Golden eagles are just one of the many incredible wildlife sights to be seen in Argyll.

Michael Russell, Minister for Environment enthuses on the work of Robin Jenkins and the Literary Award launched in Jenkins' memory at the National Library of Scotland on 29th May.

Autumn in the conifer forest.

News Releases

Read all about the progress of the award and its coverage in the press. All releases are available to download in PDF format.

First Environmental Literary Award Launched

28th May 2008

"A major new book award is being launched to celebrate the life and writing of Robin Jenkins, widely regarded as Scotland's greatest writer of the twentieth century. With a £5000 prize for a work of either fiction or non fiction, The Robin Jenkins Literary Award is launched at the National Library of Scotland on Thursday 29th May by Michael Russell, Minister for Environment..."
Read full release (PDF)

Award Reviews

Let's celebrate the stooshie

Published Date: 1st June 2008
By Stuart Kelly, Scotland on Sunday

Although I was mightily heartened to learn of the new Robin Jenkins Award, to reward writing about the Scottish environment, I was more taken by news of the opening of hostilities between Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott and Nobel Laureate Sir V S Naipaul (below). Despite the Browser's porridge complexion, I do have a cousin in the Caribbean who is a former model and arts activist, and therefore know that for years there has been a brooding fury about Naipaul's snooty attitude towards Trinidad and Barbados. So well done, Walcott, for his poem at the Calabash Literary Festival that began: "I have been bitten. I must avoid infection/ Or else I'll be as dead as Naipaul's fiction". Fine though the Jenkins Award is, how about a MacDiarmid award for the best stooshie in Scottish writing? After all, cone-gathering is one thing but we are all far better at grudge-carrying.

Response to Stuart Kelly

By Russell Bruce, 2nd June 2008

Stooshie is a fine word in reference to literary awards and John Robin Jenkins would not have been phased by the notion. MacDiarmid perhaps sometimes enjoyed a stooshie for its own sake. Jenkins was more contemplative with his wry observance of people and places and it is appropriate that a literary award that commemorates him and is this country's first environmental literary book award will welcome entries that may be contentious, controversial, or provocative. A stooshie is a fine thing for a work that deals with the environment to create but it is not an essential criteria.

Details of the award can be found at www.robinjenkinsaward.org

Russell Bruce
Robin Jenkins Literary Award