On the beach in Shetland at Lerwick. Image – Getty – Aiaikawa
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
‘A Readiness To Be Honest’
As we continue to try to catch up with a rip tide of announcements from various prize and awards programs—a common problem at this time of year—we report today (September 25) that Sally Huband has won the 2023 Highland Book Prize, or Duais Leabhair na Gàidhealtachd. In the calendar followed by this award regime, that’s not a typo: this is its 2023 winner announcement.
Huband’s book, Sea Bean: A Beachcomber’s Search for a Magical Charm, is an April (2023) release in hardback from Penguin Random House UK on its Penguin imprint. The paperback was released a year later, and an audiobook is available.
You’ll remember that the intent of this awards program—a co-presentation of the Highland Society of London and Moniack Mhor—is to honor fiction, nonfiction, and poetry that “recognizes the rich talent, landscape, and cultural diversity of the Highlands.”
It’s the specificity and dedication of this prize, in this case to a place, that makes this an awards program for trade publishers and authors that we’ve elected to add to our coverage.
The book is set on the beaches of the Shetland Archipelago.
In a comment on the announcement, one of the program’s three jurors, Jen Hadfield, is quoted, saying, “Sea Bean finds fellowship between mortal souls in language that is luminous, transparent, uncluttered, precise, and poetic. “Huband’s beach finds are revelatory and underline the interconnection of people, species and materials across the world; there’s a delicacy in the way she treasures the most fragile and robust lives.”
Her colleague on the panel, Cynan Jones, says, “Sea Bean is a magic trick. It brought wave after wave of image, within which the concerns of the book are carried in ways that land with authenticity and compassion. “Despite the careful craft in the writing itself, there’s a vulnerability in the text—a readiness to be honest—that makes it all the more affecting.”
- The Highland Book Prize is presented by the Highland Society of London and facilitated by Moniack Mhor, Scotland’s creative writing center, with support from the William Grant Foundation for public engagement.
- The Highland Society of London is a charity that promotes and supports the traditions and culture of the Highlands of Scotland.
- Moniack Mhor is situated in rural part of the Scottish Highlands, Teavarran, Kiltarlity, 14 miles outside Inverness. Since 1993, Moniack Mhor has been working with writers from the United Kingdom and elsewhere to deliver creative writing courses, retreats, and other support for writers of all ages and abilities and from all walks of life.
Sally Huband
Moniack Mhor is a registered charity and is supported by Creative Scotland as a “regularly funded organization” It also offers courses, mentoring, and a leadership program for care-experienced young people aged 14-26 in Scotland, through funding from Life Changes Trust.
As the organization puts it, “Moniack Mhor champions equality and aims to break down barriers to the creative process, including offering a bursary scheme to support fees where needed.”
Because the international book publishing industry is in its autumn season of award-program announcements, Publishing Perspectives’ coverage is again being metered to one contest article per day. This is the 25th book and/or publishing award story we have published in the past four weeks.
More from us on publishing and book awards in international markets is here, more on Scotland is here, and more on the UK market is here.