Katy Massey

Katy Massey is an acclaimed memoirist, novelist and tutor. She was awarded her PhD in Creative Writing (Life Writing) by Newcastle University in 2010 and her thesis became the critically admired memoir, Are We Home Yet? (Jacaranda, 2020) which was shortlisted for the Jhalak and Portico prizes. She followed this with two literary crime novels; the first, All Us Sinners (Sphere, 2024) will be followed by a sequel in 2026.

She has written journalism for a wide range of publications including the Guardian and The Big Issue and contributed ‘Hewan Cry’ in Glimpse: Contemporary Black British Speculative Fiction (Peepal Tree Press, 2022); ‘Eliza King is at Home’ and ‘Making Friends the British Way: Lucille’s Story’ in The Place for Me: Stories About the Windrush Generation (Scholastic, 2021); and ‘Don’t Mention Class!’ in Common People: An Anthology of Working-class Memoir (Unbound, 2019).

Since 2010, Katy Massey has produced Arts Council-funded national literature projects designed to make life writing more publicly accessible. Activities have included commissioning leading writers, touring a live show of performed memoir around the UK and to the United States and publishing over 50 first-time writers across three anthologies.

Katy Massey also works as a tutor and mentor, bringing the best out in writers with humour and sensitivity. Among others, she has worked for Ilkley Literature Festival, University of Brighton, New Writing North, the National Centre for Writing, University of York and Spread the Word. In a previous life, she was a freelance journalist and copywriter for many years.

Audio from Katy Massey