Highland Book Prize 2024 Longlist Announced

The longlist for the Highland Book Prize 2024 has been announced by the Highland Society of London and Moniack Mhor, Scotland’s Creative Writing Centre.

This year’s longlist includes poetry from the late Aonghas MacNeacail, new fiction from Inverness-born Ali Smith, and Saltire Award winner Jen Stout’s experiences as a journalist in war-torn Ukraine.  

This annual award celebrates literature that comes from the rich landscape and culture of the Scottish Highlands and Islands. It is open to books of any genre written by authors who live in the Highlands or were born there, as well as books whose content is Highland themed.

Twelve books were selected by a team of volunteer readers with a diverse range of backgrounds and experience, in conjunction with Moniack Mhor, the Highland Society of London, and the 2024 Judging Panel, who are: Jen Hadfield, poet and essayist, and winner of the 2024 Windham Campbell Prize; acclaimed multi-award winning fiction writer Cynan Jones; and Peter Mackay, poet, lecturer and broadcaster, recently appointed as the Scotland’s Makar (national poet).

Each of the longlisted titles will be celebrated in a series of springtime events supported by the William Grant Foundation. The Longlist Event Series will include online and in-person readings and workshops in bookshops, community venues, and schools.

The shortlist will be announced in May 2025, and the winning announcement is to follow in June 2025. Full list below:

• Between Two Waters by Pam Brunton (Canongate, Non-fiction)
• Beyond by Aonghas Macneacail (Shearsman, Poetry)
• Birds / Humans / Machines / Dolphins by Genevieve Carver (Guillemot Press, Poetry)
• Clear by Carys Davies (Granta, Fiction)
• Gliff by Ali Smith (Hamish Hamilton, Fiction)
• The Island at the Edge of Night by Lucy Strange (Chicken House, Fiction - YA)
• The Island in the Sound by Niall Campbell (Bloodaxe, Poetry)
• Night Train to Odesa: Covering the Human Cost of Russia’s War by Jen Stout (Birlinn, Non-fiction)
• Remember the Rowan by Kirsten MacQuarrie (Ringwood, Fiction)
• Storm's Edge: Life, Death and Magic in the Islands of Orkney by Peter Marshall  (William Collins, Non-fiction)
• Sweeney: An Intertonguing by Rody Gorman (Francis Boutle, Poetry)
• Women of the Hebrides | Ban-eileanaich Innse Gall by Joni Buchanan (Acair, Non-fiction)

The Highland Book Prize was established in 2017 and celebrates the finest published work that recognises the rich talent, landscape, and cultural diversity of the Scottish Highlands and Islands. This annual prize is open to work in fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.

Presented by the Highland Society of London, facilitated by Moniack Mhor Creative Writing Centre, and supported by the William Grant Foundation, this literary prize aims to bring recognition to books created in, or about, the Highlands and Islands.