“I’ve tried all sorts of things. I’ve tried writing sci-fi. I’ve tried writing romance stories, older stories, younger stories… just try so many different things and see what you enjoy doing.”
Patrice Lawrence wants to show that she’s had a good experience of publishing and give people hope that they can tell their stories.
Foreign bodies and chocolate skin
The ‘hidden’ racially-charged words in UK children’s writing.
London is the place for me
Patrice Lawrence talks about how her adopted city inspires her creativity.
Patrice Lawrence in conversation with Roopa Farooki
On teenagers, tragedy and hope, and writing the truth about youth.
Biography
Patrice Lawrence has an MA in Writing for Film and TV, and she was mentored by the BBC as a prospective comedy writer. Her first published story was ‘Duck, Duck, Goose’, which was included in The Decibel Penguin Prize Anthology (Penguin Books, 2006).
Published in 2016, her debut young adults’ novel Orangeboy won The Bookseller′s YA Book Prize 2017, the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize for Older Children 2017, and was shortlisted for the 2016 Costa Children’s Book Award.
Her other young adults’ novels include Indigo Donut (2017) and Rose, Interrupted (2019). Her novel Eight Pieces of Silva, which was published in 2020, won the 2021 Jhalak Prize for Children’s and YA fiction.
Lawrence also writes a regular blog centring on her experiences of writing and having her work published, called ‘The Lawrence Line’, about which she has said: “There are a lot of people coming up behind you and you want to let them know how it happens, particularly for young black writers. I want to show that I’ve had a good experience of publishing and give people hope that they can tell their stories.”
