A Gaelic teacher from Laide in Wester Ross has been announced as one of 11 recipients of Scottish Book Trust’s 2024 New Writers Award.
Iain Cuimeanach (Cumming) (48) is a Gaelic teacher at Gairloch High School whose writing is inspired by the rich history, culture, people and landscape of the Highlands.
Every year Scottish Book Trust, the national charity changing lives with reading and writing, holds the prestigious year-long writer development programme to support burgeoning writers living in Scotland. As well as a £2,000 cash award, they will receive mentorship from writers and industry professionals, a week-long retreat, and opportunities to showcase work to publishing industry professionals.
Alongside Iain, the awardees are Gaelic teacher and writer Kristina Nicolson, writer visual artist Amos O’Connor, spoken word artist John Lawrie, Shetland researcher Siún Carden, Scots language writer Ross Crawford, essayist and novelist Sarah Whiteside, novelist Katherine Hudson, musician and novelist Les Hodge, poet Pip Osmond-Williams, and children’s author Taslin Pollock.
The New Writers Award has made an extraordinary impact on publishing since its launch in 2009. From the 177 awardees who have gone through the programme up to 2023, 80 have had their work published, with a total of 165 works going out into the world. Previous awardees include Graeme Macrae Burnet whose 2015 novel His Bloody Project was shortlisted for the Man Book Prize, and Gail Honeyman, whose bestselling novel Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine won Scottish Book Trust’s The Next Chapter Award.
In the last few years, Iain Cuimeanach (Cumming) has won several prizes at the National Mod for short stories and non-fiction articles and in the FilmG competition for script writing. One of his stories was published with an English translation in the magazine Southlight last year. Iain is very much looking forward to the opportunity and challenge that the New Writers Award will provide and writing on a more focussed, consistent basis.
Iain said: ‘It is a real honour to receive a New Writers Award and I am grateful to Comhairle nan Leabhraichean and The Scottish Book Trust for this opportunity. I am very much looking forward to working with a mentor, to having time dedicated to writing and to seeing how my work evolves over the course of the year and beyond. I have gained so much from Gaelic literature and hope that I will be able to make my own small contribution to it.’
Marc Lambert, CEO of Scottish Book Trust, said: "It’s always incredible to meet our awardees for the New Writers Award, and I’d like to offer my congratulations to this year’s cohort, each of whom have demonstrated exceptional writing.
"With our awardees exploring a rich variety of themes in their work, and writing in English, Gaelic and Scots, I am excited to follow their journey throughout the year and beyond, as we help to nurture and build on their talents."
Harriet MacMillan, Literature Officer at Creative Scotland, said: "Every year, the Scottish Book Trust’s New Writers Award identifies unique and compelling new literary voices. This latest list of talent is no different, featuring a fantastic array of emerging writers spanning a broad range of mediums and celebrating Scots and Gaelic language.
"The programme is an incredible departure point into professional writing, offering an invaluable package of support, mentorship and industry guidance. The impressive roster of notable alumni serves as a testament to the programme’s success and we’re all so excited to see what this latest cohort will go on to achieve."
Alison Lang, Director of the Gaelic Books Council, said: "The Gaelic Books Councils is pleased to be partnering with Scottish Book Trust once again to provide this opportunity to Iain and Kristina. Over the years this programme has been running, the talent displayed by the new writers has been a source of pride and encouragement, and we hope it won’t be long before we see Kristina’s children’s stories and Iain’s short fiction appearing in print as a result of the support they will receive during the coming year."
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