‘My award-winning book was ignored by 60 agents’

Margaret McDonald says being raised working-class in Glasgow meant she was typically self-deprecating and uncertain of her writing talents.

At college, she stated it was embarrassing to attempt to succeed at inventive topics – however she knew she was onto a winner together with her debut novel Glasgow Boys.

Greater than 60 brokers ignored her makes an attempt to pitch the e-book earlier than she lastly secured illustration.

And now the 27-year-old has been named the youngest ever winner of the Carnegie Medal for Writing in its nearly 90-year historical past.

“It is simply been an entire whirlwind,” she stated. “It was past my wildest creativeness of what we’d obtain for Glasgow Boys after we revealed it.”

The Carnegies are the UK’s longest-running e-book awards for kids and younger individuals and are judged by a panel of youngsters’s and youth librarians.

The awards have been established in 1936 in reminiscence of Scottish philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.

Glasgow Boys follows two youngsters navigating the care system and the invisible boundaries that include that in maturity.

McDonald wrote massive components of the novel whereas she recovered from an operation associated to her Crohn’s illness.

She stated: “As somebody who’s invisibly disabled, working class and a first-generation college pupil, it was essential to me to showcase the difficulties of creating your approach by a world that’s primarily not constructed for you.

“We do not typically communicate of those invisible boundaries however navigate them regardless.

“It was one thing that was deeply essential for me to showcase the energy, the group, the humour and the love of the individuals inside Glasgow Boys.”

The writer stated she determined to donate her £5,000 prize cash to Motion for Kids, a charity which helps susceptible youngsters out and in of care.

“I am hoping it may possibly make a distinction,” McDonald stated. “The care system might be the most important theme in Glasgow Boys and it is not one thing that I’ve lived by.

“So it felt actually essential to me that Glasgow Boys made an precise actual world affect on the lives of individuals in care and folks popping out of care.

“I could not consider a greater use for the cash than ensuring Glasgow Boys was an precise pressure for good.”

The eponymous Glasgow Boys are Finlay and Banjo, two youngsters who McDonald says are “like chalk and cheese”.

Finlay is learning nursing on the College of Glasgow, whereas Banjo is attempting to settle into a brand new foster household and end highschool.

“I needed to write down about two characters who would don’t have any motive to know each other and they might be compelled into this close-proximity scenario,” she stated.

“To me, Glasgow Boys is about unconventional types of love, platonic and romantic.

“Banjo and Finlay have an actual kinship, like platonic soulmates, and it felt crucial that they have been actually completely different and got here from completely different backgrounds.”

McDonald stated she hoped the e-book would offer a platform for dialogue across the care system even when individuals disagreed with its portrayal within the novel.

She stated she additionally employed a sensitivity reader who had first-hand expertise of the care system to make sure the e-book was genuine.

McDonald added: “If persons are excited about writing about lived experiences that are not your individual like marginalised identities, there are methods to go about it sensitively.

“You do not have to write down an autobiography or hold to your individual experiences, you’ll be able to undoubtedly enterprise out.

“However in the event you’re touching upon a group you are not part of, I’d encourage individuals to get in contact with that group and be sure you have their finest pursuits in thoughts.”

McDonald began writing the novel at 19 whereas she took outing from her inventive writing research at Strathclyde College to recuperate from a bowel operation associated to her Crohn’s illness.

She was compelled to protect in the course of the pandemic as a consequence of being immunosuppressed and excessive threat, and the novel started to take form throughout that point.

By the center of 2022, McDonald had completed the e-book and it was able to be pitched to brokers.

She stated Glasgow Boys was simply one in every of ten books she had written since she was a youngster, however she was satisfied it was her finest.

“I used to be a canine with a bone and cold-queried brokers and pitched myself,” she stated.

“It is a actually mortifying ordeal and you must actually promote your self and why your e-book is good and in contrast to any e-book revealed.

“Particularly with being introduced up Scottish and dealing class, you are simply taught to be very self-deprecating – however having confidence in your self is how you may succeed.”

She stated she cold-called about 60 brokers over eight months, earlier than she lastly acquired a proposal of illustration.

“I began in January and gave myself till August to search out an agent,” she stated. “And at last a proposal got here in on the finish of July.”

The panel of judges on the Carnegies praised the e-book for it is “sincere” and “hopeful” story.

Ros Harding, chair of the judges, stated: “Glasgow Boys is an immersive and visceral learn that fully attracts the reader into the current and previous lives of Finlay and Banjo.

“It’s a e-book that may keep within the thoughts of the reader lengthy after ending it.”