{"id":15256,"date":"2025-07-22T10:51:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T10:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/15256\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T10:51:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T10:51:08","slug":"highland-book-prize-won-by-night-train-to-odesa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/15256\/","title":{"rendered":"Highland Book Prize won by Night Train to Odesa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/birlinn.co.uk\/product\/night-train-to-odesa\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Night Train to Odesa: Covering the Human Cost of Russia\u2019s War<\/a> by Jen Stout has won this year\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.highlandbookprize.org.uk\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Highland Book Prize<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It is the account of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jenstout.net\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the Shetland journalist\u2019s<\/a> first-hand experience of reporting from Ukraine at the on-set of the Russian war.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"rthmb\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns=\" http:=\"\" viewbox=\"0 0 2966 3633\" alt=\"Jen Stout with her book Night Train to Odesa.\" data-root=\"\/_media\/img\/\" data-path=\"9WMRRZ9TDL4TOUGHLZEY.jpg\" data-ar=\"0.82\"\/>Jen Stout with her book Night Train to Odesa.<\/p>\n<p>It was selected by a judging panel from a shortlist of four titles.<\/p>\n<p>Judges included: Jen Hadfield (poet and essayist), Cynan Jones (novelist and short fiction writer) and Peter Mackay (poet, lecturer and broadcaster)<\/p>\n<p>Jen Hadfield said: \u201cThe most moving aspect of this book is that, despite harrowing first-hand experiences of the invasion, misery is not the prevailing mood. Ukrainian trauma and suffering are more than balanced by hope, creativity, resilience and expression of identity. How she manages to write a book so celebratory astonishes me.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStout lifts a book that could so easily be about death into a book about life. She bears witness bravely and unashamedly. It\u2019s writing at the most human level, deeply moving and important.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Peter Mackay commends the book for it\u2019s first-person account and \u201cthe world she evokes\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt felt a privilege to be taken to some of these people and places.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"rthmb\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns=\" http:=\"\" viewbox=\"0 0 1017 1557\" alt=\"The winner of the Highland Book Prize.\" data-root=\"\/_media\/img\/\" data-path=\"BYSM7HE6AMTDRJXQDWLM.jpg\" data-ar=\"0.65\"\/>The winner of the Highland Book Prize.<\/p>\n<p>This annual award celebrates the finest published work that is created in or about the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. The prize aims to recognise the literacy talent of the region, and the rich and diverse work inspired by its culture, heritage and landscape.<\/p>\n<p>    Do you want to respond to this article? If so, click <a href=\"http:\/\/www.inverness-courier.co.uk\/response\/?popform=true&amp;Url=https%3a%2f%2fwww.inverness-courier.co.uk%2fnews%2fwinner-announced-for-the-highland-book-prize-387719%2f&amp;Title=Highland+Book+Prize+won+by+Night+Train+to+Odesa\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a> to submit your thoughts and they may be published in print.   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Night Train to Odesa: Covering the Human Cost of Russia\u2019s War by Jen Stout has won this year\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15257,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[457,7840,96,10164,913,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-15256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-books","tag-books","tag-community","tag-entertainment","tag-keep-me-on-trend","tag-latest-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}