Malachy Tallack, a writer, editor and singer-songwriter from Shetland, has won the Scottish Book Trust's New Writer's Award for his current writing project, Sixty Degrees North.
Malachy is the former editor of Shetland Life magazine and is currently editor of The Island Review. He has also written for the Guardian, the New Statesman, Caught By the River and many other publications, online and in print.
Sixty Degrees North is a book about the sixtieth parallel, exploring the relationship between people and place. This has taken him around the world, from Shetland to Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Greenland, Canada and Alaska.
He has produced four albums of his own songs, and has just released a new EP entitled Leaving My Old Self Behind. He has played support for artists such as Runrig, King Creosote, Karine Polwart, Newton Faulkner and Matt Cardle.
Malachy said: “It is so easy to be hampered by doubt when working on a long and difficult project such as Sixty Degrees North. To receive this award, and the support of the Scottish Book Trust that goes with it, makes the task of writing feel more manageable and more worthwhile."