James Kelman

James Kelman (b. 1946) is a Scottish novelist, short story writer, playwright and essayist. His novel A Disaffection was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction in 1989. Kelman won the 1994 Booker Prize with How Late It Was, How Late. In 1998 Kelman was awarded the Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Award. His 2008 novel Kieron Smith, Boy won both of Scotland's principal literary awards: the Saltire Society's Book of the Year and the Scottish Arts Council Book of the Year.

Kelman's work has been described as flowing "not only from being an engaged writer, but a cultural and political activist". At the time of Glasgow's Year as City of Culture he was prominent in the Workers' City group, critical of the celebrations. The name was chosen as to draw attention to the renaming of part of the city centre as the Merchant City, which they described as promoting the "fallacy that Glasgow somehow exists because of (...) 18th century entrepreneurs and f…more

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Books with James Kelman

	Earth Is Room Enough by Isaac Asimov 4.05 avg rating — 10,250 ratings — published 1957 add/edit characters	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The World Republic of Letters by Pascale Casanova 3.66 avg rating — 247 ratings — published 1999 add/edit characters	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Brit Cult : An A-Z of British Pop Culture by Andrew Calcutt 3.84 avg rating — 25 ratings — published 2000 add/edit characters	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Scotland's Books: The Penguin History of Scottish Literature by Robert Crawford 4.13 avg rating — 15 ratings — published 2007 add/edit characters	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Scottish Literature: An Introduction by Alan Riach 4.14 avg rating — 7 ratings — published 2022 add/edit characters	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Modern Scottish Novel: Narrative and the National Imagination by Cairns Craig 3.62 avg rating — 8 ratings — published 1999 add/edit characters	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Living on an Island: Expressing the Earth by Norman Bissell (Goodreads Author) 4.60 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 2024 add/edit characters	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Edinburgh Companion to Contemporary Scottish Literature by Berthold Schoene (Editor) 3.83 avg rating — 6 ratings — published 2007 add/edit characters	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Scottish Novel since the Seventies by Stuart Wallace (Editor) 4.20 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 1993 add/edit characters	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Literary Politics of Scottish Devolution: Voice, Class, Nation by Scott Hames (Goodreads Author) 3.60 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 2019 add/edit characters	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars