Yvvette Edwards

Yvvette Edwards is the author of A Cupboard Full of Coats, her highly acclaimed first novel.

From her Q & A at the Man Booker Prize site:

Was it always your ambition to be a writer?

I have always written. My two equal passions are reading and writing, always have been. I don't think I ever thought that writing for a living was realistic or achievable, but it has always been a dream and a hobby. I lacked the confidence and self-discipline to see any of my earlier projects through to the completed, edited end. In addition I've always worked full time, so I never really had the time to have a serious go at making a career of it.

What was the turning point that encouraged you turn this dream into a reality?

It was probably my 39th birthday. That was definitely the most reflective year of my life. Suddenly I became aware that I might have arrived at the halfway point in my life, or even, unbeknown, passed it. I wondered that year about the dreams I'd had since childhood, and recognised that if they continued to remain unfulfilled for much longer, I might pretty much just as well accept they were never going to happen. I went on that year to have what has been the only truly 'selfish' year of my life. I worked two days a week and wrote on the others. I left the laundry and the cooking and the cleaning, ignored my phone and wrote till my novel was finished.

Do you have an ideal writing environment?

I'm not that precious about the environment I write in. I often write on a laptop, so I end up wherever I fancy on that particular day, sometimes in the garden in the summer, or in my bedroom in the winter. But I do need to be...[read on]

Learn more about A Cupboard Full of Coats, and visit Yvvette Edwards's Facebook page.

Writers Read: Yvvette Edwards.

--Marshal Zeringue