I won an award celebrating witty women at a star-studded ceremony
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“This prize is a fantastic opportunity to celebrate witty women and I’m really proud to be part of it all,” says an East Boldon author who’s been recognised at a star-studded ceremony.
Kay Wilson has been awarded the Comedy Women in Print (CWIP) Self-Published Runner-Up prize for her novel, The Stand-Up Mam.
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Held at the Groucho Club, London, the awards were star-studded with top honours given to Alison Steadman, Tameka Empson (fresh from Celebrity Traitors) and Sara Pascoe.
The published author prize was given to Nussaibah Younis for her novel Fundamentally about the deradicalisation of ISIS brides. Natalie Willbe won the unpublished novel award for Music for the Samosa Generation.
Kay said: “This prize is a fantastic opportunity to celebrate witty women and I’m really proud to be part of it all.
“Hats off to the actor and writer, Helen Lederer for founding and running these awards which support female writers like me, to build up our profiles and sell more books.”
First prize in the Self-Published category went to Ruth Foster for A Perfect Year?.
Also shortlisted in this category was Gateshead author Yvonne Vincent for Game of Trust, part of her best-selling Losers Club Murder Mystery series.
LoveReading MD and CWIP Judge Deborah Maclaren said: "Warm, riotous and gloriously cathartic, The Stand-Up Mam follows Georgie, a middle-aged mother who swaps domestic perfection for the comedy stage.
“From Tyneside kitchen to the Edinburgh Fringe, her razor-sharp observations expose the cracks beneath the surface of family life while finding laughter in frustration. This debut is funny, defiant and oh so relatable - a joyful ode to reinvention and the power of telling your own story."
Kay Wilson’s inspiration for her novel came after suffering a near-fatal burst aneurism. When she recovered she hit her bucket list which had doing stand-up comedy at the top. She learnt the writing and performing skills needed at the Edinburgh Fringe before doing short, unpaid gigs around the North East.
She started The Stand-Up Mam while studying for her Creative Writing MA at Northumbria University. Last year she was invited to read her short stories at two New Writing North Read Them Your Writes’ events and a few years ago won its Flash Fiction competition run with the Journal.
Her CWIP Runner-Up Self-Published prize was sponsored by Gloriah, a female health brand.
More information on Kay Wilson’s writing is on her website kaywilsonwriter.com.