During the 1970s he published a first collection of short stories. He became involved in Philip Hobsbaum’s creative writing group in Glasgow along with Tom Leonard, Alasdair Gray, Liz Lochhead, Aonghas MacNeacail and Jeff Torrington and his short stories began to appear in magazines. These stories introduced a distinctive style, expressing first person internal monologues in a pared-down prose using Glaswegian speech patterns, though avoiding for the most part the quasi-phonetic rendition of Tom Leonard. Kelman’s developing style has been influential on the succeeding generation of Scottish novelists, including Irvine Welsh, Alan Warner and Janice Galloway. In 1998, Kelman received the Stakis Prize for “Scottish Writer of the Year” for his collection of short stories The Good Times.

Despite reservations about nationalism, Kelman has voiced his support for Scottish independence, stating “Any form of nationalism is dangerous, and should be treated with caution. I cannot accept nationalism and I am not a Scottish Nationalist. But once that is said, I favour a Yes or No decision on independence and I shall vote Yes to independence.” In 2012 a film was made based on the short story “Greyhound For Breakfast”. He has voiced criticism of Scottish arts funding council Creative Scotland.

In 2019, James Kelman’s official website was launched, JamesKelman.Net, which is accessible via: [1]