Scots author in awards row

Arts Correspondent

Friday 24 August 2012

THE winner of the Scottish Book of the Year Award said she was forced to change the words to her prize acceptance by the nation's arts funding body.

JANICE GALLOWAY: The author has hit out at Creative Scotland.

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Phil Miller Arts Correspondent

Following her experiences, Janice Galloway now believes "something is wrong at the heart" of Creative Scotland.

Galloway, considered one of Scotland's most distinguished writers, last week won the £30,000 Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust Book of the Year Award, which is run in partnership with Creative Scotland, for acclaimed memoir All Made Up.

She was asked to supply a quote for the funding body's website and press release.In her original submission, she said how welcome the sponsor's support for literature was "at a time of national funding haemorrhage in the arts".The writer said the line intended to address a UK-wide reduction in arts support, and was not referring specifically to Creative Scotland or its recent controversial funding changes.However, she said she was told the phrase would be seen as a swipe at the funding body and inaccurately depicted cuts in the arts. It was replaced with: "In these extremely testing times for the arts."Afterwards, she said: "A perceived requirement to 'control' is more than misguided, it is self-defeating. "Something is wrong at the heart of Creative Scotland, some basic, vital confidence missing with regard to their function, if they experience a statement of solidarity, artist to artist and public, as attack; worse, attack against which they require to self-protect. "To create possible bad-feeling where none existed is not creative at all."Creative Scotland said its concerns were down to facts. It said its budgets are rising due to extra National Lottery funds.Galloway, writer of acclaimed short stories, poems and books such as The Trick is To Keep Breathing, Clara and This Is Not About Me, had initially been asked to "soften" her quote. This was followed by the request to change the wording.Galloway added: "I tightened the language to make it unambiguous, gave an assurance if I had wished to excoriate Creative Scotland I'd have done so explicitly and that since Scotland was still part of the UK and since cuts in UK arts funding were a matter of public knowledge it would be odd if I did not refer to them. "Back came another email encouraging me to shout about my own book since 'the chance would be gone tomorrow'."I found the wrangling more than a little paranoid ... and the invitation to 'shout' about myself was just baffling. I amended the wording to avoid spillover embarrassment for the judges, the sponsor or the other writers when my intent was exactly the opposite, but it's curious I was put in that position."A Creative Scotland spokes-woman denied the author was told her words would be seen as criticism of the funding body.She said: "Janice is a brilliant writer and should be proud of her success. Our query about her quote was its accuracy: Where our own budget is rising, it's hard to reconcile a statement about a funding haemorrhage. "She may not have been referring to Creative Scotland but, as we were unable to speak to her, it was difficult to clarify what she meant."

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Scots author in awards row

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