Y Llechan Visiting Writers: Catrin Kean

Novelist Catrin Kean, who lives in South Wales, will be discussing her debut novel, Salt, in Pontio on Thursday, February 24th at 6pm. The event is free and open to all and is part of the new series of Y Llechan visiting writers, presented with the support of Literature Wales.

Salt is based on the story of Kean’s great grandparents who met and married in the late 1800s. Her great-grandfather was a ship’s cook from Barbados and her great-grandmother went off to sea with him.  Kean said: “I have his death certificate which, apart from a change of name, is exactly as it is written in the book. Why he died in the way that he did is a sad family mystery which I have wondered about all my life, and the thought process behind the novel started with that.”

In 2021 Salt won the Rhys Davies Trust Fiction Award, the Wales Arts Review People’s Choice Award, and the overall prize for Wales Book Of The Year.

Kean said: “It was very unexpected and surreal winning Wales Book Of The Year. Normally the winner finds out at a nice glitzy event but because of Covid there wasn’t one. I had a Zoom interview for social media about being shortlisted and the interviewer told me I’d won after we’d finished talking. First she told me Salt had won the fiction category, then when that had sunk in a bit she told me that I’d won the overall book of the year, and finally that it had won the People’s Choice award. I didn’t really believe any of it! The worst part was that I couldn’t tell anyone - I had to keep it to myself for about six weeks!”

Fans of her work will be delighted to hear that Kean is currently working on a new novel which will focus on the same family but told from a different character’s viewpoint.

For any aspiring writers, Kean advises them to enter short stories or poems into as many competitions and anthologies as you can.

She said: “It’s wonderful when your work is accepted but also, for me, having a deadline really helps. Join a writing group, go to open mic nights and other events. Make sure you’re on the mailing lists of Literature Wales and other relevant organisations to keep abreast of opportunities. Also, really utilise your fellow writers. Read other writers’ work and have them read yours. Before Covid a group of writers and I would meet up regularly to discuss one another’s work, which was invaluable.  But also, allow yourself to write rubbish! I do a version of the morning pages which are not to be shown to anyone; they are just to exercise my writing muscles.”