Yvvette Edwards FRSL is a British novelist born in London, England, of Caribbean heritage.Yvvette Edwards page at Foyles. Her first novel, A Cupboard Full of Coats, was published in 2011 to much acclaim and prize nominations that included the Man Booker Prize longlist and the Commonwealth Book Prize shortlist. Edwards followed this debut work five years later with The Mother (2016), a novel that "reinforces her accomplishment". She is a contributor to the 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby.
Biography Early years and education Of Caribbean parentage, Yvvette Edwards was born in Barnet, north London, and was brought up by her mother, who had migrated to Britain as a child from Montserrat.Donna Bailey Nurse, "Yvvette Edwards On The Mother", Blackiris, 15 July 2017. Edwards attended school in Hackney, east London, where she still lives with her family."Yvvette Edwards", Literature, British Council.Daniel Baird, "A Cupboard Full of Coats by Yvvette Edwards – review", Hackney Citizen, 30 June 2011.Yvvette Edwards, "A matter of black and white", The Independent, 16 April 2011.
Writing career Her first novel, A Cupboard Full of Coats, was published in 2011 by Oneworld Publications and received many accolades, among them being named a Kirkus Reviews "2011 Best of Fiction" choice,"2011 Best of Fiction: Debut Titles", Kirkus Reviews. being longlisted for the 2011 Booker Prize,Tim Masters, "Booker longlist: Yvvette Edwards on A Cupboard Full of Coats", BBC News, 2 August 2011."Interviews with debut Booker nominees", UK Black Writers Forum, 28 August 2011. shortlisted for the Writers' Guild Awards 2011,"News · Writers' Guild Shortlist", Eve White Literary Agency, 2 September 2011. shortlisted for the Waverton Good Read Award 2011,"Events and Meetings in 2011-12", Waverton Good Read Award. shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book Prize in 2012,Katie Allen, "Oneworld's Edwards shortlisted for Commonwealth Book Prize",The Bookseller, 25 April 2012."Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2012", Khadija Magardie, 28 April 2012. nominated for the 44th NAACP Image Awards in January 2013,Diane Patrick, "40 Books Nominated for NAACP Image Awards", Publishers Weekly, 4 January 2013. nominated for the International Dublin Literary Award 2013,"22 novels by British authors nominated for the 2013 Award", International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. and nominated for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award 2013."A Cupboard Full of Coats", Yvvette Edwards website. It was described by Kirkus Reviews as "An impressive debut, particularly notable for its pellucid prose.""A Cupboard Full of Coats" (review), Kirkus, 3 May 2011. Jonathan Barnes wrote of it in The Literary Review: "Rich in emotion but resolutely unsentimental, the story is unspooled with judgement and skill. Information is released at an almost ideal pace and secrets are withheld until the last possible moment. Edwards’s clear, colloquial prose is full of quietly impressive phrase-making. ... The performance is a wholly satisfying one and the novel’s valedictory suggestions of redemption feel earned, solid and real.""A Cupboard Full of Coats", The Omnivore.
Edwards' second book, The Mother, published in 2016, received a nomination in the 48th NAACP Image Awards in the category "Outstanding Literary Work – Fiction","NAACP Image Award Nominations Announced" , Press release, NAACP, 13 December 2016.Hilary Lewis, "NAACP Image Awards: 'Birth of a Nation' Scores 6 Nominations", The Hollywood Reporter, 13 December 2016. and was also a nominee for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in 2017."HURSTON/WRIGHT FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES 2017 LEGACY AWARDS", Hurston/Wright Foundation. Highly recommending the novel, which "delves into the timely issue of violence against and between young black men—both its possible causes, and its heartrending effects on the families involved", BookPage stated that "Edwards perceptively explores a wide realm of issues ... with compassion for her characters and with intuitive understanding of the effects of loss on a family".Deborah Donovan, "A mother's search for justice" (review of The Mother), BookPage, May 2016. Paste magazine described it as "a powerful work that illuminates the web of ramifications spun from a personal tragedy",Bridey Heing, "A Murder Trial Tackles Race and Class in The Mother by Yvvette Edwards", Paste, 10 May 2016. and NBC News commented on the author's "masterful storytelling".Lesley-Ann Brown, "Book Review: 'The Mother,' A Novel by Yvvette Edwards", NBC News, 24 May 2016. The New York Journal of Books described it as "a clear-eyed, unsentimental novel about modern city life and the challenges parents face", and concluded: "The Mother is another hit-the-ball-out-of-the-park novel by a writer to watch. Yvvette Edwards should be proud of her work."Autumn Markus, "The Mother: A Novel" (review), New York Journal of Books, 2016.
Her short story "Security" is included in the anthology New Daughters of Africa (ed. Margaret Busby, 2019).
Edwards was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in November 2020.
In February 2025, it was announced that a third novel by Edwards, Good Good Loving – her first in almost a decade – had been acquired by Virago Press for publication in 2026.
Bibliography A Cupboard Full of Coats, UK: Oneworld Publications, 2011, . US: HarperCollins/Amistad, 2016, The Mother, UK: Pan Macmillan, 2016, . US: HarperCollins/Amistad, 2016, Good Good Loving, UK: Virago Press: March 2026, .
Awards and nominations A Cupboard Full of Coats 2011: A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year 2011: Booker Prize for Fiction shortlist 2011: Waverton Good Read Award shortlist 2011: Writers’ Guild Awards shortlist 2012: Commonwealth Book Prize shortlist 2013: 44th NAACP Image Awards nomination 2013: International Dublin Literary Award nomination The Mother 2016: 48th NAACP Image Awards nomination 2017: Hurston/Wright Legacy Award nomination
References
External links Yvvette Edwards at Greyhound Literary Yvvette Edwards page, Eve White Literary Agent. Norwich Showcase, "Yvvette Edwards reads at Norwich Showcase '12". NCWonline, 20 March 2012. "Yvvette Edwards discusses A Cupboard Full of Coats", Oneworld Publications. 16 September 2011. Sally Campbell, "Q & A: Yvvette Edwards", Waterstones blog, 10 April 2016. "A Conversation with Yvette Edwards", Greenacre Writers, 8 June 2016. Donna Bailey Nurse, "Yvvette Edwards: An Interview With the Author of The Mother", Blackiris, 15 July 2017. "A conversation about The Mother – Yvvette Edwards", Writers Mosaic, 13 August 2022. Peter Kalu interviews Yvvette Edwards about black crime fiction and her real-life experience of nearly losing her stepson to knife crime.