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Catrin Kean

Catrin Kean
OccupationWriter
NationalityWelsh
GenreFiction
Notable works
  • Salt (2020)
Notable awards

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]

Early life

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Kean was born in Wales, and is of Welsh, Irish, English and Bajan heritage. She is based in Cardiff.[1]

Career

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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

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Novels

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  • Salt (2020)
  • Lace (2024)

Short fiction

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  • 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]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Tale of love and loss at sea wins Book of the Year prize". The National Wales. Archived from the original on 18 October 2021. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  2. ^ "Cymru in 2003 | BAFTA Awards". awards.bafta.org. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  3. ^ Price, Karen (12 April 2015). "25 writers who have received bursaries from Literature Wales". WalesOnline. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  4. ^ "Catrin Clarke". Gemma Hirst Associates. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  5. ^ "Writers at Work 2018... talking with nightingales". Hay Festival. Retrieved 9 August 2025.
  6. ^ "Catrin Kean's Salt wins the 2021 Wales Book of the Year Award". Literature Wales. Retrieved 9 August 2025.
  7. ^ a b "Catrin Kean yn cipio coron driphlyg Gwobr Saesneg Llyfr y Flwyddyn 2021". Golwg360 (in Welsh). 30 July 2021. Retrieved 18 October 2021.
  8. ^ "Review: Salt forces us to recognise the length and depth of the shadow of our past". Nation.Cymru. 11 July 2020. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  9. ^ Pearson, Gemma (12 August 2020). "Salt by Catrin Kean | Book Review". Wales Arts Review. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  10. ^ "Wales Book of the Year 2021 Winners Announced". Wales Arts Review. 30 July 2021. Retrieved 2 August 2021.
  11. ^ "Catrin Kean | 'I started off by writing short film scripts years ago and made a few short films and then my first paid job was in radio. But I was always writing prose in the background'". The Bookseller. Retrieved 9 August 2025.
  12. ^ "Volume 8". Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  13. ^ "The Ghastling: Book Five". The Ghastling. 1 April 2020. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  14. ^ "The Ghastling: Book Seven". The Ghastling. 26 March 2020. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  15. ^ "The Ghastling: Book Eight". The Ghastling. 25 March 2020. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  16. ^ "The Ghastling: Book Ten". The Ghastling. 3 February 2020. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
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