Arts / Stout wins prestigious literary award
Judges praise Night Train to Odesa as ‘accomplished and beautiful work, blending journalism, memoir, history, art’
SHETLAND writer and journalist Jen Stout has said she “still don’t quite believe it” after her book Night Train to Odessa: Covering the Human Cost of Russian’s War won the First Book of the Year category at Scotland’s National Book Awards.
Hosted by the Saltire Society, her first-hand account of many months spent in Ukraine following Russia’s invasion was celebrated by the judges as a “accomplished and beautiful work, blending journalism, memoir, history, art”.
Speaking to Shetland News over the weekend, Stout said she has been “blown away” by how the book has been received since it was published in early May.
“I still don’t quite believe it – it was a huge surprise,” she said in response to receiving the award.
“The last six months have been a total whirlwind, more than 20 book talks and events, and I am just blown away by how the book has been received.
“Of course, I really want to get back to Ukraine and will hopefully do that in the new year.”
Accepting the prize during an event in Edinburgh on Thursday night, she said: “This means so much. This is a profoundly Scottish book.
“We have almost no foreign correspondents left in Scotland, and we don’t have enough low income writers and working class writers.
“Everything that I did in Ukraine and in Russia and in writing this book is because of other people and their help. Particularly the people in Ukraine who showed me so much kindness and help all of the time, so many people meant that I could hold up this book.”
The remarkable account of her time in Ukraine includes stories from the night trains, birthday parties, military hospitals and bunkers: stories from the ground while always seeking to understand the bigger picture.
A spokesperson for her publisher Birlinn added: “We extend a huge congratulations to Jen for this much-deserved recognition of her outstanding book.
The other winners at this year’s Scotland National Book Awards were:
- Book of the Year & Non-fiction winner: Thunderclap by Laura Cumming (Chatto and Windus, Vintage, Penguin Random House)
- Fiction winner: What Doesn’t Kill Us by Ajay Close (Saraband)
- Poetry winner: RUIN, BLOSSOM, John Burnside (Jonathan Cape, Vintage, PRH)
- Research winner: England’s Insular Imagining by Lorna Hutson (Cambridge University Press and Assessment)
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