James Kelman is a highly acclaimed literary fiction author from Glasgow, Scotland. He is best known for his short stories and controversial novels that explore the socio-cultural experiences of working-class people in Glasgow. Kelman was born and raised in Govan and Drumchapel, growing up in a tenement building before moving to a housing scheme on the outskirts of the city. He is the eldest of four brothers and comes from a working-class background, with his mother serving as a full-time parent and his father working as a picture framer and gilder.
Kelman began writing at the age of 21 or 22, with a desire to create stories that reflected his own background and community. During the 1970s, he became involved in Philip Hobsbaum's creative writing group in Glasgow, which included notable writers such as Tom Leonard, Alasdair Gray, and Liz Lochhead. Kelman's short stories began to appear in magazines during this time, and he developed a distinctive style that featured first-person internal monologues in a pared-down prose that utilized Glaswegian speech patterns. Although his writing style is influenced by Tom Leonard's use of phonetic spelling, Kelman avoids this technique in his own work.
Kelman's writing has had a significant impact on the succeeding generation of Scottish novelists, including Irvine Welsh, Alan Warner, and Janice Galloway. His work often features working-class characters who speak in their natural Glaswegian dialect, which has been both celebrated and criticized for its realism. Kelman's writing has been recognized with numerous awards and accolades, including the prestigious Booker Prize in 1994 for his novel "How Late It Was, How Late." In 1998, he received the Stakis Prize for "Scottish Writer of the Year" for his collection of short stories "The Good Times."