Kit de Waal

Kit de Waal is the author of the novels My Name is Leon, which was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award, won the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year, and was adapted as a film for BBC Two. Her second novel The Trick to Time was longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction.

She has also written a short story collection, Supporting Cast, and a memoir, Without Warning and Only Sometimes, which was a Radio 4 Book of the Week and was shortlisted for Biography of the Year at the Irish Book Awards. She is editor of the Common People anthology, co-founder of the Big Book Weekend festival and chair of the 2025 Women’s Prize for Fiction judging panel.