Debut writers up for award

DEBUT novelists have been nominated for Britain's oldest literary award.

First novels by Americans Julie Orringer and Tatjani Soli, and English university lecturer Michael Nath, join the latest book by David Mitchell on the shortlist for the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction.

Two prizes are awarded annually by Edinburgh University for books published in the last year - one for fiction and the other for biography.

Contenders for the 10,000 biography prize include renowned Scottish author Alisdair Gray's A Life in Pictures.