2012: Your literary briefing

2012 is set to be a year full of literary landmarks to look forward to, from Charles Dickens’ bicentenary celebrations, to the 2012 Cultural Olympiad.

There is also a lot to be celebrated in the local scene. January has already seen the awarding of the 2011 T.S. Eliot poetry prize to Scottish poet and St Andrew’s University professor John Burnside for his collection Black Cat Bone. Recognition of Scottish poetic tradition will continue in May with the National Library of Scotland’s annual Callum Macdonald Memorial Award for the best poetry pamphlet. After an impressive poetry fair in December, showing off Scotland’s flourishing small publishing scene, the standard of competition for this year’s £5,000 poetry pamphlet prize looks high.

This year sees the 250th anniversary of Edinburgh University’s English Department, which will host a variety of talks and events to mark the occasion. Watch out for features on BBC Scotland’s 'Book-Café' programme at the beginning of February and an exhibition entitled ‘250 Years of Literature in Edinburgh’ at the university’s George Square Library, opening its doors to the public in August. Celebrations of this significant birthday are set to culminate with a best of the best award for the James Tait Black Prize. The university will be looking back over the first 90 years of Britain’s oldest literary award to decide on a winner, announcing the result at this summer’s Edinburgh International Book Festival which takes place between 11 and 27 August. While the programme for Edinburgh’s literary colossus won’t be revealed until June, we’re guessing the themes for the book festival will be just as revolutionary as last year’s.

Before then is the National Library of Scotland’s ‘Beyond Macbeth’ exhibition, running until 29 April, which explores the Elizabethan bard’s Scottish connections. As Helen Vincent, a senior curator at the NLS put it, there is much more to Shakespeare north of the border ‘than just Macbeth in a kilt’.

Taking a wider look at the exciting books out this year, April sees the publication of Lothian master-of-obscenity Irvine Welsh’s new novella, Skagboys; prequel to the Heroin-fuelled tale of eighties-Edinburgh Trainspotting. At the same time, Mortality, the last collection of essays from the late Christopher Hitchens will be hitting the shelves.

May will see the arrival of a new novel The Red House by Mark Haddon, author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and the appearance of Hilary Mantel’s Bring up the Bodies, sequel to the Booker Prize-winning Wolf Hall.

In the way of poetry, Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy will be bringing together sixty contemporary poets to write about the Queen’s sixty years on the throne with Jubilee Lines.

June sees the publication of A.S. Byatt’s Ragnarok, an interesting reworking of Norse mythological tales, and the start of the Poetry Parnassus; an international Olympic competition for poets.

Martin Amis seems to be returning to terra firma with a new novel Lionel Asbo in July, tackling the less-desirable elements of modern society, and in August Will Self’s infamous psychiatrist Zack Busner will make a reappearance in his new novel, Umbrella. Toby’s Room by Pat Barker will also be published that month, focusing on the relationship between medicine and art in the First World War.

September sees a new novel by Zadie Smith, NW, and the publication of Joseph Anton, Salman Rushdie’s memoir of the fatwa issued for the penning of The Satanic Verses. Booker Prize-winner Howard Jacobson will also be following up the successes of The Finkler Question with Zoo Time.

This year’s Man Booker Prize will be announced in October, with a panel of academics and critics headed by editor of the Times Literary Supplement, Peter Stothard.

The end of the year will also see the publication of a new set of short stories from Margaret Atwood.