THE Glasgow winner of one of the literary world’s most prestigious honours has spoken of the difficulties of being queer in the city.
Booker Prize champion Douglas Stuart admitted it was “hard to grow up and not see yourself” portayed by others.
The Sighthill man, who on Thursday become only the second Glaswegian to win the award with his debut novel Shuggie Bain, said he did not think it was possible for him to have a career in writing.
READ MORE: Celtic hero Frank McAvennie inspired award winning Glasgow writer Douglas Stuart
The 44-year-old said: “Never mind just being Scottish and working class, but also queer, seeing none of that reflected in the media or in the written word, I just never felt included or that there was a place for me in the literary world.
“I’d become to be okay with that, I had come to a point where the writing was the important thing and the publishing I couldn’t control.”
Stuart, who lives in the US, added that the book has “surprised everyone” with how receptive American audiences were to it.
His award-winning story was inspired by his life growing up in the city with an alcoholic mother.
“I think we tend to reduce things to where they come from, who wrote them, the tribe that they belong to, how people can relate to it, and truth is that love and hope are universal,” Stuart said.
“At the heart of this book it is really universal themes, people feeling like tomorrow’s not going to be better, people trying to save the person they love the most from their own worst tenancies.
“What’s been remarkable and what’s surprised the publishing industry is how people can respond to Shuggie Bain, how they can see the heart of it.”
READ MORE: Glasgow author Douglas Stuart becomes only second Scot to claim Booker Prize
Stuart, who followed in James Kelman’s steps by scooping the Booker Prize, added that he is currently working on a novel which revisits the characters of his debut work in a “sweeping queer love story that is divided by territorial gangs”.
Stuart said his award win was yet to sink in and is “beyond anything I could have hoped to expect”.
“It will start to sink in over the next couple of weeks,” he said.
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here