# Scotland's National Book Awards

Scotland's National Book Awards, formerly known as the Saltire Society Literary Awards, are made annually by the Saltire Society. First awarded in 1937, they are awarded for books by Scottish authors or about Scotland, and are awarded in several categories.

## History

The first Saltire Society Book Award was given in 1937, the year after the Saltire Society was established. No awards were given after 1939 due to the Second World War, and the next award was made 1956. The History Book of the Year award was inaugurated in 1965. In 1982 sponsorship was obtained and since then the awards have been made annually. First books have been recognised since 1988, and in 1998 the award for Scottish Research Book of the Year was established.
Until around 2021, the awards were known as the Saltire Society Literary Awards, subtitled Scotland's National Book Awards, but then took on the subtitle as the name covering all of the literary awards that the society awards: Scotland's National Book Awards, and are known by this name as of May 2023.

## Description

The awards seek to recognise books which are either by "living authors of Scottish descent or residing in Scotland," or which deal with "the work or life of a Scot or with a Scottish question, event or situation".
As of 2022, the winner in each category receives an award created by artist Simon Baker of Evergreen Studios, based in Inverness; the winners of each literary award receive a cash prize of £2,000, while the winner of the Saltire Society Book of the Year is given a further £4,000.

## Categories

A one-off Homecoming Book of the Year award was made in 2009 to celebrate the "Year of homecoming": the award was presented to American professor Donald Worster for his biography of John Muir, A Passion for Nature. The shortlist consisted of The Bard: Robert Burns, A Biography, by Robert Crawford, The Testament of Cresseid and Seven Fables, by Seamus Heaney, The Lamplighter, by Jackie Kay and Piano Angel, by Esther Woolfson.
In 2014, the Scottish Literary Book of the Year was awarded, but was replaced after only one year by separate awards for Fiction Book of the Year and Non-Fiction Book of the Year
As of 2022, the Saltire Society presents awards in seven categories for books, and three awards for publishers:
* Saltire Society Scottish Book of the Year Award (formerly "Scottish Book of the Year")
* Saltire Society First Book of the Year
* Saltire Society History Book of the Year
* Saltire Society Research Book of the Year
* Saltire Society Poetry Book of the Year (introduced in 2014)
* Saltire Society Fiction Book of the Year (introduced in 2015)
* Saltire Society Non-Fiction Book of the Year (introduced in 2015)
* Saltire Society Book Cover Design of the Year
* Saltire Society Publisher of the Year
* Saltire Society Emerging Publisher of the Year (awarded in partnership with Publishing Scotland)
In 2019, a Lifetime Achievement Award was introduced, the inaugural prize going to Alasdair Gray.
Subsequent winners of the lifetime achievement have been:
* Douglas Dunn (2021)
* Alexander McCall Smith (2022)
* Liz Lockhead (2023)
* James Kelman (2024)
In addition, an annual student travel bursary is awarded to a creative writing graduate, and the Ross Roy Medal is awarded for the best PhD thesis on a subject related to Scottish literature.

## Past winners
### Scottish Book of the Year

The Scottish Book of the Year award was established in 1937, and has been given annually since 1982. The award is open to novels, poetry and plays as well as non-fiction works on Scottish subjects.
| Year | Work | Author |
| 1937 | Highland River | Neil M. Gunn |
| 1937 | The Lord Bothwell | Robert Gore-Browne |
| 1939 | Three Plays | Robert McLellan |
| 1956 | One Foot in Eden | Edwin Muir |
| 1958 | Scotland Before History | Stuart Piggott |
| 1982 | Lanark: A Life in Four Books | Alasdair Gray |
| 1983 | Collected Poems | Derick Thomson |
| 1983 | Poems of Thirty Years | Edwin Morgan |
| 1984 | God and the Poets: The Gifford Lectures | David Daiches |
| 1984 | Intimate Voices: Selected Works | Tom Leonard |
| 1985 | Collected Poems | Norman MacCaig |
| 1986 | A Storm from Paradise | Stuart Hood |
| 1987 | The Stories of Muriel Spark | Muriel Spark |
| 1988 | Games with Shadows | Neal Ascherson |
| 1988 | The Enchanted Glass: Britain and Its Monarchy | Tom Nairn |
| 1989 | A Question of Loyalties | Allan Massie |
| 1990 | O Choille gu Bearradh / From Wood to Ridge | Sorley MacLean |
| 1991 | Scottish Art 1460–1990 | Duncan Macmillan |
| 1992 | Collected Poems | Iain Crichton Smith |
| 1993 | Robert Burns – A Biography | James A. Mackay |
| 1994 | Beside the Ocean of Time | George Mackay Brown |
| 1995 | Black Sea | Neal Ascherson |
| 1996 | The Kiln | William McIlvanney |
| 1997 | Grace Notes | Bernard MacLaverty |
| 1998 | The Sopranos | Alan Warner |
| 1999 | Pursuits | George Bruce |
| 2000 | The Lantern Bearers | Ronald Frame |
| 2001 | Medea | Liz Lochhead |
| 2002 | Clara | Janice Galloway |
| 2003 | Joseph Knight | James Robertson |
| 2004 | In Another Light | Andrew Greig |
| 2005 | Case Histories | Kate Atkinson |
| 2006 | A Lie About My Father | John Burnside |
| 2007 | Day | A. L. Kennedy |
| 2008 | Kieron Smith, Boy | James Kelman |
| 2009 | The Bard: Robert Burns, a Biography | Robert Crawford |
| 2010 | And the Land Lay Still | James Robertson |
| 2011 | A Life in Pictures | Alasdair Gray |
| Year | Work | Author | Result |
| 2012 | Mo Said She Was Quirky | James Kelman | Winner |
| 2012 | Sightlines | Kathleen Jamie | Shortlist |
| 2012 | The Bees | Carol Ann Duffy | Shortlist |
| 2012 | Deanamh Gaire ris a’ Chloc (or Laughing at the Clock) | Aonghas MacNeacail | Shortlist |
| 2012 | Tales From The Mall | Ewan Morrison | Shortlist |
| 2012 | Deadman's Pedal | Alan Warner | Shortlist |
| 2012 | Skagboys | Irvine Welch | Shortlist |
| 2013 | Something Like Happy | John Burnside | Winner |
| 2013 | Life After Life | Kate Atkinson | Shortlist |
| 2013 | The Professor Of Truth | James Robertson | Shortlist |
| 2013 | Empire Antractica | Gavin Francis | Shortlist |
| 2013 | Mairi Dhall agus Sgeulachdan | Donnchadh Macgilliosa | Shortlist |
| 2013 | Looking For Mrs Livingstone | Julie Davidson | Shortlist |
| 2013 | Artful | Ali Smith | Shortlist |
| Year | Work | Author | Ref(s) |
| 2014 | The Scottish Town in the Age of Enlightenment 1740–1820 | Bob Harris and Charles McKean | |
| 2015 | The Book of Strange New Things | Michel Faber | |
| 2016 | The Bonniest Companie | Kathleen Jamie | |
| 2017 | Border: A Journey to the Edge of Europe | Kapka Kassabova | |
| 2018 | All That Remains | Sue Black | |
| 2019 | Working Verse in Victorian Scotland: Poetry, Press, Community | Kirstie Blair | |
| 2020 | No award given | No award given | No award given |
| 2021 | Duck Feet | Ely Percy | |
| 2022 | Slaves and Highlanders: Silenced Histories of Scotland and the Caribbean | David Alston | |
| 2023 | Womb: The Inside Story of Where We All Began | Leah Hazard | |
| 2024 | Thunderclap | Laura Cumming | |

### Scottish Literary Book of the Year

The award for Literary Book of the Year was introduced in 2014, and was open to fiction, non-fiction or plays .The award only existed for one year before being replaced by separate awards for Fiction and Non-Fiction
| Year | Work | Author | Result |
| 2014 | How to Be Both | Ali Smith | Winner |
| 2014 | All the Rage | A L Kennedy | Shortlist |
| 2014 | Gone Are the Leaves | Anne Donovan | Shortlist |
| 2014 | Where Memories Go | Sally Magnusson | Shortlist |
| 2014 | Cala Bendita | Martin MacIntyre | Shortlist |
| 2014 | The James Plays | Rona Munro | Shortlist |

### Scottish Fiction Book of the Year

The fiction book of the year award was inaugurated in 2015.
| Year | Work | Author | Result | Ref(s) |
| 2015 | The Book of Strange New Things | Michel Faber | Winner | |
| 2015 | The Illuminations | Andrew O'Hagan | Shortlist | |
| 2015 | A Decent Ride | Irvine Welsh | Shortlist | |
| 2015 | Jellyfish | Janice Galloway | Shortlist | |
| 2015 | An Dosan | Norma Nicleod | Shortlist | |
| 2015 | God in Ruins | Kate Atkinson | Shortlist | |
| 2016 | His Bloody Project | Graeme Macrae Burnet | Winner | |
| 2016 | The Blade Artists | Irvine Welsh | Shortlist | |
| 2016 | Dirt Road | James Kelman | Shortlist | |
| 2016 | The Sunlight Pilgrims | Jenni Fagan | Shortlist | |
| 2016 | This Must Be the Place | Maggie O'Farrell | Shortlist | |
| 2016 | The Brilliant and Forever | Kevin MacNeil | Shortlist | |
| 2017 | Memory and Straw | Angus Peter Campbell | Winner | |
| 2017 | Midwinter Break | Bernard MacLaverty | Shortlist | |
| 2017 | The Long Drop | Denise Mina | Shortlist | |
| 2017 | That Was a Shiver | James Kelman | Shortlist | |
| 2017 | Dalila | Jason Donald | Shortlist | |
| 2017 | Ashland and Vine | John Burnside | Shortlist | |
| 2018 | Elsewhere, Home | Leila Aboulela | Winner | |
| 2018 | A Treachery of Spies | Manda Scott | Shortlist | |
| 2018 | Dead Men's Trousers | Irvine Welsh | Shortlist | |
| 2018 | The Growing Season | Helen Sedgwick | Shortlist | |
| 2018 | The Great Chain of Unbeing | Andrew Crumey | Shortlist | |
| 2018 | The Sealwoman's Gift | Sally Magnusson | Shortlist | |
| 2019 | Nina X | Ewan Morrison | Winner | |
| 2019 | Bird Summons | Leila Aboulela | Shortlist | |
| 2019 | You Will Be Safe Here | Damian Barr | Shortlist | |
| 2019 | Tiger | Polly Clark | Shortlist | |
| 2019 | Ducks, Newburyport | Lucy Ellmann | Shortlist | |
| 2019 | Còig Duilleagan na Seamraig (Five Leaves of the Shamrock) | Ruairidh MacIlleathain (Roddy MacLean) | Shortlist | |
| 2020 | No award given | No award given | No award given | No award given |
| 2021 | Duck Feet | Ely Percy | Winner | |
| 2021 | Scabby Queen | Kirstin Innes | Shortlist | |
| 2021 | Shuggie Bain | Douglas Stuart | Shortlist | |
| 2021 | Luckenbooth | Jenni Fagan | Shortlist | |
| 2021 | There's Only One Danny Garvey | David F. Ross | Shortlist | |
| 2022 | Blood & Gold: A Journey of Shadows | Mara Menzies | Winner | |
| 2022 | Be Guid Tae Yer Mammy | Emma Grae | Shortlist | |
| 2022 | Cwen | Alice Albinia | Shortlist | |
| 2022 | News of the Dead | James Robertson | Shortlist | |
| 2022 | The Pharmacist | Rachelle Atalla | Shortlist | |
| 2022 | Young Mungo | Douglas Stuart | Shortlist | |
| 2023 | In Ascension | Martin MacInnes | Winner | |
| 2023 | crann-fie/Fig Tree | Duncan Gillies | Shortlist | |
| 2023 | Electricity | Andrew Peter Campbell | Shortlist | |
| 2023 | Hell Sans | Ever Dundas | Shortlist | |
| 2023 | Mother Sea | Lorraine Wilson | Shortlist | |
| 2023 | Orpheus Builds a Girl | Heather Parry | Shortlist | |
| 2024 | What Doesn't Kill Us | Ajay Close | Winner | |
| 2024 | Study for Obedience | Sarah Bernstein | Shortlist | |
| 2024 | Clear | Carys Davies | Shortlist | |
| 2024 | Lost People | Margaret Elphinstone | Shortlist | |
| 2024 | Hazardous Spirits | Anbara Salam | Shortlist | |

### Scottish First Book of the Year

The first book of the year award was inaugurated in 1988 and recognises an author who has not previously published a book. As with the book of the year, the award is open to novels, plays, poems and non-fiction.
| Year | Work | Author |
| 1988 | The Richt Noise | Raymond Vettese |
| 1989 | Cells of Knowledge | Sian Hayton |
| 1990 | The Ballad of Sawney Bain | Harry Tait |
| 1991 | Night Geometry and the Garscadden Trains | A. L. Kennedy |
| 1992 | Adoption Papers | Jackie Kay |
| 1992 | Uirsgeul/Myth | Christopher Whyte |
| 1993 | Robert Louis Stevenson: Dreams of Exile | Ian Bell |
| 1994 | Music, in a Foreign Language | Andrew Crumey |
| 1995 | Free Love and Other Stories | Ali Smith |
| 1996 | Slattern | Kate Clanchy |
| 1997 | A Painted Field | Robin Robertson |
| 1998 | The Pied Piper's Poison | Christopher Wallace |
| 1998 | Two Clocks Ticking | Dennis O'Donnell |
| 1999 | Some Rain Must Fall | Michel Faber |
| 2000 | The Rising Sun | Douglas Galbraith |
| 2001 | In the Blue House | Meaghan Delahunt |
| 2002 | Burns the Radical | Liam McIlvanney |
| 2002 | The Cutting Room | Louise Welsh |
| 2003 | Ath – Aithne | Martainn Mac an t-Saoir |
| 2004 | Stargazing | Peter Hill |
| 2005 | Amande's Bed | John Aberdein |
| 2006 | George Mackay Brown: The Life | Maggie Fergusson |
| Year | Work | Author | Result | Ref(s) |
| 2007 | Fresh | Mark McNay | Winner |
| 2007 | Writing in the Sand | Angus Dunn | Shortlist | |
| 2007 | The Tenderness of Wolves | Stef Penney | Shortlist | |
| 2007 | Shadow Behind the Sun | Remzije Sherifi with Robert Davidson | Shortlist | |
| 2008 | The Good Mayor | Andrew Nicoll| | Winner | |
| 2008 | The Wall | D C Jackson | Shortlist | |
| 2008 | James Kelman | Simon Kövesi | Shortlist | |
| 2008 | The Redemption Of Alexander Seaton | Shona MacLean | Shortlist | |
| 2008 | Moonshine In The Morning | Andrea McNicholl | Shortlist | |
| 2008 | The Peachgrower's Almanac | Elaine di Rollo | Shortlist | |
| 2009 | The Tin-Kin | Eleanor Thom | Winner | |
| 2009 | Chokechain | Jason Donald | Shortlist | |
| 2009 | Eating Pomegranates | Sarah Gabriel | Shortlist | |
| 2009 | Cainnt na Caileige Caillte | Alison Lang | Shortlist | |
| 2009 | Chapel at the Edge of the World | Kirsten McKenzie | Shortlist | |
| 2010 | The History of Orkney Literature | Simon W. Hall | Winner | |
| 2010 | The Death of Lomond Friel | Sue Peebles | Winner | |
| 2010 | The Prisoner of St Kilda: The True Story of the Unfortunate Lady Grange | Margaret Macauley | Shortlist | |
| 2010 | And This Is True | Emily Mackie | Shortlist | |
| 2010 | A' Ghlainne agus Sgeulachdan Eile | Màiri E. NicLeòid | Shortlist | |
| 2010 | Homecomings | Donald Paterson | Shortlist | |
| 2011 | The Echo Chamber | Luke Williams | Winner | |
| 2011 | Island of Wings | Karin Altenberg | Shortlist | |
| 2011 | This Road Is Red | Alison Irvine | Shortlist | |
| 2011 | Let Not the Waves of the Sea | Simon Stephenson | Shortlist | |
| 2012 | The Last Highlander: Scotland’s Most Notorious Clan-Chief, Rebel and Double Agent | Sarah Fraser | Winner |
| 2012 | Air Bilean an t-Sluaigh: Sealladh air Leantalachd Beul-Aithris Ghàidhlig Uibhist a Tuath | Maighread A. Challan | Shortlist | |
| 2012 | Tony Hogan Bought Me an Ice Cream Float Before He Stole My Ma | Kerry Hudson | Shortlist | |
| 2012 | The Incomers | Moira McPartlin | Shortlist | |
| 2012 | Furnace | Wayne Price | Shortlist | |
| 2012 | Ramshackle | Elizabeth Reeder | Shortlist | |
| 2013 | Air Cuan Dubh Drilseach | Tim Armstrong | Winner | |
| 2013 | As Far As I Can See | Eunice Buchanan | Winner | |
| 2013 | The Necessary Death of Lewis Winter | Malcolm Mackay | Shortlist | |
| 2013 | Nothing Is Heavy | Vicky Jarrett | Shortlist | |
| 2013 | Kaleb's List | Kellan MacInnnes | Shortlist | |
| 2014 | Moontide | Niall Campbell | Winner | |
| 2014 | Any Other Mouth | Anneliese Mackintosh | Shortlist | |
| 2014 | The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle | Kirsty Wark | Shortlist | |
| 2014 | The Monster's Wife | Kate Horsley | Shortlist | |
| 2014 | The Last Pair of Ears | Mary F McDonough | Shortlist | |
| 2014 | The Rental Heart | Kirsty Logan | Shortlist | |
| 2015 | On the Edges of Vision | Helen McClory | | |
| 2015 | 60 Degrees North | Malachy Tallack | Shortlist | |
| 2015 | Airstream | Audrey Henderson | Shortlist | |
| 2015 | Lie of the Land | Michael F Russell | Shortlist | |
| 2015 | The Liepzig Affair | Fiona Rintoul | Shortlist | |
| 2015 | The Peoples Referendum | Peter Geogheghan | Shortlist | |
| 2016 | Trials on Death Row | Isabel Buchanan | Winner | |
| 2016 | Expecting | Chitra Ramaswamy | Winner | |
| 2016 | Infinite Ground | Martin McInnes | Shortlist | |
| 2016 | This Changes Things | Claire Askew | Shortlist | |
| 2017 | Goblin | Ever Dundas | Winner | |
| 2017 | The Case Room | Kate Hunter | Shortlist | |
| 2017 | Language of My Choosing: The Candid Life-Memoir of an Italian Scot | Anne Pia | Shortlist | |
| 2017 | Beneath the Skin | Sandra Ireland | Shortlist | |
| 2017 | Mary's the Name | Ross Sayers | Shortlist | |
| 2017 | Fallow | Daniel Shand | Shortlist | |
| 2018 | Sal | Mick Kitson | Winner | |
| 2018 | Amphibian | Christina Neuwirth | Shortlist | |
| 2018 | St Kilda: The Silent Islands | Alex Boyd | Shortlist | |
| 2018 | A' Togail an t-Srùbain | Calum L. MacLeòid | Shortlist | |
| 2019 | Threads of Life | Clare Hunter | Winner | |
| 2019 | Seafarers: A Journey Among Birds | Stephen Rutt | Winner | |
| 2019 | Overlander: Bikepacking Coast to Coast Across the Heart of the Highlands | Alan Brown | Shortlist | |
| 2019 | Escape from Earth: A Secret History of the Space Rocket | Fraser MacDonald | Shortlist | |
| 2019 | A Superior Spectre | Angela Meyer | Shortlist | |
| 2020 | No award given | No award given | No award given | No award given |
| 2021 | Bleak: The Mundane Comedy | Roddy Murray | Winner | |
| 2021 | Ray Harryhausen: Titan of Cinema | Vanessa Harryhausen | Shortlist | |
| 2021 | The Young Team | Graeme Armstrong | Shortlist | |
| 2021 | A Kind of Spark | Elle McNicoll | Shortlist | |
| 2021 | Mother, Nature | Aoife Lyall | Shortlist | |
| 2021 | If Rivers Could Sing | Keith Broomfield | Shortlist | |
| 2022 | In: The Graphic Novel | Will McPhail | Winner | |
| 2022 | A Sky Full of Kites | Tom Bowser | Shortlist | |
| 2022 | I Am Not Your Eve | Devika Ponnambalam | Shortlist | |
| 2022 | Limbo | Georgi Gill | Shortlist | |
| 2022 | The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley | Sean Lusk | Shortlist | |
| 2022 | The Voids | Ryan O’Connor | Shortlist | |
| 2023 | For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain | Victoria MacKenzie | Winner | |
| 2023 | Confessions of a Highland Art Dealer | Tony Davidson | Shortlist | |
| 2023 | Ginger and Me | Elissa Soave | Shortlist | |
| 2023 | My Margaret, Your Toshie | Keith Adamson | Shortlist | |
| 2023 | The Maiden | Kate Foster | Shortlist | |
| 2023 | The Two-Headed Whale | Sandy Winterbottom | Shortlist | |
| 2024 | Night Train To Odessa | Jen Stout | Winner | |
| 2024 | Fragile Animals | Genevieve Jagger | Shortlist | |
| 2024 | Remember, Remember | Elle Machray | Shortlist | |
| 2024 | The Old Haunts | Allan Radcliffe | Shortlist | |
| 2024 | The Department of Work and Pensions Assesses a Jade Fish | Nualla Watt | Shortlist | |

### Scottish Non-Fiction Book of the Year

The award for Non-Fiction Book of the Year was introduced in 2015
| Year | Work | Author | Result | Ref(s) |
| 2015 | Adventures in Human Being | Gavin Francis | Winner | |
| 2015 | Young Eliot | Robert Crawford | Shortlist | |
| 2015 | Lifeblood | Gill Fyfe | Shortlist | |
| 2015 | This Is Scotland | Daniel Gray & Alan McCredie | Shortlist | |
| 2016 | Other People's Money | John Kay | Winner | |
| 2016 | A Little History of Religion | Richard Holloway | Shortlist | |
| 2016 | Fallen Glory | James Crawford | Shortlist | |
| 2016 | Glasgow: Mapping the City | John Moore | Shortlist | |
| 2016 | The Outrun | Amy Liptro | Shortlist | |
| 2017 | Border: A Journey to the Edge of Europe | Kapka Kassabova | Winner | |
| 2017 | Al Britannia, My Country: A Journey Through Muslim Britain | James Ferguson | Shortlist | |
| 2017 | Scotland: Mapping the Islands | edited by Christopher Fleet, Charles W.J. Withers, and Margaret Wilkes | Shortlist | |
| 2017 | Love of Country | Madeleine Bunting | Shortlist | |
| 2017 | Waypoints: Seascapes and Stories of Scotland's West Coast | Ian Stephen | Shortlist | |
| 2017 | The Passion of Harry Bingo: Further Dispatches from Unreported Scotland | Peter Ross | Shortlist | |
| 2018 | All That Remains: A Life in Death | Professor Sue Black | Winner | |
| 2018 | Appointment in Arezzo | Alan Taylor | Shortlist | |
| 2018 | Moscow Calling | Angus Roxburgh | Shortlist | |
| 2018 | Robert Louis Stevenson in Samoa | Joseph Farrell | Shortlist | |
| 2018 | The Story of Looking | Mark Cousins | Shortlist | |
| 2018 | Waiting for the Last Bus | Richard Holloway | Shortlist | |
| 2019 | The World I Fell Out Of | Melanie Reid | Winner | |
| 2019 | Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me | Kate Clanchy | Shortlist | |
| 2019 | Lowborn: Growing Up, Getting Away and Returning to Britain’s Poorest Towns | Kerry Hudson | Shortlist | |
| 2019 | Seòl Mo Bheatha (My Life Journey) | DòmhnallEachann Meek (Donald E. Meek) | Shortlist | |
| 2019 | Jane Haining: A Life of Love and Courage | Mary Miller | Shortlist | |
| 2019 | My Life with Murderers: Behind Bars with the World’s Most Violent Men | Dr David Wilson | Shortlist | |
| 2020 | No award given | No award given | No award given | No award given |
| 2021 | A Tomb with a View | Peter Ross | Winner | |
| 2021 | Native: Life in a Vanishing Landscape | Patrick Laurie | Shortlist | |
| 2021 | Islands of Abandonment | Cal Flyn | Shortlist | |
| 2021 | Ruxton: The First Modern Murder | Tom Wood | Shortlist | |
| 2021 | The See-Through House: My Father in Full Colour | Shelley Klein | Shortlist | |
| 2021 | Checkpoint | Joe Donnelley | Shortlist | |
| 2022 | Homelands: The History of a Friendship | Chitra Ramaswamy | Winner | |
| 2022 | Alison Watt: A Portrait Without Likeness | Alison Watt | Shortlist | |
| 2022 | Alternatives to Valium | Alistair McKay | Shortlist | |
| 2022 | One Body | Catherine Simpson | Shortlist | |
| 2022 | The Eternal Season: A Journey Through Our Changing British Summer | Stephen Rutt | Shortlist | |
| 2022 | Seven Ways to Change the World | Gordon Brown | Shortlist | |
| 2023 | Womb: The Inside Story of Where We All Began | Leah Hazard | Winner | |
| 2023 | A Pebble in the Throat: Growing Up Between Two Continents | Aasmah Mir | Shortlist | |
| 2023 | Boy Friends | Michael Pederson | Shortlist | |
| 2023 | Avacado Anxiety | Louise Gray | Shortlist | |
| 2023 | The Edge of the Plain | James Crawford | Shortlist | |
| 2024 | Thunderclap | Laura Cumming | Winner | |
| 2024 | The Unfamiliar: A Queer Motherhood Memoir | Kirsty Logan | Shortlist | |
| 2024 | Already Too Late | Carl MacDougal | Shortlist | |
| 2024 | O Brother | John Niven | Shortlist | |
| 2024 | Ian Fleming: The Complete Man | Nicholas Shakespeare | Shortlist | |

### Scottish Poetry Book of the Year

The award for Poetry Book of the Year was introduced in 2014
| Year | Work | Author | Result | Ref(s) |
| 2014 | Bones and Breath | Alexander Hutchison | Winner | |
| 2014 | All in One Breath | John Burnside | Shortlist | |
| 2014 | Byssus | Jen Hadfield | Shortlist | |
| 2014 | The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion | Kei Miller | Shortlist | |
| 2014 | At Maldon | J O Morgan | Shortlist | |
| 2014 | Locust and Marlin | J L Williams | Shortlist | |
| 2015 | Killochries | Jim Carruth | Winner | |
| 2015 | Cream of the Well | Valerie Gillies | Shortlist | |
| 2015 | Not All Honey | Roddy Lumsden | Shortlist | |
| 2015 | The Good Dark | Ryan Van Winkle | Shortlist | |
| 2016 | The The Bonniest Companie | Kathleen Jamie | Winner | |
| 2016 | 40 Sonets | Don Paterson | Shortlist | |
| 2016 | Galore | Peter MacKay | Shortlist | |
| 2016 | Interference Pattern | J O Morgan | Shortlist | |
| 2016 | This Far Back Everything Shimmers | Vicki Husband | Shortlist | |
| 2016 | The Golden Mean | John Glenday | Shortlist | |
| 2017 | Bird-Woman | Em Strang | Winner | |
| 2017 | Still Life with Feeding Snake | John Burnside | Shortlist | |
| 2017 | Farm By the Shore | Thomas A Clark | Shortlist | |
| 2017 | Twist | Pippa Little | Shortlist | |
| 2017 | In Search of Dustie-Fute | David Kinlock | Shortlist | |
| 2017 | Moon For Sale | Richard Price | Shortlist | |
| 2018 | Wristwatch | Jay Whittaker | Winner | |
| 2018 | Bantam | Jackie Kay | Shortlist | |
| 2018 | So Glad I'm Me | Roddy Lumsden | Shortlist | |
| 2018 | The Long Take | Robin Robertson | Shortlist | |
| 2018 | Who Is Mary Sue? | Sophie Collins | Shortlist | |
| 2019 | Hand Over Mouth Music | Janette Ayachi | Winner | |
| 2019 | The Games | Harry Josephine Giles | Shortlist | |
| 2019 | I'm a Pretty Circler | Iain Morrison | Shortlist | |
| 2019 | Moder Dy | Roseanne Watt | Shortlist | |
| 2019 | Ceum air Cheum | Christopher Whyte | Shortlist | |
| 2019 | Line Drawings | Ross Wilson | Shortlist | |
| 2020 | No award given | No award given | No award given | No award given |
| 2021 | Life Without Air | Daisy Lafarge | Winner | |
| 2021 | Nàdar De (Some Kind Of) | Padraigh Macaoidh (Patrick Mackay) | Shortlist | |
| 2021 | The Threadbare Coat | Thomas A Clark | Shortlist | |
| 2021 | Clydebuilt | Owen Gallagher | Shortlist | |
| 2021 | Ben Dorain | Garry Mackenzie | Shortlist | |
| 2021 | Later That Day | Andrew Greig | Shortlist | |
| 2022 | How to Burn a Woman | Claire Askew | Winner | |
| 2022 | At Least This I Know | Andrés N Ordorica | Shortlist | |
| 2022 | Blood Salt Spring | Hannah Lavery | Shortlist | |
| 2022 | Polaris | Marcas Mac an Tuairneir | Shortlist | |
| 2022 | The Luna Erratum | Maria Sledmere | Shortlist | |
| 2023 | Dastram / Delirium | Taylor Strickland | Winner | |
| 2023 | Another Way to Split Water | Alycia Pirmoham | Shortlist | |
| 2023 | Burning Season | Yvonne Reddick | Shortlist | |
| 2023 | The Swailing | Patrick James Errington | Shortlist | |
| 2023 | Too Hot to Sleep | Elspeth Wilson | Shortlist | |
| 2024 | RUIN, BLOSSOM | John Burnside | Winner | |
| 2024 | Quick Fire, Slow Burning | Janet Ayachi | Shortlist | |
| 2024 | May Day | Jackie Kay | Shortlist | |
| 2024 | The Wrong Person To Ask | Marjorie Lotfi | Shortlist | |
| 2024 | Three Births | K Patrick | Shortlist | |
| 2024 | The Cat Prince: & Other Poems | Michael Pederson | Shortlist | |

### Scottish History Book of the Year

The award for History Book of the Year was established in 1965 in honour of the historian Agnes Mure Mackenzie (1891–1955). It was only awarded intermittently until 1994 when it became an annual award.
{ |class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" ! scope="col"|Year ! scope="col"|Work ! scope="col"|Author ! class="unsortable" scope="col"|Ref(s) |- ! 1965 | Robert Bruce | G W S Barrow | |- ! 1974 | Kings and Kingship in Early Scotland | Marjorie O Anderson | |- ! 1975 | Scottish Banking: A History 1695-1973 | S G Checkland | |- ! 1977 | Scottish Population History | M Flinn, P T C Smout, Rosalind Mitchison, Judith Gillespie, Nancy Hill, Ailsa Maxwell | |- ! 1982 | Thomas Chalmers and the Godly Commonwealth || Stewart J. Brown || |- ! 1986 | A Century of the Scottish People 1830–1950 || T. C. Smout || |- ! 1994 | James I || Michael Brown || |- ! 1995 | The Great Highland Famine || Tom Devine || |- !1996 | colspan="3" |No award given |- ! 1997 | The Early Stewart Kings: Robert II and Robert III 1371–1406 || Stephen Boardman || |- ! 1998 | The Identity of the Scottish Nation || William Ferguson || |- ! 1999 | Patrick Sellar and the Highland Clearances: Homicide, Eviction and the Price of Progress || Eric Richards || |- ! 2000 | The Rough Wooings: Mary Queen of Scots 1542–1551 || Marcus Merriman || |- ! 2001 | The Late Medieval Scottish Parliament: Politics and the Three Estates 1424–1488 || Roland Tanner || |- ! 2002 | The Culture of Protestantism in Early Modern Scotland || Margo Todd || |- ! 2004 | Adventurers and Exiles: The Great Scottish Exodus|| Marjory Harper || |- ! 2005 | David II || Michael Penman || |- ! 2006 | Native Lordships in Medieval Scotland: The Earldoms of Strathearn and Lennox c.1140–1365 || Cynthia J. Neville|| |- ! 2006 | Scotland's Historic Heraldry|| Bruce A. McAndrew || |- ! 2007 | The Scots and the Union || Christopher Whatley || |- |}
| Year | Work | Author | Result | Ref(s) |
| 2008 | From Pictland to Alba 789–1070 | Alex Woolf | Winner | |
| 2008 | Bannockburn: The Scottish War and the British Isles, 1307 - 1323 | Michael Brown | Shortlist | |
| 2008 | Portmahomack: Monastery of the Picts | Martin Carver | Shortlist | |
| 2008 | Iron Road: The Railway In Scotland | PJG Ramsden | Shortlist | |
| 2009 | A History of Scottish Philosophy | Alexander Broadie | Winner | |
| 2009 | From Caledonia to Pictland Scotland to 795 | James E Fraser | Shortlist | |
| 2009 | Edinburgh: A History of the City | Michael Fry | Shortlist | |
| 2009 | 'Homage to Caledonia | Daniel Gray | Shortlist | |
| 2009 | From Peat Bog to Conifer Forest | Ruth Tittlensor | Shortlist | |
| 2010 | Whaur Extremes Meet: Scotland's Twentieth Century | Catriona M. M. MacDonald | Winner | |
| 2010 | lmpaled Upon a Thistle Since 1880, New Edinburgh History of Scotland | Ewan A Cameron | Shortlist | |
| 2010 | Famine in Scotland: The 'Ill Years' of the 1690s | Karen J Cullen | Shortlist | |
| 2010 | So Foul and Fair a Day A History of Scotland's Weather and Climate | Alistair Dawson | Shortlist | |
| 2010 | Mighty Subjects The Dunbar Earls in Scotland c. 1072-1289 | Elsa Hamilton | Shortlist | |
| 2010 | The Visions of Isobel Gowdie Magic, Witchcraft and Dark Shamanism in Seventeenth Century Scotland | Emma Wilby | Shortlist | |
| 2011 | The Inner Life of Empires: An Eighteenth Century History | Emma Rothschild | Winner | |
| 2011 | Scottish Ethnicity and the Making of New Zealand Society | Tanya Bueltmann | Shortlist | |
| 2011 | To the Ends of the Earth: Scotland’s Global Diaspora, 1750-2010 | T M Devine | Shortlist | |
| 2011 | Elite Women and Polite Society in 18th Century Scotland | Katharine Glover | Shortlist | |
| 2011 | Andrew Melville and Humanism in Renaissance Scotland 1545-1622 | Ernest R Holloway III | Shortlist | |
| 2011 | Men of Spirit and Enterprise | Suzanne Rigg | Shortlist | |
| 2011 | Reading the Scottish Enlightenment: Books & their Readers in Provincial Scotland, 1750-1820 | Mark Towsey | Shortlist | |
| 2011 | Enlightened Evangelicalism - The Life and Thought of John Erskine | Jonathan M Yeagher | Shortlist | |
| 2012 | A Military History of Scotland | E. Spiers, J. Crang and M. Strickland (editors) | Winner | |
| 2012 | Women of Morray | S. Bennett, M. Byatt, J. Main, A. Oliver, J. Trythall | Shortlist | |
| 2012 | Scotland's Radical Export - The Scots Abroad- How they Shaped Politics and Trade Unions | Pat Kelly | Shortlist | |
| 2012 | Scotland's First Oil Boom - The Scottish Shale-Oil Industry, 1851–1914 | John MacKay | Shortlist | |
| 2012 | The Two Unions: Ireland, Scotland, and the Survival of the United Kingdom, 1707-2007 | Alvin Jackson | Shortlist | |
| 2013 | An Enlightened Duke: The Life of Archibald Campbell (1682–1761), Earl of Ilay, 3rd Duke of Argyll | Roger L. Emerson | Winner | |
| 2013 | Death,Life and Religious Change in Scottish Towns, C. 1350 – 1560 | Mairi Cowan | Shortlist | |
| 2013 | Scotland No More? The Scots who left Scotland in the Twentieth Century | Marjory Harper | Shortlist | |
| 2013 | The Firth of the Forth: An Environmental History | T C Smout and Mairi Stewart | Shortlist | |
| 2013 | Annie’s Loo: the Govan origins of Scotland’s Community Based Housing Associations | Raymond Young | Shortlist | |
| 2014 | Scottish Gods, Religion in the Modern Scotland 1900–2012 | Steve Bruce | Winner | |
| 2014 | Cosmo Innes and the Defence of Scotland’s Past | Richard A Marsden | Shortlist | |
| 2014 | Governing Gaeldom:The Scottish Highlands and the Restoration State, 1600-1688 | Allan Kennedy | Shortlist | |
| 2014 | A New Race of Men | Michael Fry | Shortlist | |
| 2014 | Painting the Town: Scottish Urban History in Art | E P Dennison, S Eydmann, A Lyell, M Lynch & S Stronach | Shortlist | |
| 2015 | A Chasm in Time – Scottish War Art and Artists in the Twentieth Century | Patricia R. Andrew | Winner | |
| 2015 | A History of Drinking: The Scottish Pub since 1700 | Anthony Cook | Shortlist | |
| 2015 | John Knox | Jane Dawson | Shortlist | |
| 2015 | The Going Down of the Sun: The Great War and a Rural Lewis Community | Donald A Robinson (editor) | Shortlist | |
| 2016 | Set Adrift Upon the World | James Hunter | Winner | |
| 2016 | A Tale of Three Cities | Bob Harris | Shortlist | |
| 2016 | Castles in the Mist | Robin Noble | Shortlist | |
| 2016 | Oil Strike North Sea | Mike Stephen | Shortlist | |
| 2016 | Shetland and the Great War | Linda K. Riddell | Shortlist | |
| 2016 | St Kilda | A Gannon Geddes | Shortlist | |
| 2017 | No award given | No award given | No award given | No award given |
| 2018 | The Drowned and the Saved | Les Wilson | Winner | |
| 2018 | Sir David Nairne. The Life of a Scottish Jacobite at the Court of the Exiled Stuarts | Edward Corp | Shortlist | |
| 2018 | Scotland's Populations from the 1850s to Today | Michael Anderson | Shortlist | |
| 2018 | Scots & Catalans: Union and Disunion | J H Elliott | Shortlist | |
| 2018 | Scottish Presbyterianism and Settler Colonial Politics: Empire of Dissent | Valerie Wallace | Shortlist | |
| 2019 | Alexander III, 1249–1286: First Among Equals | Norman Reid | Winner | |
| 2019 | John Law, A Scottish Adventurer of the Eighteenth Century | James Buchan | Shortlist | |
| 2019 | The Sea Kings: The Late Norse Kingdoms of Man and the Isles, c.1066-1275 | R Andrew Macdonald | Shortlist | |
| 2019 | The Darkest Dawn: The Story of the Iolaire | Malcolm Macdonald and Donald John MacLeod | Shortlist | |
| 2019 | Lord Seaforth, Highland Landowner, Caribbean Governor | Finlay McKichan | Shortlist | |
| 2019 | Frederick Douglass and Scotland: Living an Antislavery Life | Alasdair Pettinger | Shortlist | |
| 2020 | No award given | No award given | No award given | No award given |
| 2021 | Stuart Style: Monarchy, Dress and the Scottish Male Elite | Maria Hayward | Winner | |
| 2021 | History with Heart and Soul | Ness Historical Society Editorial Team with Rachel Barrowman | Shortlist | |
| 2021 | Coal Country: The Meaning and Memory of Deindustrialization in Postwar Scotland | Ewan Gibbs | Shortlist | |
| 2021 | Union and Revolution: Scotland and Beyond 1625 – 1745 | Laura Stewart and Janay Nugent | Shortlist | |
| 2021 | David I: King of Scots 1124 – 1153 | Richard Oram | Shortlist | |
| 2021 | Gaelic Influence in the Northumbrian Kingdom: The Golden Age and the Viking Age | Fiona Edmonds | Shortlist | |
| 2022 | Slaves and Highlanders: Silenced Histories of Scotland and the Caribbean | David Alston | Winner | |
| 2022 | Blood Legacy: Reckoning with a Family's History of Slavery | Alex Renton | Shortlist | |
| 2022 | Mael Coluim III, Canmore | Neil McGuigan | Shortlist | |
| 2022 | R.B. Cunninghame Graham and Scotland: Party, Prose, and Political Aesthetic | Lachlan Gow Munro | Shortlist | |
| 2022 | Embroidering Her Truth | Clare Hunter | Shortlist | |
| 2022 | Putting the Tea in Britain | Les Wilson | Shortlist | |
| 2023 | The People Are Not There: The Transformation of Badenoch 1800–1863 | David Taylor | Winner | |
| 2023 | The Material Landscapes of Scotland’s Jewellery Craft, 1780-1914 | Sarah Laurenson | Shortlist | |
| 2023 | Majestic River: Mungo Park and the Exploration of the Niger | Charles Withers | Shortlist | |
| 2023 | One Mans Legacy: Tom Patey | Mike Dixon | Shortlist | |
| 2023 | The Whalers of Harris | Ian Hart | Shortlist | |
| 2023 | The Early Life of James VI: A Long Apprenticeship, 1566–1585 | Stephen J. Reid | Shortlist | |

### Scottish Research Book of the Year

This award was initiated in 1998, and is made jointly by the Saltire Society and the National Library of Scotland. It aims to recognise books which "represent a significant body of research and offer new insight or dimension to the subject".
{ |class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" ! scope="col"|Year ! scope="col"|Work ! scope="col"|Author ! class="unsortable" scope="col"|Ref(s) |- ! 1998 | The Edinburgh History of the Scots Language || Charles Jones || |- ! 1999 | The Poems of William Dunbar (Volumes I & II) || Priscilla Bawcutt || |- ! rowspan="2" |2000 |Jessie Kesson: Writing her Life | Isobel Murray | |- |The Highland Pipe and Scottish Society |William Donaldson | |- ! 2001 | The Scottish Book Trade 1500−1720 || Alastair J. Mann || |- ! rowspan="2" | 2002 | Sorley MacLean, Poems to Eimhir | Christopher Whyte (editor) | rowspan="2" | |- | Public Sculpture of Glasgow || Ray McKenzie |- ! 2003 | The Greig-Duncan Folk Song Collection || Emily B. Lyle and Katherine Campbell || |- ! rowspan="2" | 2004 | The Last of England? | Randall Stevenson |rowspan="2" | |- | Maritime Enterprise and Empire: Sir William MacKinnon and his Business Network 1823–1893 || J. Forbes Munro |- ! 2005 | Weights and Measures in Scotland || R. D. Connor and A. D. C. Simpson, edited by Alison Morrison-Low || |- ! 2006 | Dùthchas Nan Gàidheal: Selected Essays of John MacInnes || Michael Newton || |- ! 2007 | Scotland's Books: The Penguin History of Scottish Literature || Robert Crawford || |}
| Year | Work | Author | Result | Ref(s) |
| 2008 | Scott's Shadow: The Novel in Romantic Edinburgh | Ian Duncan | Winner | |
| 2008 | Scottish Life and Society: A compendium of Scottish Ethnology: Volume 5: The Food of the Scots | Alexander Fenton | Shortlist | |
| 2008 | A Floating Commonwealth: Politics, Culture, and Technology on Britain's Atlantic Coast, 1860-1930 | Christopher Harvie | Shortlist | |
| 2009 | Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary | Christian Kay, Jane Roberts, Michael Samuels and Irené Wotherspoon | Winner | |
| 2010 | Robert Burns & Pastoral: Poetry and Improvement in Late Eighteenth-Century Scotland | Nigel Leask | Winner | |
| 2010 | Adam Smith: An Enlightened Life | Nicholas Phillipson | Winner | |
| 2010 | The Scots Imagination and Modern Memory | Andrew Blaikie | Shortlist | |
| 2010 | Robert Owen | Robert Davis & Frank O'Hagan | Shortlist | |
| 2010 | Charles Rennie Mackintosh: A Biography | James MacAuley | Shortlist | |
| 2010 | Land, Law and People in Medieval Scotland | Cynthia Neville | Shortlist | |
| 2010 | The Lore of Scotland: A Guide to Scottish Legends | Jennifer Westwood & Sophia Kingshill | Shortlist | |
| 2011 | Beyond the Last Dragon: A Life of Edwin Morgan | James McGonigal | Winner | |
| 2011 | Noble Power in Scotland from the Reformation to the Revolution | Keith M Brown | Shortlist | |
| 2011 | The History of the Scottish Parliament | Keith M Brown & Alan R MacDonald | Shortlist | |
| 2011 | Scottish Ethnicity and the making of New Zealand Society, 1850-1930 | Tanja Bueltmann | Shortlist | |
| 2011 | To the Ends of the Earth: Scotland’s Global Diaspora, 1750-2010 | T M Devine | Shortlist | |
| 2011 | George Mackay Brown: The Wound and the Gift | Ron Ferguson | Shortlist | |
| 2011 | Domination and Lordship Scotland 1070-1230 | Richard Oram | Shortlist | |
| 2012 | Scotland: Mapping the Nation | C. Fleet, C. Withers and M. Wilkes | Winner | |
| 2012 | The Sexual State - Sexuality and Scottish Governance 1950-80 | R. Davidson & G. Davis | Shortlist | |
| 2012 | The Grand Designer | Rosemary Hannah | Shortlist | |
| 2012 | Dear Grieve: Letter to Hugh MacDiarmid | John Mansen | Shortlist | |
| 2012 | Jamieson's Dictionary of Scots | Susan Rennie | Shortlist | |
| 2013 | The Sunlit Summit: The Life of W. H. Murray | Robin Lloyd-Jones | Winner | |
| 2013 | A Dictionary of Scottish Phrase and Fable | Ain Crofton | Shortlist | |
| 2013 | Visions of Britain, 1730-1830 | Sebastian Mitchell | Shortlist | |
| 2013 | Nancy Brysson Morrison: A Literary Life | Mary Seenan | Shortlist | |
| 2014 | The Scottish Town in the Age of Enlightenment 1740–1820 | Bob Harris and Charles McKean | Winner | |
| 2014 | The Eagles Way | Jim Crumley | Shortlist | |
| 2014 | The K2 Man (and his Molluscs) | Catherine Moorehead | Shortlist | |
| 2014 | Material Culture and Sedition 1688—1760 | Murray Pittock | Shortlist | |
| 2014 | Lexical Variation and Attrition in the Scottish Fishing Communities | Robert McColl Millar, William Barras & Lisa Maria Bonnici | Shortlist | |
| 2014 | Landscapes of Protest in the Scottish Highlands after 1914 | Iain J M Robertson | Shortlist | |
| 2015 | Clubbing Together: Ethnicity, Civility and Formal Sociability in the Scottish Diaspora to 1930 | Tanja Bueltmann | Winner | |
| 2015 | Microbes and the Fetlar Man: The Life of Sir William Watson Cheyne | Jane Coutts | Shortlist | |
| 2015 | The Voice of the People: Hamish Henderson and Scottish Cultural Politics | Corey Gibson | Shortlist | |
| 2015 | The Native Woodlands of Scotland | Scott Wilson | Shortlist | |
| 2016 | The Literary Culture of Early Modern Scotland | Sebastiaan Verweij | Winner | |
| 2016 | Vikings in Islay: The Place of Names in Hebridean Settlement History | Alan McNiven | Shortlist | |
| 2016 | James Hogg and British Romanticism: A Kaleidoscopic Art | Meiko O'Halloran | Shortlist | |
| 2016 | Scottish Arctic Whaling 1750-WWI | Chesley Sanger | Shortlist | |
| 2016 | The Wild Black Region: Badenock 1750-1800 | David Taylor | Shortlist | |
| 2017 | The Light Blue Book: 500 Years of Gaelic Love and Transgressive Verse | Peter Mackay & Iain MacPherson | Winner | |
| 2017 | The Campbells of the Ark: Men of Argyll in 1745 (Vol I and II) | Ronald Black | Shortlist | |
| 2017 | Muslims in Scotland: The Making of Community in a Post-9/11 World | Stefano Bonino | Shortlist | |
| 2017 | History as Theatrical Metaphor | Ian Brown | Shortlist | |
| 2017 | Immortal Memory: Burns and the Scottish People | Christopher Whatley | Shortlist | |
| 2018 | What the Victorians Made of Romanticism: Material Artifacts, Cultural Practices, and Reception History | Tom Mole | Winner | |
| 2018 | Early Cinema in Scotland | John Caughie, Trevor Griffiths and María A. Vélez-Serna | Shortlist | |
| 2018 | Literature and Union: Scottish Texts, British Contexts | Gerard Carruthers and Colin Kidd | Shortlist | |
| 2018 | Tea and Empire: James Taylor in Victorian Ceylon | Angela McCarthy and Sir Tom Devine | Shortlist | |
| 2018 | The Chair of Verity: Political Preaching and Pulpit Censure in Eighteenth-century Scotland | Ronald Lyndsay Crawford | Shortlist | |
| 2019 | Working Verse in Victorian Scotland: Poetry, Press, Community | Kirstie Blair | Winner | |
| 2019 | The Scottish Clearances: A History of the Dispossessed, 1600-1900 | T M Devine | Shortlist | |
| 2019 | Energy at the End of the World: An Orkney Islands Saga | Laura Watts | Shortlist | |
| 2020 | No award given | No award given | No award given | No award given |
| 2021 | Darkness Visible: The Sculptor’s Cave, Covesa, from the Bronze Age to the Picts | Ian Armit and Lindsey Buster | Winner | |
| 2021 | Gaelic in Scotland: Politics, Movements, Ideologies | Wilson McLeod | Shortlist | |
| 2021 | Stepping Westward | Nigel Leask | Shortlist | |
| 2021 | Terrorists, Anarchists and Republicans | Richard Whatmore | Shortlist | |
| 2021 | The Changing Outer Hebrides | Frank Rennie | Shortlist | |
| 2022 | Surveying the Anthropocene: Environment and Photography Now | (ed) Patricia Macdonald | Winner | |
| 2022 | A Long and Tangled Saga | Bob Chambers | Shortlist | |
| 2022 | Ainmean Tuineachaidh Leòdhais /The Settlement Names of Lewis | Richard A v Cox | Shortlist | |
| 2022 | Recovering Scottish History: John Hill Burton and Scottish National Identity in the Nineteenth Century | Craig Beveridge | Shortlist | |
| 2022 | Scripting the Nation: Court Poetry and the Authority of History in Late Medieval Scotland | Kathernie H Terrell | Shortlist | |
| 2023 | The Old Red Sandstone, or, New Walks in an Old Field | Hugh Miller | Winner | |
| 2023 | Mousa to Mackintosh: The Scottishness of Scottish Architecture | Frank Arneil Walker | Shortlist | |
| 2023 | Cha Till Mise | Ruaraidh G MacIlleathain | Shortlist | |
| 2023 | Politics and the People: Scotland, 1945–1979 | Malcolm Petrie | Shortlist | |
| 2023 | Scotland's Lascar Heritage | various | Shortlist | |
| 2023 | French Paintings 1500–1900 | Michael Clarke and Frances Fowle | Shortlist | |
| 2024 | England’s Insular Imagining | Lorna Hudson | Winner | |
| 2024 | Somhairle MacGill-Eathain na Bhriathran Fhèin | Mairi Sìne Chaimbeul, Jo NicDhòmhnaill & Iseabail NicGill-Eain | Shortlist | |
| 2024 | The Afterlife of Mary, Queen of Scots | Stephen J Reid | Shortlist | |
| 2024 | Salt: Scotland’s Newest Oldest Industry | eds. Christopher A. Whatley, Joanna Hambly | Shortlist | |
| 2024 | Scotland's Royal Women and European Literary Culture, 1424 – 1587 | Emily Wingfield | Shortlist | |