A bald white man with a white and grey beard looks into the camera. He is wearing a dark blue shirt and a gold bracelet on his wrist.

Douglas Stuart

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Douglas Stuart won the Booker Prize in 2020 with Shuggie Bain. He was born and raised in Glasgow

Douglas Stuart was born and raised in Glasgow. After graduating from the Royal College of Art, he moved to New York, where he began a career in fashion design. Shuggie Bain, his first novel, won the Booker Prize and both ‘Debut of the Year’ and ‘Book of the Year’ at the British Book Awards. It was also shortlisted for the US National Book Award for Fiction, among many other awards. His second novel, Young Mungo, was a number one Sunday Times Bestseller. His short stories have appeared in The New Yorker and his essay on gender, anxiety and class was published by Lit Hub.

John of John was shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2026.

Douglas Stuart on writing John of John

‘I set out to write about the bond between a father and son despite the deep silence between them. I was drawn to the Outer Hebrides because when we talk about class or sexuality or social upheaval our rural places are so often overlooked. On Harris I found a rich, inspiring culture; a culture shaped by community, with a history of crofting and weaving, in a place that is the stronghold of the Gaelic language and a very devout form of Presbyterianism. There was such richness that I couldn’t help but be inspired. It’s not that I wanted to tell this story now – although the world is as divided as it ever was, and queer people are under increasing attack – but it’s more that this is the story I had to write, and there was nothing that I could do but to write it.’

Read the full interview here.

Video highlights

Douglas Stuart speaks with Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall

Stuart Campbell reads Shuggie Bain

Stuart Campbell reads Shuggie Bain.

The Booker Prize 2020 - Full Ceremony | The Booker Prize

Watch the 2020 Booker Prize ceremony, in which Douglas Stuart wins the prize with his book, Shuggie Bain.

Read more on Douglas Stuart

Douglas Stuart interview: 'When we talk about class or sexuality, our rural places are often overlooked'

The author of John of John, shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2026, on studying his brother’s LPs, and finding a rich, inspiring culture on the Isle of Harris

An extract from John of John by Douglas Stuart

John of John is the heartbreaking story of a young man’s return home and how the bonds of family life are torn by the weight of expectation

Reading guide: John of John by Douglas Stuart

In his Booker Prize 2026 shortlisted novel, Douglas Stuart transports readers to a remote Scottish island, where small-town secrets and buried shame reverberate to surprising, devastating and even joyous effect

Douglas Stuart is smiling next to an image of the Shuggie Bain book cover with the word Monthly Spotlight circled around it

Douglas Stuart interview: ‘I don't think working-class people can afford to write’

Five years after winning the Booker for Shuggie Bain, Douglas Stuart reflects on the pressures of being a prize winner, the queer canon, the politics of dialect, and how the arts have become less accessible for working-class people

Council flats in Glasgow with a sign on the wall saying no ball games

Reading guide: Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

Douglas Stuart’s blistering and heartbreaking debut is an exploration of the unsinkable love that only children can have for their damaged parents

An extract from Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

Douglas Stuart depicts the heartbreaking story of a working-class family in 1980s Glasgow, with the young Shuggie Bain trying to understand his place in the world