East Ayrshire writer wins Scottish Book Trust Award
Ross Crawford's stories take inspiration from folklore and are written in Scots
An East Ayrshire Scots Language writer is one of ten people announced as winners of the Scottish Book Trust’s New Writer Award.
Ross Crawford, who is originally from Dunlop, was recognised for his series of short stories and poetry, which are inspired by Scottish folklore, history and nature.
The 34 year old is keen to show the importance of the Scots Language, and its place in the modern world.
His upcoming book will be written entirely in Scots, which he says was the best way to tell the stories.
Scots Language
He added: “I did think about whether I would just make it the dialogue be in Scots, or whether it was the whole book, and I’ve opted for the latter because I think we need to remember that Scots is a language like any other, and to me the best way of telling this story was to tell it in Scots.”
Alongside Ross, Gaelic teachers and writers Kristina Nicolson and Iain Cuimeanach have been recognised, as well as writer visual artists Amon O’Connor, spoken word artist John Lawrie, Shetland researcher Siún Carden, essayist and novelist Sarah Whiteside, novelist Katherine Hudson, musician and novelist Les Hodge, poet Pip Osmond-Williams, and children’s author Taslin Pollock.
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.
CEO of Scottish Book Trust, Marc Lambert 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.”
"I think these are still quite present issues"
Ross’s new book will also look at themes of masculinity, and how difficult it can be for young boys growing up.
He said: “It’s basically about trying to look at how young people, in particular maybe young boys, at these really formative points in their lives are faced with all sorts of different kinds of masculinities, and are trying to find their own identity, and many of these forms of masculinity are quite toxic.”
Even though the book is set in the 2000s, he wants to bring the issue to more recent times.
He added: “I think these are still quite present issues that we’re still wrestling with.”