Ùr-sgeul is an independent publisher of new Scottish Gaelic prose. The name Ùr-sgeul is a Gaelic word which translates variously as: a romance, a novel or a recent tale.
History
Ùr-sgeul was founded in 2003 as a project to promote new Gaelic fiction. The project, taken forward by CLÀR, was conceived under the auspices of the Gaelic Books Council and with a start-up grant of £50K from the Scottish Arts Council. In its short history, Ùr-sgeul has been prolific, and has contributed significantly to the recent resurgence of the Gaelic novel. Ùr-sgeul is particularly notable for advancing modern genres and themes in Scottish Gaelic literature, and for the modern look and feel of the design of the novels. Ùr-sgeul's most critically successful title to date was the epic novel, An Oidhche Mus Do Sheòl Sinn, by Aonghas Pàdraig Caimbeul. Heavily influenced in both structure and theme by the works of Leo Tolstoy, An Oidhche Mus Do Sheòl Sinn was short-listed for the Saltire Book of the Year Award in 2004. Since then, Aonghas Pàdraig Caimbeul has produced three further novels for Ùr-sgeul, and a novella for CLÀR. In 2008, Ùr-sgeul was featured on the half-hour Gaelic arts program on BBC2, Ealtainn. In 2008, Ùr-sgeul also branched into avant-garde music publishing and released a CD mixing Gaelic prose and modern Gaelic music by the rock band, Na Gathan. That same year, Ùr-sgeul approached Bòrd na Gàidhlig for support to expand its activities, including provision of a full-time editor. The approach was not supported. In 2009, Ùr-Sgeul published the first ever German-Gaelic fiction publication Der Schadel von Damien Hirst, edited by Michael Klevenhaus, launched at the FilmAlba festival in Bonn, Germany. Finlay MacLeod was presented with the first ever annual Donald Meek Literary Award in 2010, at a ceremony at the Edinburgh International Book Festival for his Ùr-Sgeul title, Gormshuil an Righ, his first ever Gaelic novel for adults. In 2011, the novella Cuid a' Chorra-Ghrithich by Alasdair Caimbeul was published. A Gaelic commentator provided a throw-away comment in The Scotsman newspaper: "Tha Alasdair a’ Bhocsair a’ creidsinn ann an daoine ’s ann an Leódhas ’s ann an Gàidhlig agus sin, a réir choltais, è.". "Alasdair Caimbeul believes in people, in Lewis, and in Gaelic, and this, it seems, is it." Moral dilemmas, subversion and law breaking constituted the broad themes explored in the 2011 collection, Saorsa. 13 new short stories from 13 writers were published, as follows:
Aonghas MacNeacail wrote the introduction for Saorsa. The Ùr-Sgeul website www.ur-sgeul.com, the German-Gaelic collaboration www.ur-sgeul.de and the digital pages www.ur-sgeul.com/digital/ - featuring audio, video and written materials for learners and native speakers - were axed in July 2011 following a decision by the Gaelic Books Council. In 2014, The Irish Times explored the contribution of Ùr-Sgeul to the revitilization of Gaelic fiction.
