Special literature award to celebrate Homecoming
Authors are to compete for a special Scottish literature award to celebrate Scotland's Year of Homecoming in 2009.
At the presentation of the Saltire Society's 2008 awards in Edinburgh today, Culture Minister Linda Fabiani announced Homecoming Year sponsorship of £25,000 for next year's Saltire Society literary awards.
This will include increased support for the existing Scottish Book of the Year prize as well as sponsorship of the new Homecoming award.
Ms Fabiani said:
"Scotland's rich heritage of literature and language is enjoyed by people all over the world, many of whom have developed their love and appreciation of this country from books about Scotland or written by Scottish authors.
"This reflects one of the main themes of next year's Homecoming - celebrating the 250th anniversary of the birth of Scotland's national poet, Robert Burns.
"The Year of Homecoming will provide a unique opportunity for visitors to join in the celebration of all the great things Scotland has given to the world. So it's appropriate that for 2009 a special Homecoming award is being created that will enhance the profile of Scottish literature around the world."
Cunison Rankin, Chairman of the Saltire Society, added:
"The Society is very thrilled to be able to carry the themes of the Literary Awards to the Commonwealth and to the USA as a result of the Government's support. The Saltire awards are very much valued by authors and their publishers and winning an award from Saltire is widely recognised as a mark of excellence in authorship and research.
"Literature is a field in which Scotland has a high reputation for quality both in the past and in the present day, and the Saltire Award was the first modern award to recognise modern achievements.
"Expanding the horizons of the Awards to the Scottish global community and playing a full part in the Year of Homecoming is an opportunity which the Saltire Society welcomes."
The Saltire Society was the brainchild of a number of people who in the 1930s saw a need to interest Scots in their own rich culture. The aim of the Society is to preserve all that is best in Scottish tradition and to encourage new developments that can strengthen and enrich the country's cultural life.
Previous winners of the Saltire Society's Scottish Book of the Year Award include Alasdair Gray, Muriel Spark, Allan Massie, Liz Lochhead, Sorley MacLean, Janice Galloway, Derick Thomson, AL Kennedy and William McIlvanney.
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