Dorothy Koomson | |
|---|---|
 2014 | |
| Born | 1971 (age 53–54) [1] London, England |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Nationality | British |
| Period | 2003–present |
| Genre | Fiction |
| Website | |
| www | |
Dorothy Koomson (born 1971 in London) is a contemporary British novelist of Ghanaian descent. [2] She has been described as "Britain's biggest selling black author of adult fiction". [3]
Koomson has two degrees in Psychology and Journalism from Leeds University (Trinity and All Saints College). [4] She has written for a number of women's magazines and newspapers, and has over a dozen successful novels published in the UK and US. [1] [5] Koomson spent two years living in Sydney and is currently living in Brighton. [6]
Koomson wrote her first novel, the unpublished "There's A Thin Line Between Love And Hate", when she was 13. In 2003 her debut novel, The Cupid Effect, was published. [7] Her second novel, The Chocolate Run, was published in 2004. [8] In 2006, she published her third novel, My Best Friend's Girl . [9] The book was chosen for the Richard and Judy's Summer Reads shortlist and it received a huge sales boost. [10] Koomson's fourth and fifth novels, Marshmallows For Breakfast and Goodnight, Beautiful, were published in 2007 and 2008 respectively. [11] Koomson's sixth novel, The Ice Cream Girls , was published in 2010. [12] Koomson's seventh novel, The Woman He Loved Before, was released on 3 February 2011. [13] Her eighth book, The Rose Petal Beach, came out in August 2012 and was released in paperback form in April 2013. Her ninth book, The Flavours of Love, was published in November 2013, after which she took a longer break before writing her tenth book, That Girl From Nowhere, which was published in April 2015. Her novels have been translated into over 30 languages. [14]
During the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests calling for racial justice, Koomson criticised the UK publishing industry as being a “hostile environment for black authors”, stating that those in the industry have gaslighted Black authors and demeaned, demoralised, and discarded them in reality, while portraying an image of support to the public. [15] Her experiences in the publishing industry were also discussed [16] in an article responding to the "Rethinking ‘Diversity’ in Publishing" report. [17]
Later that year, Koomson was recognised as one of the United Kingdom's 100 most influential people of African or African Caribbean heritage when she was included in the 2021 edition of the annual Powerlist . [18]
In 2020 Koomson launched a podcast intended to help 'demystify the book world'. [19]
She was one of the judges for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2022. [20]
Holly Black is an American writer and editor best known for her children's and young adult fiction. Her most recent work is the New York Times bestselling young adult Folk of the Air series. She is also well known for The Spiderwick Chronicles, a series of children's fantasy books she created with writer and illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi, and her debut trilogy of young adult novels officially called the Modern Faerie Tales. Black has won a Nebula Award and a Newbery Honor.
Jeffrey Ford is an American writer in the fantastic genre tradition, although his works have spanned genres including fantasy, science fiction and mystery. His work is characterized by a sweeping imaginative power, humor, literary allusion, and a fascination with tales told within tales. He is a graduate of Binghamton University, where he studied with the novelist John Gardner.
Hillary Raphael is an American novelist, fashion and children's book writer. She holds an MFA in Fiction from Hunter College in New York City.
Constance Laux is an American writer of romance novels as her real name and of mystery and young adult novels under her many pen names: Connie Deka, Connie Lane, Connie Laux, Casey Daniels, Zoe Daniels, Kylie Logan, Miranda Bliss, Mimi Granger, Lucy Ness, and Anastasia Hastings.
Karen McCombie is a Scottish author of children's books and young adult novels. McCombie has published more than 100 books. In 2021, Waterstones described her as "one of children's fiction's most accomplished authors".
Jessica Kathryn Burton is an English author; As of 2022, she has published four novels, The Miniaturist, The Muse, The Confession, The House of Fortune and two books for children, The Restless Girls and Medusa. All four adult novels were Sunday Times best-sellers, with The Miniaturist, The Muse and The House of Fortune reaching no. 1, and both The Miniaturist and The Muse were New York Times best-sellers, and Radio 4's Books at Bedtime. Collectively her novels have been published in almost 40 languages. Her short stories have been published in Harpers Bazaar US and Stylist.
Bernardine Anne Mobolaji Evaristo is an English author and academic. Her novel Girl, Woman, Other jointly won the Booker Prize in 2019 alongside Margaret Atwood's The Testaments, making her the first Black woman to win the Booker. Evaristo is Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University London and President of the Royal Society of Literature, the second woman and the first black person to hold the role since it was founded in 1820.
Cathy Cassidy is an English author of young adult fiction. She was born in Coventry, Warwickshire. For a number of years she lived near New Galloway in Scotland where she started writing her novels, but has since returned to England, where she now lives on The Wirral. She has written 30 books and a few e-books as well. She has also been the agony aunt for Shout, a magazine for teenage girls, and she presently has a series of four books about Daizy Star for younger readers and a series of books for older readers called the Chocolate Box Girls.
Sarah Ladipo Manyika FRSL is a British-Nigerian writer of novels, short stories and essays and an active member of the literary community, particularly supporting and amplifying young writers and female voices. She is the author of two well-received novels, In Dependence (2009) and Like A Mule Bringing Ice Cream To The Sun (2016), as well as the non-fiction collection Between Starshine and Clay: Conversations from the African Diaspora (2022), and her writing has appeared in publications including Granta, Transition, Guernica, and OZY, and previously served as founding Books Editor of OZY. Manyika's work also features in the 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby.
Jane Wenham-Jones was a British author, journalist, presenter, interviewer, creative writing tutor, and speaker who lived in Broadstairs, Kent, a town that appears in four of her novels.
Sarah Grace Perry is an English author. She has had four novels published: After Me Comes the Flood (2014), The Essex Serpent (2016), Melmoth (2018) and Enlightenment (2024). Her work has been translated into 22 languages. She was appointed Chancellor of the University of Essex in July 2023, officially starting in this role on 1 August 2023.
Ashley & JaQuavis is the pseudonym of American writing street lit duo and New York Times best selling authors Ashley Antoinette and JaQuavis Coleman. They are considered the youngest African-American co-authors to place on the New York Times Best Seller list twice. Their best-known work is the Cartel series, which appeared on the list in 2009 and 2010.
Dorothy Tse Hiu-hung is a Hong Kong author, editor, and associate professor of creative writing at Hong Kong Baptist University.
Holly Miranda Smale is a British writer. She wrote the Geek Girl series. The first book in the series won the 2014 Waterstones Children's Book Prize and was shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize 2013. The final book, Forever Geek, was published by HarperCollins in March 2017.
Holli Cara-Rhian Dempsey is an English actress, writer and comedian. On television, she is known for her roles in the ITV drama The Ice Cream Girls (2013), the Channel 4 series Derek (2013–2014), the E4 series The Aliens (2016), and the Hulu series Harlots (2017–2019). Her films include Aaaaaaaah! (2015) and Dad's Army (2016).
Patrice Lawrence MBE, FRSL is a British writer and journalist, who has published fiction both for adults and children. Her writing has won awards including the Waterstones Children's Book Prize for Older Children and The Bookseller YA Book Prize. In 2021, she won the Jhalak Prize's inaugural children's and young adult category for her book Eight Pieces of Silva (2020).
Robin Stevens is an American-born English author of children's fiction, best known for her Murder Most Unladylike series. She has spoken of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction as an influence on her work.
Jacaranda Books is a Black-owned British independent book publishing firm launched in 2012 and known for their effort promoting diversity in United Kingdom's publishing industry.
Ibi Aanu Zoboi is a Haitian-American author of young adult fiction. She is best known for her young adult novel American Street, which was a finalist for the National Book Award for Young Adult's Literature in 2017.
Bridget Rose Collins is a British author of adult and young adult fiction.
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