posted on 18 Jun 2023

An Interview with Kate Wiseman

The Letterpress Project has asked authors and illustrators to think about what has inspired them as artists, what their favourite books are and how they relate to their audience - we've also asked them if they themselves are book collectors.

We are delighted to present an exclusive interview with author, Kate Wiseman. Kate is a writer, teacher and mudlark. Growing up in a working class family in the 1970s, she missed out on university until the age of 38. When she finally got there she achieved a first in English and Creative Writing. This was followed by a Masters in English Literature. 

These achievements spurred Kate on to try to achieve her dream of being an author. Her Gangster School series of MG comedy adventures was shortlisted for several prizes and has been published in 4 languages. She followed this with YA Fantasy, Icarus and Velvet. Her series of mudlarking novels, The Mudlark Mysteries, commence publication with ZunTold this July. 

The Red Tunic, her first novel for adults, won the Eyelands Prize for Historical Fiction and will be published by Neem Tree in 2024. Evolution, an MG novel charting the story of a boy with a transsexual father, and written under her nom de plume of Zelda Conway, won the Eyelands Prize for Children’s Literature.

You can see how she answered our questions on this link to her interview:

katewiseman.pdf