshook, edited by Stuart Kelly, challenged 24 of the nation’s finest writers to envisage Scotland’s future in their very own way. Included in the impressive line-up was James Kelman, who has been described by Kirsty Gunn of the Sunday Herald as “the greatest British novelist of our time”.
James Kelman is a winner of many literary awards including the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction in 1989, the Booker Prize in 1994 and most recently, the Scottish Investment Trust Book Award 2009 for Keiron Smith, Boy.
His remarks at the 2009 Edinburgh Book Festival created controversy – he contrasted the accolades showered on detective and genre fiction with the neglect of Scotland’s radical intellectual writing tradition which he maintains “…has been derided and sneered at by the Scottish literary establishment.” The resultant reporting filled many column inches and sparked a debate over the status and value of genre as opposed to literary writing.
The debate continues …
