We’re delighted to announce the winner of the inaugural UCSL prize for outstanding postgraduate research, awarded to the author of the top student paper at the World Congress of Scottish Literatures held earlier this year at the University of Glasgow.

The winner of the 2014 prize is Margaret Kolb (University of California, Berkeley), for her paper ‘Literary Divination’. Among the judges’ comments:

This is a truly brilliant paper on Scott, prediction and coincidence. Enviably written and casting new and refreshing light on the ‘cues and clues’ of the historical novel — equally germs of the realist novel and cousins of astrological wonderment. Operates at a consistently high (indeed, publishable) level and effectively marshals an argument bursting with suggestive insights. Outstanding work.

The runner-up for the prize is Arianna Introna (University of Stirling), for her paper ‘Miserablism or Dismodernism? A “Post-IndyRef” Perspective on the Representation of Disability in Violet Jacob and James Kelman’.The winner and runner-up for the award will be formally announced at the Saltire Literary Awards on 11 November, alongside the Ross Roy Medal for the top doctoral thesis in the field for 2014. The winner receives a modest cash prize of £125. Warm congratulations to all the doctoral students who entered the competition.

The next prize will be awarded at the next World Congress in 2016