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De Waal becomes Bridport Prize honorary patron
Writer Kit de Waal will become the Bridport Prize’s new honorary patron following the death of Fay Weldon earlier this year.
De Waal, who didn’t start writing until she was 56, has won the international writing competition twice, mentored the Black writer residency award and is the current memoir judge.
Her best selling novel My Name Is Leon (Penguin) was shortlisted for the Costa Book Award and later became a BBC drama featuring Sir Lenny Henry who also voices the audiobook. Her memoir Without Warning and Only Sometimes was published by Hachette in 2022.
She said: “I am delighted to be joining the Bridport Prize family as Honorary Patron. I’ve been on the receiving end of the prize a couple of times and know how prizes can change your writing life – not just the winners but everyone who enters and strives to get their work good enough to enter.”
She added: “I’ve championed the prize for many years as I know how hard the team work to make The Bridport Prize inclusive and welcoming. I hope to help to continue that work to take the prize through the next 50 years – and beyond.”
De Waal was born in Birmingham in 1960 to a Jamaican father and Irish mother in a working class family. She worked for 15 years in criminal and family law, was a magistrate for several years and sits on adoption panels. She used to advise social services on the care of foster children, and has written training manuals on adoption, foster care and judgecraft for members of the judiciary.
She used funds from her writing to set up a creative writing scholarship, is a regular guest and interviewer in the media and at writing festivals. She recently became the first Jean Humphreys writer in residence at the University of Leicester.
“Kit embodies what our competition is about,” says Kate Wilson, Bridport Prize programme manager. "She didn’t begin writing until later in life and was once staring at a screen, wondering about sending off a piece. When she did, her life changed. We couldn’t be more proud to have Kit as part of our Bridport Prize family, especially in this our 50th year.”
Now in its 50th year, the international writing competition helps fund Bridport Arts Centre. The Bridport Prize memoir competition closes 30th September 2023. Novel, Short Story, Poetry and Flash Fiction competition deadline 31st May 2024. For more information, visit bridportprize.org.uk.
