Kit de Waal facts for kids

Kit de Waal (2020)

'Kit de Waal is a talented British and Irish writer. Her first novel, My Name Is Leon, was published in 2016. After getting her book deal, Kit de Waal used some of her earnings to create the Kit de Waal Creative Writing Scholarship. This scholarship helps people from working-class backgrounds get into writing. The audiobook of My Name Is Leon is read by the famous Sir Lenny Henry. Kit de Waal has also written many short stories. She is a visiting professor of Creative Writing at the University of Leicester.

Early Life

Kit de Waal was born in Birmingham, England. She grew up in a part of Birmingham called Moseley. She is a citizen of both Britain and Ireland. Her mother, Sheila O'Loughlin, was a foster carer and nurse. Her father, Arthur Desmond O'Loughlin, was a bus driver from Saint Kitts in the Caribbean. Kit de Waal grew up in Birmingham's Irish community. She remembers being one of the few Black children at the Irish Community Centre. She was also one of the few with a white mother at the West Indian Social Club.

Education and Writing Career

Kit de Waal went to Waverley Grammar School in Birmingham. For 15 years, she worked in law, helping with criminal and family cases. She also served as a magistrate, which is like a judge in local courts. She helped with adoption panels and advised Social Services. She even wrote guides on adoption and foster care.

She loved writing from a young age. When her children were older, she decided to study creative writing. She earned a master's degree from Oxford Brookes University.

Her first novel, My Name Is Leon, is about a nine-year-old boy of mixed race. The story takes place around the time of the 1981 Handsworth riots in Birmingham. The book was published in 2016. It was very popular, and many publishers wanted to publish it. The novel uses her own experiences with foster care and adoption. She said, "I was brought up like that, I'm mixed race, I have adopted children, I’ve trained social workers." She also lived in Handsworth when the riots happened.

My Name Is Leon has won many awards. It was named the Irish Novel of the Year in 2017. It was also a finalist for the Costa Book Awards for a first novel. The audiobook is read by Lenny Henry, who is also making it into a TV show.

Kit de Waal also writes short stories. She has won awards for her short stories and very short stories, called flash fiction. Her collection of short stories, Supporting Cast, came out in 2020. Her work has been in other books and on the radio. For example, her story "The Beautiful Thing" was read on BBC Radio 4.

She believes that the publishing world needs to include more voices. She presented a BBC Radio 4 program called Where Are All the Working Class Writers?. This program looked at how to include more working-class writers in British literature. She also edited Common People: An Anthology of Working-Class Writers. This book was funded by many people and published in 2019.

In 2019, she became an "Ambassador" for Listening Books. This charity provides audiobooks to people who find it hard to read. She said she loves audiobooks because "They reach you in a different way." In March 2020, Kit de Waal helped start "The Big Book Weekend." This was a three-day online book festival. It was broadcast live as part of BBC Arts' "Culture In Quarantine" programs. She was chosen as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2022.

The Kit de Waal Creative Writing Scholarship

Just three days after getting her book deal for My Name Is Leon, Kit de Waal started a scholarship. This scholarship helps writers who might not have many opportunities. The Kit de Waal Creative Writing Scholarship is fully paid for. Kit de Waal used some of the money she earned from her novel to create it. The scholarship is at Birkbeck, University of London.

It started in October 2016. The scholarship pays for one student to study for a Creative Writing MA degree. It also gives money for travel to classes in London. Plus, students get vouchers to buy books for their reading list. The first scholarship was given to Stephen Morrison-Burke, a poet from Birmingham.

Main Publications and Awards