Sue Black won the £6,000 (about $7,660) Saltire Book of the Year prize for All That Remains: A Life in Death, while Canongate picked up the prize for publisher of the year, the Bookseller reported. Black's nonfiction book was selected from the six category winners of the Saltire Society Literary Awards, which are supported by Creative Scotland and celebrate books and publishing in the country.
The judges described the book as "curiously uplifting and life-affirming," noting that "like all good memoirs" it "reveals as much about the reader as the writer." The winner of each individual book award receives £2,000 (about $2,555); publisher of the year gets £1,000 (about $1,275).
The judges also announced that Louise Welsh's The Cutting Room won a special prize, chosen by public vote, as "most inspiring Saltire first book award winner" to mark 30 years since the category was launched.
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"Years after gaining notoriety for embellishing parts of his memoir A Million Little Pieces," James Frey "has a new notch in his bedpost" as winner of the 2018 Bad Sex in Fiction Award for his novel Katerina, the Guardian reported. The "honor" is presented annually by the Literary Review to "draw attention to poorly written, perfunctory or redundant passages of sexual description in modern fiction."
The judges "said they had been swayed by several sex scenes in the novel, which include encounters in a car park and in the back of a taxi, but were especially convinced by an extended scene in a Paris bathroom between Jay and Katerina that features eight references to ejaculate," the Guardian noted.
"Frey prevailed against a strong all-male shortlist by virtue of the sheer number and length of dubious erotic passages in his book," the judges said. "The multiple scenes of sustained fantasy in Katerina could have won Frey the award many times over."
Frey responded: "I am deeply honored and humbled to receive this prestigious award. Kudos to all my distinguished fellow finalists--you have all provided me with many hours of enjoyable reading over the last year."