James Kelman (born 9 June 1946) is an influential writer of novels, short stories, plays and political essays. His novel A Disaffection was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction in 1989. Kelman won the 1994 Booker Prize with How Late It Was, How Late and aroused something of a controversy in doing so: one of the judges, Rabbi Julia Neuberger, denounced the book as "a disgrace" when Kelman was announced as the winner. Kelman has since said that his Booker prize win, specifically the negative publicity and attacks made as a result, made publishers more reluctant to handle his work. [1] In 1998 Kelman was awarded the Scotland on Sunday/Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Award. In 2008 he won Scotland's most prestigious literary award the Saltire Society's Book of the Year award for Kieron Smith, Boy (2008).Continue Reading »
