BLOODY Scotland has defended criticism that the organisation lacks diversity, after it was revealed that all of the authors longlisted for its annual McIlvanney Prize are white.
Stating that they “understand the frustrations”, a spokesperson from the crime writing festival said: “Of the 82 entries submitted by 34 publishers this year, only two were by people of colour, one of whom has made the Debut Prize shortlist.
“There is undoubtedly a lack of Scottish crime writers of colour. This is a problem which is industry-wide and affects far more than just one festival and one literary prize.”
The prize, which has run since 2015 under various iterations, is awarded annually by Bloody Scotland to the best Scottish crime book of the year.
Highlands author Helen Sedgwick (below) raised concerns over the current and past longlists, after data showed that in the past four years, when the prize has existed under the current McIlvanney Prize title, just under half (46%) of all longlisted titles were written by a pool of 10 writers. Of these 10 writers, 70% are men, and 100% are white.
Sedgwick said this data points toward a larger issue of a “closed community” within the Scottish literary scene, and that in her view, certain elements of the prize perpetuate this, such as the “narrow and complicated” entry criteria, and the “opaque” internal processes within the prize selection itself.
One of the prize’s criteria reads: “For the purposes of both prizes, a crime book is eligible if the author was born or raised in Scotland. If the author was not born or raised in Scotland, the book will still be deemed eligible if the author lives in Scotland and has done so for at least six years, AND the book submitted for the award is substantially set in Scotland.”
This means that authors newer to Scotland would need to ensure that their work is set in Scotland – however, that is not a precondition of entry for other entrants.
In response to these concerns, Bloody Scotland stated they are committed to finding and supporting more crime writers of colour.
A spokesman told the Sunday National: “We are actively involved with the BAME Harvill Secker/Bloody Scotland Award to seek new crime writers of colour, and we have been reaching out to ensure that our Pitch Perfect and In The Spotlight entrants are as diverse as possible.
“We have also recently done an audit to find out more about the backgrounds of the readers for the prize to ensure diversity, and have scheduled a meeting with Creative Scotland after the 2022 festival to revisit the selection process and criteria to ensure it accords with best practice in this area and is as inclusive as possible”.
In 2021, the Scottish BPOC Writers Network partnered with EDI Scotland to find out the perceptions and experiences of writers of colour in and from Scotland. Some 79% of respondents surveyed disagreed that people of colour and white Scottish people have equal opportunities to succeed in Scotland’s literary sector.
Sedgwick agrees that a lack of diversity is an issue that is not unique to one prize or one festival, but is a symptom of a wider issue affecting book festivals and literary prizes “not just in Scotland, but in the UK, even across the world”.
She said: “We need to make sure more diverse writers are getting published, and that those books are then getting submitted to prizes.
“A lot of literary festivals and prizes are inaccessible. People from all sorts of demographics and backgrounds are being excluded by what has become quite a closed culture.
“Scotland is more diverse than this. I believe that deeply.”
