Novelist and short-story writer, born in Glasgow, W Scotland, UK. He published his first book of short stories in 1983, and his first novel, The Busconductor Hines, in 1984. Regarded as one of the major talents in contemporary Scottish fiction, he won the Booker Prize in 1994 for How Late It Was, How Late. Later works include The Good Times: Stories (1998), and the novels Translated Accounts (2001) and You Have to be Careful in the Land of the Free (2004).
James Kelman (born in Glasgow on June 9, 1946) is an influential writer of novels, short stories, plays and political essays. Kelman won the 1994 Booker Prize with How late it was, how late and aroused something of a controversy in doing so: one of the judges, Rabbi Julia Neuberger, called the book 'a disgrace' when it was announced that Kelman had won. In 1998, Kelman received the Stakis Prize for "Scottish Writer of the Year" for his collection of short stories 'The Good Times.'
Kelman has been a prominent campaigner, notably in issues of social justice and traditional left wing causes, and though he has shared platforms with Tommy Sheridan and SSP, he is resolutely not a party man, and remains at his heart a libertarian socialist anarchist.
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