Kirsty Gunn was announced as the winner, on Saturday, of the inaugural Sundial Scottish Arts Council Book of the Year Award for her highly acclaimed novella The Boy and the Sea.
The announcement was made at this high-profile event, which included readings by all the short-listed writers, followed by a reception. Gunn was presented with a cheque for £25,000 by William Gray Muir of Sundial Properties, the sponsor of the Awards.
The short-list also included A Lie About My Father by John Burnside, George Mackay Brown: The Life by Maggie Fergusson and Swithering by Robin Robertson. All the short-listed had received a prize of £5,000.
The judging panel comprised Dr Gavin Wallace, head of literature at the Scottish Arts Council, writer Elizabeth Laird, and director of the Scottish Poetry Library, Dr Robyn Marsack.
Gunn was born in New Zealand and educated at Wellington's Victoria University and Oxford. Her fiction includes Rain, The Keepsake, Featherstone, This Place You Return To Is Home, The Boy And The Sea and 44 Things. She is Professor of Creative Writing at Dundee University.