Bestselling authors Dorothy Koomson and Kit de Waal discuss their paths to publication, what it was like being Black women writers when they began their careers, what it’s like now, and advice for new writers. 

Dorothy Koomson is an award-winning author, journalist and podcaster whose books have been translated into over 30 languages with sales exceeding 2 million copies in the UK alone. Her novel, My Best Friend’s Girl was selected for the Richard & Judy Summer Reads Book Club and The Ice Cream Girls was adapted for TV. Her latest novel is the breathtaking Every Smile You Fake. Dorothy featured on the 2021 Powerlist as one of the most influential Black people in Britain.

Kit de Waal is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and Professor and Jean Humphreys Writer in Residence at Leicester University. Her novels include My Name is Leon, shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, winner of the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year and adapted as a film for BBC Two, The Trick to Time, longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, short story collection, Supporting Cast and memoir, Without Warning and Only Sometimes, Radio 4 Book of the Week and shortlisted for Biography of the Year at the Irish Book Awards. She is also editor of the Common People anthology.

Christina Fonthes is a British-Congolese writer. She founded REWRITE, an organisation that supports and champions Black women and women of colour writers. Her debut novel Where You Go, I Will Go will be published in 2025.

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