Recognition

AWARDS

Paul Torday Memorial Prize 2020, awarded for 'As the Women Lay Dreaming'.

HWA Debut Crown 2019, Longlisted for 'As the Women Lay Dreaming'.

The Herald Scottish Culture Awards 2019, Outstanding Literature Award. Shortlisted for 'As the Women Lay Dreaming'.

Authors' Club Best First Novel Award 2019, Shortlisted for 'As the Women Lay Dreaming'

Walter Scott Prize 2019, 'Academy Recommends List,' awarded for 'As the Women Lay Dreaming'.

Highland Book Prize, 2018. Longlisted for 'As the Women Lay Dreaming'.

Jessie Kesson Fellowship, 2013.

Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship, 2012.

Neil M. Gunn Prize, 2009. Awarded third place for a villanelle.

Callum Macdonald Memorial Award, 2007. Shortlisted for 'Speak To Us Catriona: New Tales and Traditions of The Lews'.

Saltire Society First Book Award, 1997. Shortlisted for 'Special Deliverance: Short Stories from the Western Isles'.

PRAISE

'He writes with an inherent understanding of Highland culture, language, and way of life.'
The Herald

'...one of the great lyrical writers of our time.'
Cathy Macdonald

'A haunting, poignant, meticulously researched novel about the 1919 Iolaire ferry disaster and its effect on the local community. An extraordinary piece of storytelling.'
The Authors’ Club

'This powerful, moving and harrowing novel about the Iolaire disaster off the Isle of Lewis explores how a single event can so dramatically impact communities, individuals and, indeed, our very souls.'
The Walter Scott Prize Academy

'Murray is one of my favourite writers in any genre.'
Stephen Moss, The Guardian

'It’s the kind of book you want to read again as soon as you finish it, because you know there is so much that will be revealed on that second reading; the kind of novel which can enrich your life.'
Alan Massie, The Scotsman

'Beautifully and sensitively told, by one of the great lyrical writers of our time.'
Cathy MacDonald

'The Guga Hunters builds into one of those books that prove incontrovertibly the hoary old adage that truth is stranger than fiction.'
Will Self, The Telegraph

'Donald S. Murray is one of the most accomplished and original writers to have emerged from Lewis in modern times, and there is stiff competition.'
Roger Hutchinson, West Highland Free Press

'He writes with an inherent understanding of Highland culture, language, and way of life.'
The Herald.

'Mr Murray is a gregarious and engaging raconteur.'
The Economist

'The story is told with great charm, and tinged with a spirit of loss and yearning.'
Philip Marsden, The Spectator

'This is a splendid book, filled with passion, wit, and wonderful facts.'
Geographical Magazine

'A beautiful book by a gifted writer.'
New Shetlander

'Mesmerising. When I closed this book I was left with the feeling that Donald S. Murray had been paring away layers of centuries of life in Ness for my benefit.'
Jim Crumley, Scots Magazine

'A powerful book…which reveals new layers with every reading.'
Alistair Braidwood, Scots Whay Hae

'Murray is an evocative painter of landscapes and a deeply sympathetic writer.'
Stephanie Cross, Daily Mail

'Triumphant… The writing is breath-taking.'
Lochaber Life, Book of the Month

'Timely, clever, evocative… Murray has said that this novel took him around sixteen years to complete and on the strength of this poignant offering one hopes we will not have to wait so long for his second.'
Shetland Times

'Donald S. Murray is superb in bringing his characters to life and making the incidents they encounter feel utterly real.'
Undiscovered Scotland

'A powerful novel… A poignant exploration of love, loss and survivor’s guilt.'
Nick Rennison, Sunday Times

'A searing poetic meditation on stoicism and loss.'
Mariella Frostrup, BBC Radio 4 Open Book

“A well-written and well-crafted novel from an author at the height of his powers.” The Oban Times

“Murray writes about the people and landscape and way of life of the island with sympathy, deep understanding and humour. His evocation of Lewis is as fine as George Mackay Brown’s was of Orkney; high praise but thoroughly deserved.” Allan Massie, The Scotsman

“In a Veil of Mist is a moving portrait of a place and its people.” The Times

“The setting... is so credibly drawn that the book is almost a ticket to the island.” David Robinson, Books from Scotland

“A wonderfully evocative book.” Undiscovered Scotland

(Updated December 7, 2021)

My latest books

Donald S. Murray was raised in the Ness district of the Isle of Lewis. He spent his teenage years at The Nicolson Institute secondary school in Stornoway - in those days, pupils from rural districts stayed in school hostels in the town rather than returning home each night – before studying at the University of Glasgow in the 1980s. After receiving an MA (Joint Hons) in English and Scottish Literature, he went on to gain a Diploma in Education and a Secondary Teaching Qualification.

Since then, Donald has written an ever-growing range of books and published a wide variety of essays, columns, short stories, and poems in the likes of The Herald, The Guardian, and The Island Review. His writing, both of fiction and non-fiction, has received widespread critical acclaim and appeared on shortlists and longlists for numerous literary awards.

His debut novel, As the Women Lay Dreaming, won the Paul Torday Memorial Prize in 2020, and was shortlisted for the The Herald Scottish Culture Awards Outstanding Literature Award and the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award in 2019.

In 2015, Sequamur, Donald’s first full-length Gaelic play, was performed throughout Scotland, including at the Edinburgh Festival, as well as in Belfast, London, and Ypres in Belgium. Described as 'moving, powerful, with a message that resonates today,' it examined the effect of the First World War on the The Nicolson Institute in Stornoway.

As a native Gaelic speaker, Donald’s voice can often be heard on BBC Radio nan Gaidheal, while on BBC Radio Four he has featured on Open Book with Mariella Frostrup. He has appeared on TV, on BBC Four’s Birds Britannia, a series looking at the different birds that live in the UK, and on The Last Seabird Summer, which examined the decline of seabirds in the North Atlantic.

Donald also regularly speaks at book festivals and conferences around the world, and has delivered talks at the University of Reykjavik in Iceland; the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland; the Nordic Centre in Tórshavn, Faroe Islands; the Blasket Centre in Dingle, Ireland; and the Pisa International Book Festival in Italy, among others. In 2020, he was elected as a committee member of the Society of Authors in Scotland, which protects the rights and interest of authors.

After 30 years as an English teacher, Donald became a full-time writer in 2012. He now lives and works in Shetland.

(Updated July 27, 2021)