A writer for young adults has been announced as the winner of the Edinburgh International Book Festival's First Book Award.
Kathryn Evans won the annual award for her debut novel, More of Me, which is described as a "gripping and thought-provoking story of growing up and teen identity."
Forty six debut novels and short story collections for adults and young adults, featured in the book festival programme this year, were eligible for the award, which is voted for by readers and visitors to the festival (EIBF)
Ms Evans said: “I am stunned to have won this award – when I saw the calibre of the other authors I thought I didn’t have a hope.
"So often children’s fiction is seen as the poor cousin to adult books – yet in it, we tackle some of the hardest subjects in the most innovative of ways. I am so proud to hold the banner up for YA fiction.
“I had such an amazing time at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, this award is the most delicious icing on an already fabulous cake."
Janet Smyth, director of the children’s and education programme at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, said: "The First Book Award is such an important element to our Festival programme and one of the most exciting ways for us - and our audience - to discover emerging writers.
"I read Kathryn's novel, More of Me, in manuscript form last autumn and I was immediately gripped by her characters and impressed by the subtle and skilful storytelling.
"She is a hugely deserving winner and a very exciting new voice in YA fiction and I can't wait to see what she writes next."
Readers and EIBF attendees were able to vote at the festival or online and more than 2,000 votes were received by the closing date.
The authors eligible for the 2017 First Book Award will be announced in June 2017.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here