ABOUT
Ewan Morrison delivering a keynote speech at Story Drive - Frankfurt Book Fair 2015
Longlist - McIlvanney Prize for the Scottish Crime Book of the Year, 2021
Shortlist - BOOKMARK - Book of the Year Prize, 2021
Winner - Saltire Society Scottish Fiction Book of the Year 2019
Longlist - Not the Booker Prize (Guardian) 2019
Finalist - The Michael Powell Award for Best British Feature Film 2015
Winner - Scottish Book of the Year - Novel Prize 2013
Winner - Glenfiddich Scottish Writer of the year 2012/13
Number 22. Top 50 Scottish books of the Last 50 years. The List. 2013
Winner - Not the Booker Prize (Guardian) 2012
Finalist - Saltire Society Book of the Year 2012
Finalist - Creative Scotland Writer of the Year Award 2012
Finalist -The Prince Maurice Award for Love Stories 2007
Finalist - Arena Magazine Man of the Year Literature Prize 2005
Finalist - BAFTA Scotland x 2 Best New Director & Best TV prod. 2000
Winner - Royal Television Society Best Regional Drama 2000
Winner - Special Mention at the Pescara Film Festival 2001
Winner - The Audience Prize. Festivale de Sainte Livrade 2001
Winner - Special Mention. Napoli Film Festival 1998
Finalist - BAFTA Scotland. Best Director. 1994
Described as the ‘most fluent and intelligent Scottish writer of his generation’ by Booker Prize judge Stuart Kelly, Ewan Morrison is an award winning novelist and screenwriter and an essayist. Morrison’s writing has been praised by renowned authors Lionel Shriver, Ian Rankin, Fay Weldon, Douglas Coupland, James Frey, Irvine Welsh, James Robertson, Luke Rhinehart and Hanif Kureishi among others.
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Ewan's eighth book, the 'darkly comic thriller', HOW TO SURVIVE EVERYTHING was published by Contraband in the UK in 2021, and in the US with Harper Perennial in 2022. It tells the story of a teenage girl who is abducted by her survivalist father, who believes that a world ending pandemic has begun.
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In November 2022, the book was optioned for a TV series and developed by Made Up Stories (Nine Perfect Strangers, Pieces of Her), Fifth Season & Kindling Pictures.
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Ewan’s novel, NINA X, published by Fleet an imprint of Little Brown, won Scotland's most prestigious literary prize - the Saltire Society Scottish Fiction Book of the Year , 2019. The novel tells of the life of an extraordinary young woman who is raised from birth in ‘ideological purity’ in a cult and then escapes into our modern world.
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NINA X is currently being developed as a feature film with award winning film director David Mackenzie. Director of the Academy Award nominated and multi-award winning film Hell or High Water (2016).
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Morrison was the winner of the Scottish Book of the Year (SMIT) Fiction Prize in 2013 for his novel CLOSE YOUR EYES, and of the Glenfiddich Scottish Writer of the Year award in 2012. He is also the winner of the Not the Booker Prize in 2012 for TALES FROM THE MALL (2012) which has been named one of the top 50 Scottish Books of the last 50 years (Scottish Book Trust).
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Morrison's first feature film, SWUNG, an adaptation of his first novel, starring Elena Anaya (Sex and Lucia, The Skin I Live In), was released in five territories in 2016, and was a finalist for four international film awards. The novel, published in 2006, was also a finalist in the Le Prince Maurice Award.
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Together with Morrison’s first collection of short stories this led to Morrison being a finalist in the ARENA Magazine Man of the Year Award (literature) 2006. One of the short stories from the first collection was made into the short film about "Bullycide and social media" - NONE OF THE ABOVE, directed by Siri Rodnes in 2017.
In 2014 Ewan co-wrote the feature length docu-drama American Blackout (National Geographic Channel) with his wife the award wining scriptwriter Emily Ballou (The Slap, Case Histories). The docu-drama about a national power outage in the US reached an estimated international audience of 28 million viewers and was discussed in the US congress. The film is now also one of the top five films in the 'Prepper/Survivalist' canon.
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Morrison has been nominated for three Scottish BAFTAs and is the winner of a Royal Television Society Best Drama Award. He has worked as Story Consultant on the feature films Outlaw King & From Life, and on a number of TV series.
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Morrison blogs regularly for PSYCHOLOGY TODAY - As "WORD-LESS: A novelist ponders emotional health". He writes regular articles and essays for AREO magazine, on Utopianism, Nihilism, Technology and Free Speech.
Between 2011 & 2013 Morrison was a regular contributor to the Guardian - he also gave one of two Guardian keynote speeches at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in 2012. He has contributed to The Times, The Telegraph, The Guardian, The Independent, The Daily Mail, L’Express, La Republicca, Quillette, Areo, Scotland on Sunday, The Scotsman, The Erotic Review, GQ, Esquire, Arena, Mute, Frieze, The Psychologist and Psychology Today.
Morrison has appeared on ABC Radio, BBC 2, STV, Channel 4, BBC Scotland, BBC Radio 4, and was the subject of a 30 minute Stark Talk interview on BBC Radio in 2014. In 2014 Morrison gave a keynote speech at the Frankfurt Book Fair Story Drive, while in 2016 he delivered a TEDx talk on ‘Why We Would Be Happier Without Utopia.’
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SWUNG Official UK Trailer. 2015. Metrodome
American Blackout | National Geographic. 2014
Why we would be happier without Utopia | Ewan Morrison | TEDxOxford. 2016