New Sceptre prize chooses Scottish talent

The new Sceptre Prize for emerging writers has shortlisted three students for its inaugural prize, which is run by the Hodder & Stoughton imprint and the University of Glasgow to encourage new Scottish novelists.

Roy Gill, Matt Leavey and Alan Trotter were selected from 12 longlisted writers, who each submitted between 5,000 and 10,000 words of a novel.

Gill's submission, Edinburgh Parallel, follows the journey of a 13-year-old boy in a dark adventure story of parallel worlds, ghosts and monsters. Leavey's entry investigates the public faces and hidden realities of characters connected through The Royal Hotel, and Trotter's Muscle is a gritty and wry portrayal of a seedy underworld of guns and violence .

All Masters students from the University of Glasgow's Edwin Morgan Centre for Creative Writing who achieve distinctions in their final projects were eligible for the £1,500 prize, which will be presented as part of the Aye Write! literary festival in Glasgow on 15th March.

Bob McDevitt, publisher at Hodder in Scotland, said: "I am delighted with the shortlist in this inaugural year of the Sceptre Prize. My fellow judges and I have found the range and talent displayed in all the entries we have read very encouraging."