THE BAILEYSWomen’s Prize for Fiction, the UK’s only annual book award for fiction written by a woman, has announced its 2016 longlist.

The list includes Kate Atkinson, based in Edinburgh, debut Scottish author Jackie Copleton, Anne Enright and Elizabeth Strout. Other novels on the longlist are by Shirley Barrett, Cynthia Bond, Geraldine Brooks, Becky Chambers, Rachel Elliott, Petina Gappah, Vesna Goldsworthy, Clio Gray, Melissa Harrison, Attica Locke, Lisa McInerney, Elizabeth McKenzie, Sara Novic, Julia Rochester, Hannah Rothschild and Hanya Yanagihara.

The judges for the 2016 prize are: Margaret Mountford, who is chair, lawyer and businesswoman Naga Munchetty, Laurie Penny, Elif Shafak and Tracey Thorn.

The award was established in 1996 and is awarded for the best full-length novel of the year written by a woman and published in the UK between 1 April 2015 and 31 March this year. The winner will receive a cheque for £30,000 and will be announced in June.

womensprizeforfiction.co.uk

Mezzo-soprano Grace Durham, pictured, who is currently completing her Masters in Opera at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, was the winner of the £10,000 Bruce Millar Gulliver Prize 2016 after a public competition in Glasgow on Sunday afternoon.

The competition, which began in 1989 and has previously been won by soprano Kate Royal and baritone Jonathan Lemalu, is between representatives of each of Britain’s major conservatoires.

The judges, who includes representatives of the Royal Opera House, Opera North and Scottish Opera alongside singers Judith Howarth and Linda Ormiston, also commended South African baritone Simon Shibambu from the Royal College of Music in London.

Grace Durham recently sang the role of Dorabella in the RCS production of Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte and her prize-winning programme included arias from Ravel’s L’heure espangole, Handel’s Alcina and Rossini’s La Cenerentola.

brucemillarmemorialtrust.org/gulliver-prize

A 19th Century nurse, poet and songwriter from Skeabost on the Isle of Skye has topped a social media poll of Outstanding Women of Scotland through the ages run by the Saltire Society.

Màiri Mhòr nan Oran (Mary MacPherson) was announced the overall winner of the online poll to coincide with International Women’s Day on Tuesday, 8th March. She was born on the Isle of Skye in 1821 and, after being briefly arrested and imprisoned for theft in 1872, turned to poetry to protest her innocence and express her anger through Gaelic verse.

Following her release from prison, she lived in Glasgow where she worked as a nurse and became well known for her poetry and songs.

saltiresociety.org.uk