The shortlist for the annual £1,500 Sceptre Prize for emerging novelists has been announced.* (see update)

Three MLitt graduates from the University of Glasgow’s Edwin Morgan Centre for Creative Writing – Elinor Brown, John Jennett and Martin Shannon – have been shortlisted for the award. The winner will be announced at the Aye Write! literary festival on 13 March.

Member of the judging panel, publisher Bob McDevitt said: “The Sceptre prize judges were once again very impressed by the standard of the work in this the third year of giving the prize. There was an impressive range of new voices who seemed fearless even when approaching difficult subject matter and complex characterisation." Sceptre logo

The novels-in-progress have contrasting themes: in Elinor Brown's mystery, The Recklessness of Water, a young English woman moves to a claustrophobic Sardinian village and becomes obsessed with the disappearance of a local girl. John Jennet’s novel, Manadh, tells the story of a reluctant wartime sea-captain who longs to return to his native Hebrides. Sixty years later his visions, or second-sight, link him to a midwife on the trail of a vanished twin brother. And Martin Shannon’s Thwarted Little Redskins describes an introvert in an extrovert world asked to face his greatest fears.

The Sceptre Prize – established in 2007 to mark the literary imprint’s 21st anniversary celebrations – is jointly run by the University of Glasgow and Sceptre (an imprint of Hodder and Stoughton) to encourage new Scottish novelists. Students from the University of Glasgow’s acclaimed Edwin Morgan Centre for Creative Writing who achieved Distinctions in their final projects are eligible to enter.

Last year, MLitt graduate Fiona Rintoul won The Sceptre Prize for Leipzig.

Further information:
Stuart Forsyth, Media Relations Officer
University of Glasgow Tel: 0141 330 4831

For Sceptre publicity enquiries please contact Anna Kenny-Ginard on 020 7873 6438 or anna.kg@hodder.co.uk

Founded in 1995 the University of Glasgow’s Creative Writing Masters Course is one of the most successful of its kind in the UK and has nurtured a wide range of talent including Rachel Seiffert, Louise Welsh, Zoe Strachan, Laura Marney and Anne Donovan.

Sceptre was founded as Hodder & Stoughton’s literary imprint in 1986, and publishes both fiction and non-fiction. Dedicated to publishing new talent alongside long-established writers, Sceptre has launched the careers of novelists such as David Mitchell, Andrew Miller, Siri Hustvedt, Jill Dawson and Jake Arnott.

Elinor Brown website: http://www.elinorbrown.com/
John Jennet website:   http://www.manadh.com/

* Update: The Sceptre Prize 2010 was won by John Jennet whose accomplished writing was described by the judges as 'beautiful prose'.

First published: 3 February 2010

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