The final 12 chosen for the Highland Book Prize 2022 longlist are revealed
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The longlist of 12 books for the 2022 Highland Book Prize has been announced by Moniack Mhor, Scotland’s Creative Writing Centre, and The Highland Society of London.
Today (Wednesday, December 14), the 12 diverse titles are unveiled for the prize that seeks to celebrate the finest work that comes from, or is inspired by, the Scottish Highlands.
Presented by the Highland Society of London, and facilitated by Moniack Mhor Writers’ Centre, the prize seeks to recognise the rich talent, landscape, and cultural diversity of Scotland’s Highlands and Islands.
The 12 titles have been selected from 81 submissions for this important literary award.
The range of titles on this year's list includes personal, cultural, and ecological explorations of Highland landscapes and human relationships, across non-fiction, fiction, and poetry. Submissions were also invited from authors, writing on any subject, who were born or brought up in the Highlands or have made the area their home.
Each entry was reviewed and scored multiple times by a volunteer panel of over 100 readers from around the world.
The 2022 longlisted titles are:
Belonging: Natural Histories Of Place, Identity And Home – Amanda Thomson (Canongate) Non-fiction
Companion Piece – Ali Smith (Hamish Hamilton) Fiction
Confessions Of A Highland Art Dealer – Tony Davidson (Woodwose Books) Non-fiction
Crann-Fìge / Fig Tree: Short Stories, Duncan Gillies (Acair) Fiction
Daughters Of The North: Jean Gordon And Mary Queen of Scots, Jennifer Morag Henderson (Sandstone Press) Non-fiction
Doras Gun Chlàimhean, Murdo Macfarlane (edited by Catriona Murray) (Acair) Poetry
Hindsight: In Search Of Lost Wilderness, Jenna Watt (Birlinn) Non-fiction
Objects For Private Devotion, Lydia Harris (Pindrop Press) Poetry
Seasons Of Storm And Wonder, Jim Crumley (Saraband) Non-fiction
The Last Woman Born On The Island, Sharon Black (Vagabond Voices) Poetry
WAH! Things I Never Told My Mother, Cynthia Rogerson (Sandstone Press) Non-fiction
Young Mungo, Douglas Stuart (Picador) Fiction
The titles on the list will now be considered by the judging panel, who will announce the shortlist in April 2023.
The winning title will be awarded in May 2023.
Alex Ogilvie remains as chair of the panel from previous years.
He is joined this year by judges Kapka Kassabova, poet and writer of fiction and narrative non-fiction, whose book Border (Granta) won the 2017 Highland Book Prize; Mark Wringe, lenior lecturer in Gaelic Language and Culture at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, University of the Highlands and Islands; and Peter Mackay, poet, lecturer and broadcaster, whose 2020 collection, Nàdur De (Some Kind Of) was longlisted for the 2020 Highland Book Prize, and who was recently named Bard of An Comunn Gàidhealach at the 2022 National Mod.
Rachel Humphries, centre director at Moniack Mhor, said: "The Highland Book Prize continues to go from strength to strength. The spread of genres represented is diverse and exciting.
"It’s good to see the area as something more than a source of inspiration – it demonstrates the breadth of high-quality work published by leading UK publishing houses alongside independent presses.
"The list includes authors who have achieved real literary success as well as new voices.
"And the prize, in its fifth year, places the Highlands as geographically, culturally, and artistically important to the UK’s wider literature sector."
Alex Ogilvie, trustee of the Highland Society, said: "The quality of this longlist is a reflection of the continued strength and variety of books written in and about the Highlands and Islands of Scotland."
