As we enter summer-reads season, we meet the people who are pushing the publishing industry in new and compelling directions. From authors to literary agents, these are the women writing the story
CANDICE CARTY-WILLIAMS
WRITING WAS NEVER THE PLAN FOR Candice Carty-Williams, but the universe clearly had other ideas. Growing up all over south London in a ‘chaotic household with lots of women’, Carty-Williams assumed the role of the ‘quiet one’: ‘There was always a lot going on, so I just took a step back. I listen more than I talk. I’m obsessed with how people move and speak – not in a creepy way, but I absorb it.’ Tapping into her observer’s sensibility, Carty-Williams has created vibrant, memorable characters like Queenie, the eponymous 25-year-old protagonist of her debut novel, who was based on observations and memories accumulated over years. Working on Queenie was, ‘an outlet – Iwanted to find a way to fictionalise the Black lived experience, things I’d seen and heard from friends and family, all these microaggressions. It was a way of coping with a lot of pain and trauma, stuff I’d been holding inside. Writing was a huge release for me.’ The story resonated widely, with Carty-Williams being held up as a voice of a generation, and the book becoming a Sunday Times bestseller and winning Book of the Year at the 2020 British Book Awards.
Carty-Williams says she’s still surprised by how bold the novel is, with its close-to-the-bone narration. ‘I was reading it back thinking, “I can’t believe you wrote that – people were going to see this!” I say all of this outrageous stuff, and the sex scenes are like – woah!’
Her second novel, People Person, published in April 2022, is funny and poignant, following five estranged siblings and their father, who come together after an accident. ‘It was important to me to write something that had nothing to do with Queenie, or my life,’ she explains, adding that people often conflate her with Queenie, or assume the story is autobiographical. People Person proves the range of Carty-Williams’ imagination and her talent for conjuring three-dimensional characters.
People Person does have one thing in common with Queenie: it’s set in south London, where Carty-Williams still lives. ‘I feel like I often get asked about south London in quite a rough way; I don’t think it’s particularly inspiring, but it’s not one thing. And, as it has a bad reputation, we south Londonders go extra hard
