British · b. 1946
James Kelman won the 1994 Booker Prize for "How Late It Was, How Late," a novel narrated in Glaswegian dialect by a man who goes blind after a police beating. The Scottish author's victory provoked controversy from judges who questioned whether the book's language was literature. Kelman writes about working-class experience without condescension, insisting that his characters' voices deserve the same attention as any others.