There is nothing more exciting for a Creative Writing student at Strathclyde than the chance to chat with a successful author – especially if they graduated from the very same course you’re sitting now. You can’t help but hope they might reveal the secret to success. And when they do, the dream of seeing your own book in print suddenly feels within reach.
Only a few years ago, Margaret McDonald graduated from the University of Strathclyde with a degree in Creative Writing, followed by a Master’s in Literature from the University of Glasgow. Today, her debut novel, Glasgow Boys, is not only winning multiple awards but also the hearts of readers.
McDonald became the youngest ever winner of the prestigious Carnegie Medal. She has also claimed both the UK Literary Association Award and their Shadower’s Choice Award, and – alongside her editors Alice Swan and Ama Badu – the Branford Boase Award. Glasgow Boys is also shortlisted for the YA Book Prize 2025.
So, what’s the secret? For McDonald, it’s “a combination of perseverance and luck.” Even after rejection upon rejection, this 27-year-old Glaswegian kept going. “The only person that decides when you give up is you… I was so close to giving up,” she says. Perhaps it was her love and respect for her characters, Banjo and Finlay, that kept her fighting for their story to reach a wider audience.
As for luck, it’s hard to call it luck when your work is so attuned to the conversations shaping society. “I especially think Glasgow Boys hit a really good moment… there’s a lot of discussion about books for teenage boys, and it tackles issues like male loneliness, toxic masculinity, and relationships…,” says McDonald.
These, along with the challenges faced by care-experienced youth, are only a fraction of the themes woven into the novel. Glasgow Boys doesn’t simply mirror the issues shaping conversations today, it pulses with McDonald’s own voice and lived experience. “So much of my life and myself was poured into Glasgow Boys,” she says. “Banjo and Finlay feel real because to me they feel real – they’re tangled up and meshed in me.”
That intimacy extends to every corner of the story. When McDonald wrote the protagonist’s love interest as living with Crohn’s disease, the process became deeply personal. “It was really cathartic. I was able to explore that experience I’d had through a different lens – through Alena’s family and through Banjo, who was sort of seeing it from the sidelines.”
For McDonald, writing is more than craft; it’s an act of inhabiting other lives, a way to turn the raw material of memory into something that resonates. She calls it an introspective way of living – one that invites you to see the world anew while holding a mirror to your own.
First and foremost, Glasgow Boys is a novel about the friendship between Finlay and Banjo – young, care-experienced boys who, as they enter adulthood, are learning to navigate their lives. They balance jobs and adult responsibilities while managing existing relationships and building new ones.
Although Finlay, a second-generation Polish youth, and Banjo, who speaks Scots dialect, come from diverse backgrounds, they are Glaswegians above all. They are discovering their identities within the city’s rich and multifaceted culture.
With Glasgow and its vibrant spirit as the backdrop, we get to know Finlay and Banjo while also being reminded of the invaluable work NHS workers do – a commitment that must be recognised and celebrated.
For McDonald, everyone’s version of Glasgow is personal. To her, the city is defined by the diversity of its people. “I really wanted to showcase how multicultural and diverse Glasgow is – different lived experiences, different backgrounds within Scotland,” she says.
For a Creative Writing student, Glasgow Boys is a labour of love and craft, with emotions poured into every page and characters she treats as real people, with empathy and respect. McDonald says there’s a certain mystery she connects with when writing, something Ocean Vuong talks about. Readers can sense this mystery too, and it’s what makes the story come alive.
McDonald, who began her literary career at thirteen by penning fan fiction, cannot imagine her life without writing. Her advice to aspiring writers is simple and straight from the heart: “Love what you’re writing, and you will absolutely finish it. If you don’t love it, you probably won’t finish… Writing for the market isn’t going to keep you going.”
That love is what has carried her through rejections, shaped her characters, and brought Glasgow Boys to life. For McDonald, writing is more than a craft – “It’s my reason to be. I can’t not write. I’d feel like a limb was missing.” Perhaps that’s the real secret to success: not chasing the market, but holding fast to the stories you can’t live without telling.
Hi, I’m Julia Braun Raven, a second-year Journalism, Media & Creative Writing student. I’m co-Editor-in-Chief and Features Editor, and I love creating stories that matter to students, inspiring them, supporting what they’re passionate about, and celebrating their achievements. I’m especially interested in arts, culture, and student life, and I enjoy bringing energy, curiosity, and a love of storytelling to every piece I work on.
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