12 Facts About James Kelman

James Kelman was born on 9 June 1946 and is a Scottish novelist, short story writer, playwright and essayist.

In 1998, James Kelman was awarded the Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Award.

James Kelman himself stated his key influences came from "two literary traditions, the European Existential and the American Realist", although his style was influenced by the modernist movement.

James Kelman became involved in Philip Hobsbaum's creative writing group in Glasgow, along with Tom Leonard, Alasdair Gray, Liz Lochhead, Aonghas MacNeacail and Jeff Torrington, and his short stories began to appear in magazines.

James Kelman's developing style has been influential on the succeeding generation of Scottish novelists, including Irvine Welsh, Alan Warner and Janice Galloway.

In 1998, James Kelman received the Stakis Prize for "Scottish Writer of the Year" for his collection of short stories The Good Times, one of several books of his stories that have been published.

James Kelman's first published novel was The Busconductor Hines, although it was written after A Chancer, which was published in 1985.

James Kelman's work has been described as flowing "not only from being an engaged writer, but a cultural and political activist".

At the time of Glasgow's Year as City of Culture, James Kelman was prominent in the Workers' City group, critical of the celebrations.

James Kelman was involved in the Edinburgh Unemployed Workers Centre, giving a speech at its opening, and he has expressed support for the Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh, its successor organisation.

James Kelman has been a prominent campaigner, notably in issues of social justice and traditional left-wing causes, although he is resolutely not a party man, and remains at his heart a libertarian socialist anarchist, saying "the parliamentary opposition parties are essential to the political apparatus of this country which is designed to arrest justice".

In 1990, James Kelman took part in an evening of international prose readings at the ninth International Book Fair of Radical Black and Third World Books, subsequently joining the Book Fair's organising committee and establishing the associated Scottish Book Fair of Radical Black and Third World Books, held in Glasgow, 1993 and 1995.