Scotland Street Press launches YA list

Scottish independent publisher Scotland Street Press is to publish its first YA novel this August.

The publisher has acquired Black Snow Falling by copywriter and debut author, L J MacWhirter. Set in the period following Christmas 1592, the title is a dark, magical realism novel which resonates "strongly with contemporary concerns", said the publisher.

MacWhirter said: “When some things – Trump, Weinstein, climate change – seem to defy sense in our otherwise explored and explained world, I think we look to stories that go beyond reality, not just for escapism but because they meet us in that deeper place. Perhaps this is why there’s a continuing appetite for magical realism and fantasy. I’m so grateful to my agent and publisher, and to the Scottish Arts Council for a New Writer’s Award in 2007 which supported an embryonic version of this novel.”

Jean Findlay, founder of Scotland Street Press, acquired world rights to the novel from Lindsey Fraser.

Findlay said: “I gave this novel to a well-read 13-year-old who could not put it down. It has all the ingredients of a book to be devoured by young minds: demons, shape shifting and the great landscape of history: the fight for good over evil and the heroism we need for adventure. It’s a beautiful book.”

Black Snow Falling will be published in August 2018.