Yvonne Reddick's Burning Season shortlisted for Scottish Poetry Book of the Year 2023
'This first book-length collection from Reddick is as lyrical as it is defiant. A collection that confronts climate change, a world in flames and societies on the verge of collapse, told through an exploration of family history. This is an incredible exploration of the oil industry.’ – Mairi Oliver of Lighthouse Bookshop, The Bookseller (Scottish books preview)
Yvonne Reddick's powerful debut Burning Season is on the five-strong shortlist for Scottish Poetry Book of the Year 2023 in Scotland's National Book Awards. The collection opens with moorland burning, and moves via Ben Nevis to the North Sea oil industry. Last month, Burning Season won the Best UK First Collection category of The Laurel Prize for nature and ecopoetry.
The shortlisted titles for Scotland’s National Book Awards 2023 were announced on 26 October by the Saltire Society. The winners of all six categories, as well as the Saltire Scottish Book of the Year, The Lifetime Achievement Award, The Ross Roy Medal and three industry awards, will be announced at a live-streamed ceremony at in Glasgow on 7 December.
Scotland’s National Book Awards, co-ordinated by the Saltire Society, recognise work across six literary categories (Fiction, Non-Fiction, Research, History, Poetry and First Book) and three publishing categories (Publisher, Emerging Publisher and Cover Design). The winners each receive a cash prize of £2,000 and go on to be considered for the top Award of Saltire Scottish Book of the Year, receiving a further £4,000.
Sarah Mason, Executive Director of The Saltire Society, said:
“The 2023 shortlists for Scotland’s National Book Awards show the outstanding talent, scale, diversity and excellence that we are so lucky to have in Scotland today. These Awards have a proud history of celebrating the extraordinary richness in the work of our authors, publishers and designers and we congratulate everyone who have been shortlisted this year."
The winners of each category will receive a bespoke Award created by Inverness-based artist Simon Baker of Evergreen Studios. Winners of all the Awards will be announced at a ceremony in Glasgow on Thursday 7 December 2023, attended by the judges, shortlisted authors and publishers. The ceremony will be live-streamed and tickets to watch online are available from 20 November at www.saltiresociety.org.uk.
Full details of all the 2023 shortlists for Scotland's National Book Awards are on The Saltire Society's website here.
~~~~
Burning Season (Bloodaxe Books, 2023) is a book about fire and survival, climate change and nature’s defiance. Yvonne Reddick’s understanding of climate change is uniquely personal: her father was a petroleum engineer, and many members of her family worked in the fossil fuel industry. The collection speaks of the paradox that her Dad’s gift to her was her love of nature and mountain landscapes. Burning Season includes a series of vivid, moving and heartfelt poems that explore her grief following her father’s death in a hiking accident. It tells the story of a father who worked on North Sea oil platforms and Omani oilfields, and who transported the entire family to Kuwait four years after the first Gulf War. Reddick’s mother worked in seismology, detecting deposits of oil deep below the ground. This family story forms the bedrock of Burning Season.
Born in Glasgow in 1986, Yvonne Reddick grew up in Aberdeen, Kuwait City and South East England. She now lives in Manchester. Burning Season is her first full collection. It won the Best UK First Collection category of The Laurel Prize for nature and ecopoetry 2023. The title poem from the collection also won third prize in the Ginkgo Prize for Ecopoetry 2022. It is shortlisted for Scottish Poetry Book of the Year 2023 in Scotland's National Book Awards.
~~~~~
For review copies of Burning Season, please email Christine Macgregor: publicity@bloodaxebooks.com.
~~~~~
For reviews, poem features and a link to Yvonne's livestreamed launch reading, see her news page on the Bloodaxe website here.
'Yvonne Reddick's poetry engages with survival on a burning planet, climate loss and nature's defiance ... In her work she explores a deep love of mountains and nature, encouraged from a young age by her petroleum engineer father.' - The Scotsman, Poem of the Week
For forthcoming readings with Yvonne Reddick, see her events page on the Bloodaxe website here.
[25 October 2023]
