Sophie Kirtley

Sophie Kirtley is a prizewinning poet and children’s author. Her writing is adventurous, heartfelt and lyrical, drawing inspiration from the natural world and exploring the importance of human connection. Her bestselling debut novel, The Wild Way Home (Bloomsbury, 2020), is an exciting adventure about courage and family, set partly in the Stone Age; it was Waterstones Children’s book of the month and was shortlisted for the Joan Aiken Future Classics prize. Her second novel, The Way to Impossible Island (Bloomsbury, 2021), was also shortlisted for many awards and was selected as one of the best children’s paperbacks of 2021 by several national newspapers. Also an acclaimed poet, Sophie Kirtley’s work has been published in journals and anthologies and selected for National Poetry Day. 

A sense of place infuses Sophie Kirtley’s writing. In 2021, she was commissioned as part of the ‘Our Story in the Making’ programme to create a book for children focusing on the landscapes of her native Northern Ireland and how these bring people together; a copy of Our Wee Place was then given to every child in Northern Ireland. She has also worked on site-specific writing projects for English Heritage and Poole Park. 

Before she embarked on her publishing career, Sophie Kirtley was an English teacher working in schools across the country. 

She remains a firm believer in equality of opportunity and the transformative power of education and has also worked in Widening Participation outreach at university level. She lives in Wiltshire with her family.