An eight-strong shortlist has been unveiled for the 2025 Anne Brown Essay Prize – which champions excellence in short non-fiction by writers from Scotland.
The £1,500 prize and trophy will be awarded during a special event on Sunday 28 September at Bladnoch Distillery during the annual Wigtown Book Festival.
This year’s shortlist reflects a wide range of authors tackling a range of subjects – including some of the biggest confronting contemporary society.
The essays going forward to the finals are:
- A Letter from my Father – Alison Craig
- Am I Missing Something – Robert Dawson Scott
- Taps – Meghan Flaherty
- Firle – Tamara Fulcher
- Lepanto – Dani Garavelli
- The Stone Is Heavy in My Hand – Kristie de Garis
- Tender Omens – Saskia McCracken
- In Search of Tove Janssen in Helsinki – Christiana Spens.
The list features established and emerging talents from the worlds of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and journalism.
Subjects addressed range from Scotland’s Christian heritage to the housing crisis, new motherhood and absent fathers.
Adrian Turpin, artistic director of Wigtown Book Festival, (pictured) said: “The quality of entries for this year’s Anne Brown Essay Prize underline that it is now firmly established as an important feature of Scotland’s literary landscape.
“The essay is one of the most powerful literary forms, allowing writers to take readers by the hand and lead them into unfamiliar times, places and experiences and offer fresh perspectives on every aspect of existence.
“Choosing between this year’s finalists will be a challenging task – and rightly so – thanks to the richness of the writing and the variety of the subjects being addressed.”
The prize commemorates Anne Brown (1942-2021), former chair of Wigtown Book Festival, who was also a BBC radio journalist and senior producer.
This year’s judges are by the novelist and memoirist Ali Millar (The Last Days) and Wigtown Book Festival’s artistic director, Adrian Turpin.
Previous winners are Sarah Whiteside, Rodge Glass and Dani Garavelli.
- The prize is made possible thanks to the generous support of Anne Brown’s daughter Jo Lawrence and her son Richard Brown.
- It celebrates the best recent literary essay by a writer in, from or with a long-standing connection to Scotland.
- It rewards precise writing, original thinking, curiosity and creative approaches to non-fiction.
- Entries can be on any subject.
- The maximum length is 4,000 words.
Notes
- The Anne Brown Essay Prize is organised by the Wigtown Book Festival in association with the Herald newspaper.
- The essays will be published on the Wigtown Book Festival website at www.wigtownbookfestival.com and also on The Heraldnewspaper website, with an excerpt appearing in the print edition.
- For more about Wigtown Book Festival see www.wigtownbookfestival.com
About Anne Brown
Anne had an accomplished career and spent most of her working life as a broadcast journalist with the BBC, starting in the London newsroom, moving to current affairs in Newcastle and in the mid-80s she joined BBC Radio Scotland, working as a reporter, presenter and producer in Dumfries, Selkirk, Aberdeen, Orkney and Shetland, as well as Edinburgh and Glasgow.
She wrote and produced many documentaries, produced Newsweek Scotland and Good Morning Scotland, and presented a regular series of programmes for the World Service. She was commissioned by Canongate to write a book about the alleged child abuse scandals in Orkney in 1991.
About EventScotland
EventScotland is working to make Scotland the perfect stage for events by securing and supporting an exciting portfolio of sporting and cultural events. It provides funding opportunities and access to resources and information to develop the industry. EventScotland is a team within VisitScotland’s Events Directorate, the national tourism organisation, alongside Business Events and Development teams. For further information about EventScotland, its funding programmes and latest event news visit www.eventscotland.org or follow Twitter @EventScotNews and follow us on LinkedIn.
About Creative Scotland
Creative Scotland is the public body that supports the arts, screen and creative industries across all parts of Scotland on behalf of everyone who lives, works or visits here. It enables people and organisations to work in and experience the arts, screen and creative industries in Scotland by helping others to develop great ideas and bring them to life. Creative Scotland distributes funding provided by the Scottish Government and the National Lottery. For further information about Creative Scotland please visit www.creativescotland.com. Follow us @creativescots and www.facebook.com/CreativeScotland.
For media information: Matthew Shelley at Matthew@ScottishfestivalsPR.org or 07786 704299.
Wigtown Festival Company Ltd, 26 South Main Street, Wigtown, Dumfries & Galloway, Scotland, UK, DG8 9HN. Wigtown Festival Company Ltd is a company limited by guarantee with charitable status. Scottish Charity No. SCO3798