09.02.12 | Charlotte Williams - The Bookseller

The story of a college dropout, a dark and comic novel about drug addiction, and the story of a passionate affair between two artists are the plots which have made the shortlist for this year's £1,500 Sceptre Prize for emerging Scottish writers.
The prize is run jointly by the University of Glasgow and Hodder imprint Sceptre, and all students from the University's Edwin Morgan Centre for creative writing who achieve Distinctions in their final projects are eligible to submit 5,000 to 10,000 words of a novel or novel in progress to the prize.
The three-strong shortlist for 2012's prize comprises The Lazy King by Miles Beard, which is set across the timeframe of a play and tells the story of a college dropout who wants to make it in theatre; Phoenixland by Philip Murnin which tells a story of drug addiction from the perspective of a child, and Dreams in Stone by Maggie Ritchie, where an English sculptor recounts her intense and passionate friendship with a fellow artist and the choices they are both forced to make.
Sceptre publishing director Carole Welch said: "In this, the fifth year of the Sceptre Prize, it is good to see another strong selection of writing by students from the University of Glasgow's Creative Writing course, which continues to set a high standard. As it happens, the prize has so far alternated between male and female writers - we shall discover whether that pattern is repeated this year."
Literary agent Bob McDevitt chairs the prize, which will be awarded on 17th March at the Aye Write! literary festival in Glasgow.