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Candice Carty-Williams

Biography

Candice Carty-Williams

Candice Carty-Williams was born and raised in South London, by way of Jamaica. She is a novelist, showrunner, culture writer, and author of Book of the Year Award–winning and Sunday Times (London) bestselling QUEENIE, as well as the young adult novella EMPRESS AND ANIYA, and the Sunday Times (London) bestselling PEOPLE PERSON.

In 2016, Candice created and launched the Guardian and 4th Estate 4thWrite Prize for underrepresented writers, the first inclusive initiative of its kind in book publishing. Candice is the ex-Guardian Review books columnist, and has interviewed and written for i-D, Vogue, The Face, The Sunday Times (London), BEAT Magazine, Black Ballad, and many more publications.

QUEENIE received global acclaim and was described as vital, disarmingly honest and boldly political. It was adapted by Candice for Channel 4 and Hulu, and her original drama, Champion, aired on BBC One in the UK, and on Netflix globally.

Candice Carty-Williams

Books by Candice Carty-Williams

Queenie Is Working on It
by Candice Carty-Williams - Fiction, Women's Fiction

Queenie is 33 and the editorial director for The Good Sis, a thriving media network amplifying the voices of Black women --- a far cry from her former toxic workplace. With a great platform and a renewed sense of purpose, she’s fighting the good fight. But when an appointment for research goes haywire and reveals startling truths about her own fertility, Queenie is confronted with a racing biological clock when she’s not even sure she wants kids in the first place. Surrounded by loyal friends who seem to fall in love with their person and get pregnant at the drop of a hat, and the reappearance of an old flame she never stopped loving, while being pulled into a series of confusing “situationships” that really do NOT go anywhere, means that time is running out in all parts of her life.

People Person
by Candice Carty-Williams - Fiction, Women's Fiction

Dimple Pennington knows of her half-siblings, but she doesn’t really know them. Five people who don’t have anything in common except for faint memories of being driven through Brixton in their dad’s gold jeep, and some pretty complex abandonment issues. Dimple has bigger things to think about. She’s 30, and her life isn’t really going anywhere. An aspiring lifestyle influencer with a terrible and wayward boyfriend, Dimple’s life has shrunk to the size of a phone screen. And despite a small but loyal following, she’s never felt more alone in her life. That is, until a dramatic event brings her half-siblings crashing back into her life. And when they’re all forced to reconnect with Cyril Pennington, the absent father they never really knew, things get even more complicated.

Queenie
by Candice Carty-Williams - Fiction, Women's Fiction

Queenie Jenkins is a 25-year-old Jamaican British woman living in London, straddling two cultures and slotting neatly into neither. She works at a national newspaper, where she’s constantly forced to compare herself to her white middle-class peers. After a messy breakup from her long-term white boyfriend, Queenie seeks comfort in all the wrong places, including several hazardous men who do a good job of occupying brain space and a bad job of affirming self-worth. As Queenie careens from one questionable decision to another, she finds herself wondering, “What are you doing? Why are you doing it? Who do you want to be?” --- all of the questions today’s woman must face in a world trying to answer them for her.