[2] She has written for publications including The Guardian, i-D, Vogue, The Sunday Times, BEAT Magazine, and Black Ballad,[3] and is a contributor to the anthology New Daughters of Africa (2019), edited by Margaret Busby.
[5] Candice Carty-Williams was born in St Thomas' Hospital, Westminster, and grew up in South London, living at various times in Croydon,[6] Clapham, Streatham, Ladywell and Lewisham.
[2] Tash Aw said the prize was "a small but hugely valuable step in supporting writers from minority backgrounds, and helping them gain the visibility that their work deserves".
[12] Published in 2019, the novel is about the "life and loves of Queenie Jenkins, a vibrant, troubled 25-year-old Jamaican Brit who is not having a very good year"',[13] and although it was marketed as "a black Bridget Jones",[14][15][16] Carty-Williams herself said in an interview in Stylist magazine: "That's how I thought of her in the beginning, too.
"[18] Queenie received much positive critical attention,[19] described by reviewers as both a "smart and breezy comic debut"[20] and "astutely political, an essential commentary on everyday racism.
I have loved every word I've written; but with my second novel, People Person, coming out in 2021, I'll be chained to my desk (my bed/my sofa/the chair in my room I sit on when I need to think about things) with very little time to keep an eye on what's happening in the literary world.
[36] On 16 March 2020, Knights Of announced that they would be publishing a young adult novella written by Carty-Williams, titled Empress & Aniya,[37] which follows two teenage girls from different backgrounds, who accidentally cast a body swap spell on their 16th birthday.