Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust

2009 Book Awards

in partnership with the Scottish Arts Council

Poetry shortlist

Robert Crawford, Full Volume


Jen Hadfield, Nigh-No-Place


Frank Kuppner, Arioflotg


Tom Pow, Dear Alice

Commenting on the Poetry shortlist Lillias Fraser on behalf of the judges said: ?The range of the shortlisted poetry collections is specially impressive. There’s a vivid sense of physical places, from Dumfries to Shetland by way of Canada or Fife, in the books by Robert Crawford, Jen Hadfield and Tom Pow ? while Frank Kuppner’s extraordinary booklength poem opens vista after hypnotic vista on the Alternative World of Kuppner. This writing isn’t only describing places in the physical world, but creating ideas of places through the fresh, superbly-crafted poetry: what does it mean to belong somewhere, to live side by side with history or tradition, but not accept what you see at face value? These four vastly different books are by poets at the top of their game, all using their formidable craft as a rock-steady foundation for adventures in form and imagination.?