Latest news with #MargaretMcDonald
Yahoo
29-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'My award-winning book was ignored by 60 agents'
Margaret McDonald says being raised working-class in Glasgow meant she was often self-deprecating and doubtful of her writing abilities. At school, she said it was embarrassing to try and succeed at creative subjects - but she knew she was onto a winner with her debut novel Glasgow Boys. More than 60 agents ignored her attempts to pitch the book before she finally secured representation. And now the 27-year-old has been named the youngest ever winner of the Carnegie Medal for Writing in its almost 90-year history. "It's just been a complete whirlwind," she said. "It was beyond my wildest imagination of what we would achieve for Glasgow Boys when we published it." The Carnegies are the UK's longest-running book awards for children and young people and are judged by a panel of children's and youth librarians. The awards were established in 1936 in memory of Scottish philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. Glasgow Boys follows two teenagers navigating the care system and the invisible barriers that come with that in adulthood. McDonald wrote large parts of the novel while she recovered from an operation related to her Crohn's disease. She said: "As someone who is invisibly disabled, working class and a first-generation university student, it was important to me to showcase the difficulties of making your way through a world that is essentially not built for you. "We don't often speak of these invisible barriers but navigate them regardless. "It was something that was deeply important for me to showcase the strength, the community, the humour and the love of the people within Glasgow Boys." The author said she decided to donate her £5,000 prize money to Action for Children, a charity which helps vulnerable children in and out of care. "I'm hoping it can make a difference," McDonald said. "The care system is probably the biggest theme in Glasgow Boys and it's not something that I have lived through. "So it felt really important to me that Glasgow Boys made an actual real world impact on the lives of people in care and people coming out of care. "I couldn't think of a better use for the money than making sure Glasgow Boys was an actual force for good." The eponymous Glasgow Boys are Finlay and Banjo, two teenagers who McDonald says are "like chalk and cheese". Finlay is studying nursing at the University of Glasgow, while Banjo is trying to settle into a new foster family and finish high school. "I wanted to write about two characters who would have no reason to know one another and they would be forced into this close-proximity situation," she said. "To me, Glasgow Boys is about unconventional forms of love, platonic and romantic. "Banjo and Finlay have a real kinship, like platonic soulmates, and it felt very important that they were really different and came from different backgrounds." McDonald said she hoped the book would provide a platform for dialogue around the care system even if people disagreed with its portrayal in the novel. More stories from Glasgow & West Scotland More stories from Scotland She said she also hired a sensitivity reader who had first-hand experience of the care system to ensure the book was authentic. McDonald added: "If people are interested in writing about lived experiences that aren't your own like marginalised identities, there are ways to go about it sensitively. "You don't have to write an autobiography or keep to your own experiences, you can definitely venture out. "But if you're touching upon a community you're not a part of, I would encourage people to get in touch with that community and make sure you have their best interests in mind." McDonald started writing the novel at 19 while she took time out from her creative writing studies at Strathclyde University to recover from a bowel operation related to her Crohn's disease. She was forced to shield during the pandemic due to being immunosuppressed and high risk, and the novel began to take shape during that time. By the middle of 2022, McDonald had finished the book and it was ready to be pitched to agents. She said Glasgow Boys was just one of ten books she had written since she was a teenager, but she was convinced it was her best. "I was a dog with a bone and cold-queried agents and pitched myself," she said. "It's a really mortifying ordeal and you have to really sell yourself and why your book is brilliant and unlike any book published. "Especially with being brought up Scottish and working class, you're just taught to be very self-deprecating - but having confidence in yourself is how you'll succeed." She said she cold-called about 60 agents over eight months, before she finally got an offer of representation. "I started in January and gave myself until August to find an agent," she said. "And finally an offer came in at the end of July." The panel of judges at the Carnegies praised the book for it's "honest" and "hopeful" tale. Ros Harding, chair of the judges, said: "Glasgow Boys is an immersive and visceral read that completely draws the reader into the present and past lives of Finlay and Banjo. "It is a book that will stay in the mind of the reader long after finishing it." Call to reinstate illustrator's name on award McCaughrean wins second Carnegie medal
BBC News
29-06-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
'My award-winning book was ignored by 60 agents'
Margaret McDonald says being raised working-class in Glasgow meant she was often self-deprecating and doubtful of her writing school, she said it was embarrassing to try and succeed at creative subjects - but she knew she was onto a winner with her debut novel Glasgow than 60 agents ignored her attempts to pitch the book before she finally secured now the 27-year-old has been named the youngest ever winner of the Carnegie Medal for Writing in its almost 90-year history. "It's just been a complete whirlwind," she said. "It was beyond my wildest imagination of what we would achieve for Glasgow Boys when we published it."The Carnegies are the UK's longest-running book awards for children and young people and are judged by a panel of children's and youth awards were established in 1936 in memory of Scottish philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. 'Invisible barriers' Glasgow Boys follows two teenagers navigating the care system and the invisible barriers that come with that in wrote large parts of the novel while she recovered from an operation related to her Crohn's said: "As someone who is invisibly disabled, working class and a first-generation university student, it was important to me to showcase the difficulties of making your way through a world that is essentially not built for you."We don't often speak of these invisible barriers but navigate them regardless. "It was something that was deeply important for me to showcase the strength, the community, the humour and the love of the people within Glasgow Boys." The author said she decided to donate her £5,000 prize money to Action for Children, a charity which helps vulnerable children in and out of care."I'm hoping it can make a difference," McDonald said. "The care system is probably the biggest theme in Glasgow Boys and it's not something that I have lived through. "So it felt really important to me that Glasgow Boys made an actual real world impact on the lives of people in care and people coming out of care. "I couldn't think of a better use for the money than making sure Glasgow Boys was an actual force for good." Different backgrounds The eponymous Glasgow Boys are Finlay and Banjo, two teenagers who McDonald says are "like chalk and cheese".Finlay is studying nursing at the University of Glasgow, while Banjo is trying to settle into a new foster family and finish high school. "I wanted to write about two characters who would have no reason to know one another and they would be forced into this close-proximity situation," she said."To me, Glasgow Boys is about unconventional forms of love, platonic and romantic."Banjo and Finlay have a real kinship, like platonic soulmates, and it felt very important that they were really different and came from different backgrounds."McDonald said she hoped the book would provide a platform for dialogue around the care system even if people disagreed with its portrayal in the novel. She said she also hired a sensitivity reader who had first-hand experience of the care system to ensure the book was added: "If people are interested in writing about lived experiences that aren't your own like marginalised identities, there are ways to go about it sensitively. "You don't have to write an autobiography or keep to your own experiences, you can definitely venture out. "But if you're touching upon a community you're not a part of, I would encourage people to get in touch with that community and make sure you have their best interests in mind."McDonald started writing the novel at 19 while she took time out from her creative writing studies at Strathclyde University to recover from a bowel operation related to her Crohn's disease. She was forced to shield during the pandemic due to being immunosuppressed and high risk, and the novel began to take shape during that time. 'Honest and hopeful' By the middle of 2022, McDonald had finished the book and it was ready to be pitched to said Glasgow Boys was just one of ten books she had written since she was a teenager, but she was convinced it was her best."I was a dog with a bone and cold-queried agents and pitched myself," she said. "It's a really mortifying ordeal and you have to really sell yourself and why your book is brilliant and unlike any book published. "Especially with being brought up Scottish and working class, you're just taught to be very self-deprecating - but having confidence in yourself is how you'll succeed."She said she cold-called about 60 agents over eight months, before she finally got an offer of representation."I started in January and gave myself until August to find an agent," she said. "And finally an offer came in at the end of July."The panel of judges at the Carnegies praised the book for it's "honest" and "hopeful" Harding, chair of the judges, said: "Glasgow Boys is an immersive and visceral read that completely draws the reader into the present and past lives of Finlay and Banjo. "It is a book that will stay in the mind of the reader long after finishing it."
The Guardian
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘One kid at a time': How children's books on male friendship could combat toxic masculinity
This year's Carnegie medals for children's writing, awarded on Thursday, brought to light an unexpected trend. At a time of widespread public anxiety about the decline in boys' reading habits and the rise of the toxic influencers of the online 'manosphere', male friendship and masculinity were front and centre on the shortlist. The winner, Margaret McDonald's superb debut, Glasgow Boys, tells the story of the relationship between two looked-after children on the threshold of adulthood who process trauma in different ways. Banjo's aggression and Finlay's avoidance could be seen as two models of dysfunctional masculinity. Luke Palmer's Play, also on the shortlist, tells a story of male friendship which touches on rape culture and county lines drug gangs, while teenage gang membership is the focus of Brian Conaghan's Treacle Town. Nathanael Lessore won the Shadower's Choice medal (voted for by young readers). King of Nothing tells the story of Anton, a pre-GCSE hardman for whom reputation is everything. Anton hangs out with a thuggish crowd whose worldview is shaped by gang culture and Tate-like influencers. The arc of the plot – boisterously comic at first, but increasingly moving – shows how Anton's developing friendship with the uncoolest boy in the school changes his priorities. Though the books were judged for their individual qualities, the panel's chair, Ros Harding, observes a pendulum-swing in publishing. 'We've gone from children's adventure books, where it was always the boy as the hero, then there was a backlash against that, making sure that girls could be the heroes as well, which then maybe led to some boys feeling that things weren't being written for them.' Now, she says, 'another wave of books' is addressing that. McDonald says that in Glasgow Boys, she 'wanted to explore the spectrum of masculinity that both Banjo and Finlay exist on. Finlay is the more 'feminine' man who we perceive to be empathetic and introverted – a very gentle person. Banjo, conversely, is the 'masculine' boy: violent and aggressive.' 'People have been very curious as to why I have focused on two men when I'm not myself a man. But I don't think it would have been much of a question if I was a male author.' McDonald had a considerable struggle to get Glasgow Boys published – 60 agents and 20 publishers, she says, turned it down. Does she think that one factor was a reluctance to publish books about boys? She believes the book's use of Scots dialect (it comes with a glossary) was an issue, as was the fact she was submitting it during Covid. But the decline in boys' reading, she suggests, might have created a vicious circle in publishing. 'I think because there's such a small readership it's difficult, in a business sense, to cut out the bigger readership – which is girls and women.' Harding says her experience as a librarian is that most boys read more narrowly than most girls. 'A girl who likes reading will read anything. It doesn't matter whether it's a male protagonist or a female. Boys were just a little bit more resistant to that. I think they are more likely to want the male protagonist.' When McDonald hears feedback on the book, male readers 'often focus on Banjo and Finlay separately, whereas my female readers focus on the relationships. A lot of boys who read it will be like, 'I related to Finlay', or 'I relate to Banjo', whereas none of the girls read that way. So it suggests a little bit of a difference in the ways in which boys go into books.' The hope is that they go into books at all. The explosion in so-called toxic masculinity is taking place at the same time as statistics tell us that reading for pleasure, especially among boys, is on the decline. Novels are empathy machines: they invite you to imagine what it might be like to be somebody else. So they are, at least potentially, an antidote to the misogynistic influence of the manosphere and gaming culture. But it's precisely with social media and video games that they are competing for the attention of boys and young men. Lessore says his book was inspired in part by discovering 'my little nephew and my cousin – who were, I think, nine and 13 at the time – were both watching Andrew Tate videos'. He sees the long-term effects of that in school visits he does, to expensive private schools and 'very, very underfunded state schools' alike. Children self-segregate: boys on one side, girls on the other. 'Gay' is being used as an insult once more, and boys have so little respect for female teachers that they have to call over male staff to settle them. Sign up to Bookmarks Discover new books and learn more about your favourite authors with our expert reviews, interviews and news stories. Literary delights delivered direct to you after newsletter promotion Does Lessore feel confident he's talking to the young men that books like his need to reach, though, rather than just about them? 'I start every school visit with the statistics that teenagers who read more tend to [get] higher paid jobs as adults,' he says. 'That usually gets them sitting up a little bit in their seats.' In Anton's world, drawn from Lessore's own working-class south London background, he thinks boys can find something to relate to. 'Kids like that don't think they can be writers, and therefore they don't read – and therefore they don't get the empathy that can be learned from books.' Lessore's influence seems to work. 'Even the more disruptive boys on the school visit tend to, you know, barge their way to the front of the queue to get their book signed. It's a drop. But, yeah, like: one kid at a time, one school at a time.'
The Guardian
19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Carnegie medal for writing: Margaret McDonald named youngest ever winner
Two books about male friendship and masculinity have been announced as winners in the latest Carnegie awards, which highlight the best new books for children and young people. This year saw 27-year-old Margaret McDonald become the youngest ever winner of the Carnegie medal for writing, which is judged by a panel of librarians. McDonald's winning debut, Glasgow Boys, is a coming-of-age novel about the friendship between two boys who have grown up in the care system. Another book focused on male friendship, King of Nothing by Nathanael Lessore, was voted winner in a separate prize judged by young people from reading groups in schools and libraries who shadowed the judging process for the flagship award. The Carnegie medal for illustration was awarded to Olivia Lomenech Gill for Clever Crow, written by Chris Butterworth. The shadowers' choice medal for illustration went to Homebody by Theo Parish. The winners were announced at a ceremony at the Cambridge theatre in London on Thursday. McDonald and Lomenech Gill were awarded £5,000 each, while Lessore and Parish were given £500 each to donate to libraries of their choice. Writing Glasgow Boys, McDonald worked with a children's therapist to depict the care system in an authentic way. The novel, which incorporates Scots dialect, is 'an immersive and visceral read that completely draws the reader into the present and past lives of Finlay and Banjo', said judging chair Ros Harding. 'Neither of [the characters] can remember the last time they had a hug; both are determined to hold on at all costs to the uncertain hope of a brighter future', wrote Imogen Russell Williams in a Guardian review. The book 'is a paean to the power of friendship, and daring to be vulnerable in the face of past hurt'. McDonald is donating her prize money to Action for Children, which helps young people in care and other vulnerable groups of children, while Lomenech Gill plans to use the money for a project supporting schools, education and libraries in Palestine. Sign up to Bookmarks Discover new books and learn more about your favourite authors with our expert reviews, interviews and news stories. Literary delights delivered direct to you after newsletter promotion Working on Clever Crow 'was a great opportunity to learn more about these very clever and sociable birds, and I hope that the book might encourage readers to look at crows from a different viewpoint than the rather negative stereotype as portrayed in fairy tales, horror movies, and Hitchcock,' said Lomenech Gill. The shadowers' choice winner for writing, King of Nothing, is a teen comedy about an unlikely friendship between two boys. Earlier this year, the novel topped the older readers category in the Waterstones children's book prize and won the Jhalak children's and young adult prize. 'It's testament to Lessore's lightness of touch and believable characters that despite delving into big topics such as toxic masculinity and grief, this is an immensely readable book that never feels too worthy,' wrote Fiona Noble in the Guardian. Homebody, the shadowers' choice winner for illustration, follows 'the protagonist's search for self-acceptance, so that the house of their body can feel like a true home', wrote Imogen Russell Williams in the Guardian. 'Investigating the subtleties of trans and non-binary identities, its soft greys and pinks and joyful emphasis on self-discovery will appeal to Heartstopper fans.' The Carnegie writing medal was established in 1936, while the illustration prize was launched in 1955. Previous winners of the writing award include Frank Cottrell Boyce, CS Lewis, Philip Pullman and Ruta Sepetys; past illustration winners include Shirley Hughes, Quentin Blake and Lauren Child. Last year, Joseph Coelho won the writing award for The Boy Lost in the Maze, illustrated by Kate Milner, while Aaron Becker took home the illustration medal for The Tree and the River.
