Welcome to a brand new series of Forthwrite, the podcast formerly known as Writing Around The Kids. In this episode Anna and Sam talk with Women's Prize long-listed authour Pam Williams, about finding the right way to tell her family's story, the value of feedback and how she squeezes writing into her busy schedule.
Find Pam @pamwilliamsauthor
Pam is a Grenadian heritage writer born in London. She studied fashion at prestigious St. Martin’s School of Art, graduating in 1984. For two decades Pam worked as a fashion journalist, magazine Fashion Editor (She, PS, Shape, Now) and freelance stylist.
After leaving the fashion world to be a foster carer for three years, Pam retrained and gained a Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE). Since 2018 she has taught at a special school in Westminster where she now leads the Post 16+ class and recently progressed to Middle Leader for Careers and Transitions.
Maya Angelou inspired Pam’s teenage dream of becoming an author; and it was her heroine’s death in 2014 that renewed a determination to ‘dare to try’ and make that fantasy a reality. Pam joined the group Afrikan Heritage Writers (AHW) and attended writing workshops to hone and share her craft.
Pam’s short story, ’Soul Talking’ was highly commended and published in the City of Stories anthology (2017, Spread the Word); and she contributed to AHW’s poetry and prose collection, 100 Years Unheard - WWI and the Afrikan Diasporan Woman (2018).
In 2019, Pam applied for the London Writers Award, a mentoring programme run by writers’ development agency, Spread the Word. The extract she submitted from a novel that she’d started (and put aside many times) thirty years before, secured her a place.
By the end of the programme, the manuscript had been transformed into the first draft of A Trace of Sun and Northbank Talent Management offered Pam representation. Legend Press then acquired the rights to publish the book.
While waiting for the big day of publication, Pam won the Black Ink Magazine New Writing 2022 Prize with short story, Hibiscus; and completed the first draft of her second book.
Pam’s debut novel A Trace of Sun was published on 1st March 2024 and was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction.
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