Niall Campbell's The Island in the Sound longlisted for the Highland Book Prize 2024
South Uist poet Niall Campbell's third collection The Island in the Sound, published in September 2024 by Bloodaxe Books, is on the twelve-book longlist for the Highland Book Prize 2024. The longlist was announced by the Highland Society of London and Moniack Mhor, Scotland’s Creative Writing Centre, on 28 January 2025.
In The Island in the Sound, Niall Campbell draws on his native South Uist to create an archipelago of memories, lyrics, observations and folktales that place the small islands of his birthplace into conversation with moments from literature and history.
The Highland Book Prize is an annual award celebrates literature that comes from the rich landscape and culture of the Scottish Highlands and Islands. It is open to books of any genre written by authors who live in the Highlands or were born there, as well as books whose content is Highland themed.
Twelve books were selected by a team of volunteer readers with a diverse range of backgrounds and experience, in conjunction with Moniack Mhor, the Highland Society of London, and the 2024 Judging Panel. The Judges are Jen Hadfield, poet and essayist, and winner of the 2024 Windham Campbell Prize; acclaimed multi-award winning fiction writer Cynan Jones; and Peter Mackay, poet, lecturer and broadcaster, recently appointed as the Scotland’s Makar (national poet).
Each of the longlisted titles will be celebrated in a series of springtime events supported by the William Grant Foundation. The Longlist Event Series will include online and in-person readings and workshops in bookshops, community venues, and schools.
The shortlist will be announced in May 2025, and the winning announcement is to follow in June 2025.
Details of all the longlisted titles are on the Highland Book Prize website here.
~~~~~
For digital or print review copies of The Island in the Sound, please email Christine Macgregor at publicity@bloodaxebooks.com.
~~~~~
Born and raised on South Uist in the Outer Hebrides, Niall Campbell now lives in Fife. In March 2024 he took over as Editor of Poetry London. His debut Moontide won both the Saltire First Book of the Year Award and the inaugural £20,000 Edwin Morgan Poetry Award. His second collection Noctuary was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Collection 2019.
~~~~~
REVIEW COVERAGE FOR THE ISLAND IN THE SOUND
The Irish Times, Saturday 14 December 2024
Niall Campbell’s third collection The Island in the Sound was given an excellent review at the top of Declan Ryan’s poetry round-up in The Irish Times of 14 December 2024.
‘Niall Campbell’s previous two collections had marked him out as a devoted singer, but in The Island in the Sound he’s added further layers, and colours, to his range. It feels a more expansive, ambitious, collection, with epistolary poems, myth-fashioning and an increased interest in history and folklore counterweights to the delicately lyrical work, but Campbell has all the while retained his eye for detail, for the observant, redolent image.’ – Declan Ryan, The Irish Times
In print. Available online by subscription.
https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/review/2024/12/15/new-poetry-works-by-niall-campbell-elisa-gonzalez-john-mcauliffe-and-john-fitzgerald/
The Alchemy Spoon, Issue 14, January 2025
The Island in the Sound was very well reviewed in Issue 14 of The Alchemy Spoon.
‘Niall Campbell was born and raised on South Uist in the Outer Hebrides, and this, his third collection, sings to the sound of his native seas. It is an evocation of those islands and of a way of life that both shaped him and is slipping away. [...] These are poems that deal with complicated ambiguities in deceptively straightforward language. There are very few contemporary references so they are poems that will stand the test of time. They evoke the world of the islands and the sound of the Sound in a way that weaves history and myth together with an individual life.' – Diana Cant, The Alchemy Spoon
The Lake, online December 2024
Imtiaz Dharker’s Shadow Reader and Niall Campbell’s third collection The Island in the Sound were very well reviewed online by Hannah Stone in the December 2024 issue of The Lake.
‘Here are poems which pinpoint various types of ephemerality in the evolution and dissolution of ties and identities. [...] Campbell manages to voice both universal and specific instances of lost identity – be it the Trojan War, the ‘secret garden’ in 1092, or the islands’ ancient people: the cocklepickers, egg gatherers, Lighthouse keepers;’ – Hannah Stone, The Lake, on The Island in the Sound
https://www.thelakepoetry.co.uk/reviews/dec24/
ONLINE POEM OF THE WEEK FEATURE FOR NIALL CAMPBELL
Yorkshire Times, Poem of the Week, online Saturday 9 November 2024
Niall Campbell’s poem ‘Tongues of Water’ from his third collection The Island in the Sound was featured as Poem of the Week in the online regional newspaper the Yorkshire Times of 9 November. The poem was accompanied by Steve Whitaker’s perceptive commentary.
‘Niall Campbell’s poem of love and identity finds the perfect metaphor for a sense of collective spirituality in the protean ebb and flow of the tide.’ – Steve Whitaker, Poem of the Week, Yorkshire Times
https://yorkshiretimes.co.uk/article/Poem-Of-The-Week-Tongues-Of-Water-By-Niall-Campbell
VIDEO INTERVIEW WITH NIALL CAMPBELL
Just Another Poet, Niall Campbell, 5 November 2024
Niall Campbell was interviewed by Taz Rahman for the Just Another Poet video series. Niall was filmed reading poems from his third collection The Island in the Sound as well as responding to questions about growing up on South Uist, his poetry, poetic inspirations and his plans for Poetry London. Niall read and introduced his poems ‘The Apprenticeship’, ‘Morning Lessons’, ‘The Windows’, ‘The Death of the Birds’ and ‘Island Sonnets: Delos’, all from The Island in the Sound.
‘Taz Rahman interviews the Bloodaxe poet and Poetry London editor Niall Campbell.’
NIALL CAMPBELL PRESENTS BBC RADIO 3's THE ESSAY
The Essay: An Turas / The Journey, BBC Radio 3, Wednesday 15 November 2023, 10.45pm
Scottish poet Niall Campbell presented and contributed to special edition of BBC Radio 3’s The Essay featuring five writers from Scotland, who all narrated a piece in their own language or dialect (with no translation).
Niall Campbell now lives in Fife, but was brought up on the island of South Uist in the Outer Hebrides. He recorded this piece for BBC Radio 3 on the island, looking out to sea – or The Sound, as it is known. In his third collection The Island in the Sound, published in September 2024, Niall returns to South Uist, which was the inspiration for much of his award-winning debut collection Moontide.
The other four writers were Rahat Zahid, speaking in Urdu from Glasgow, Len Pennie in Scots from Fife, Peter MacKay in his native Gaelic from Edinburgh, and Mae Diansangu, speaking from Aberdeen in the Doric dialect of north east Scotland.
‘Five celebrated writers from around Scotland sit at their nearest window and share, in their own language or dialect, what they can see and how it makes them feel about their homeland. This immersive audio collage takes us on a tour of modern Scotland's plurality of languages, dialects and cultures. Niall Campbell of Hebridean South Uist lets his eyes scan the waters of his island, and his mind wander beneath the waves. He considers, in English, the Norse influence in the naming of his surroundings.’
This beautiful multi-lingual audio feature will remain available on BBC Sounds. Listen here.
~~~~
ONLINE LAUNCH READING
Tuesday 24 September 2024
Online launch reading by Nia Broomhall, Niall Campbell, Sarah Holland-Batt and Laura Wittner, with translator Juana Adcock. Niall Campbell joined the authors of our other September titles to celebrate the publication of their books with readings and discussion. He was reading from his third collection The Island in the Sound.
This free Bloodaxe launch event was streamed on YouTube Live and is now availabe on this YouTube page: https://youtube.com/live/GIeiEhAvavQ
[29 January 2025]
