Diana Evans

Diana Evans is an award-winning novelist, journalist and critic. Her bestselling novel 26a (Chatto & Windus, 2005), a study of the relationship between twins in a Nigerian–English family, was shortlisted for the Whitbread first novel and Commonwealth best-first-book awards, and was the inaugural winner of the Orange award for new writers. Her second book The Wonder (Chatto & Windus, 2009) is a dance mystery set in 1960s London and 1950s Jamaica, and was described by the Times as ‘the most dazzling depiction of the world of dance since Ballet Shoes’.

Before becoming an author, Diana Evans was a dancer in the Brighton-based African and Caribbean troupe Mashango. She began her writing career as the arts and music editor for Pride magazine, interviewing musicians and authors such as Lauryn Hill, Alice Walker and Maya Angelou. She went on to freelance for national newspapers and magazines, such as the Independent, Marie Claire and the Stage, before taking her MA in creative writing at the University of East Anglia. She has since published essays and literary criticism in the Guardian, the Observer, the Times, the Daily Telegraph, Harper’s Bazaar and the Financial Times. Her short fiction has been anthologised by Bookslam Productions, Penguin and Serpent’s Tail, and broadcast by BBC Radio 4.

In addition to her writing, Diana Evans has taught both journalism and fiction for the Arvon Foundation, Royal Holloway College and First Story, where she was writer-in-residence at St Gabriel’s College. She lives in London with her partner and two children.