Eighteen authors have been shortlisted for the richest prize in Scottish literature.
The writers in the running for the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust Book Awards, in four categories, will be whittled down to finalists on September 5 before the winner is revealed at the Lennoxlove Book Festival on November 2.
The fiction prize winner will be chosen from a list containing The Missing Shade of Blue by Jennie Erdal, The Heart Broke In by James Meek, Close Your Eyes by Ewan Morrison and Artful by Ali Smith.
The non-fiction category shortlist includes Empire Antarctica by Gavin Francis, Sightlines by Kathleen Jamie, The Old Ways by Robert Macfarlane and Small World by Richard Price. The First Book category has six books in its list, including So It Is by Liam Murray Bell, The Panopticon by Jenni Fagan, Tony Hogan Bough Me an Ice-Cream Float Before He Stole My Ma by Kerry Hudson, The Weight of a Human Heart by Ryan O'Neill, Ramshackle by Elizabeth Reeder and Snake Ropes by Jess Richards.
Kathleen Jamie with The Overhaul, Gerry Cambridge with Notes from Lighting a Fire, Rooster by Gerry McGrath and Small World by Richard Price.
The winner of each of these categories will receive £5000, with the overall winner receiving a total cheque of £25,000.
Aly Barr, chair of the judging panel, said: "This year's entries range from lonely months in the Antarctic to the lost paths of Britain; from the brutality of a young offender's institution to the bleak winter in Chicago.
"There are all the emotions, talent, skill and storytelling one would expect."
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