Catrin Kean
Welsh writer
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Catrin Kean or Catrin Clarke is a Welsh writer. Her debut novel Salt won the Wales Book of the Year in 2021.[1] Writing as Catrin Clarke, she won a BAFTA Cymru award for screenwriting in 2003 for her work on the BBC Wales drama Belonging.[2]
- Salt (2020)
Catrin Kean | |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Writer |
| Nationality | Welsh |
| Genre | Fiction |
| Notable works |
|
| Notable awards |
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Early life
Career
Kean is a scriptwriter who has written for film, television and radio,[3] with credits including Casualty, Mistresses and Wolfblood.[4] In 2016, she became a Hay Festival Writer at Work, a new long-term development programme for selected writers born, living and/or educated in Wales. Kean was one of the first cohort of writers, and completed a 10-day residency at the festival in 2016, 2017 and 2018.[5][6]
Kean's first novel Salt was published by Gomer Press in 2020. The novel tells the story of the author's Welsh great-grandmother Ellen meeting and marrying her great-grandfather Samuel, a ship’s cook from Barbados, in 1878 and subsequently travelling with him at sea.[1][7] Dealing with themes of racism, class and British hegemony, Salt was praised by Nation.Cymru as 'a novel for our times' in light of the Black Lives Matter movement,[8] while Wales Arts Review called it 'a gripping love story of significant cultural importance...set against the intergenerational, inherited trauma caused by slavery and colonialism.'[9] At the 2021 Wales Book of the Year Awards, Salt won the 'triple crown': taking the Rhys Davies Trust Fiction Award, the Wales Arts Review People's Choice Award and the overall prize for Wales Book of the Year.[10][7] Lace, Kean's second novel and the sequel to Salt, was published by Honno in 2024.[11]
Bibliography
Novels
- Salt (2020)
- Lace (2024)
Short fiction
- Dust. Vol. 8. Riptide. 2013. p. 81. ISBN 9780955832666.[12]
- Blue. Vol. 5. The Ghastling. February 2017. pp. 46–49. ISBN 9780993499128.[13]
- Birdcage. Vol. 7. The Ghastling. April 2018. pp. 65–70. ISBN 9780993499142.[14]
- Fogtime. Vol. 8. The Ghastling. October 2018. pp. 56–58. ISBN 9780993499159.[15]
- Sirens. Vol. 10. The Ghastling. October 2019. pp. 56–61. ISBN 9780993499180.[16]