Jennifer Morag Henderson

I am pleased to say that I was a judge again this year for the Saltire Society National Book Awards, judging the Scottish Poetry Book of the Year.

The shortlist has just been announced today:

I previously judged the award in 2019. In 2020 there was no award, so entries for 2021 included books published over the space of more than twelve months. This meant a large number of submissions: it has been a big reading commitment over the last few months. The judging this year was done remotely over Zoom, which changed the ‘feel’ of the process somewhat, but the interesting and passionate discussions of books and poetry remained the same.

You can check out the other shortlists on the Saltire Society website here: https://www.saltiresociety.org.uk/scotlands-national-book-awards-2021-shortlists

And there is an article about the awards in the Scotsman here: https://www.scotsman.com/arts-and-culture/books/former-gang-member-in-running-for-scotlands-book-of-the-year-prize-for-debut-novel-3458807