Candice Carty-Williams is an author, culture writer and journalist based in London. Her book Queenie came out recently in the UK and US, about a 25-year-old Jamaican British woman living in London called Queenie Jenkins, straddling two cultures and slotting neatly into neither. Oprah has called it 'brazenly hilarious" and it's been called The Black Bridget Jones. She writes regularly to i-D, Refinery29, BEAT Magazine, and more, and her pieces, especially those about blackness, sex, and identity have been shared and read globally. Candice created and launched the Guardian and 4th Estate BAME Short Story Prize, before moving to Vintage Books. We discuss writing Queenie, the universal topics within it, how to get published and why you should proactively ask for criticism, however hard that might be. For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy