Caryl Lewis

Caryl Lewis is a multi-award-winning Welsh novelist, children's writer, playwright and screenwriter. Her breakthrough novel Martha, Jac a Sianco (2004) is widely regarded as a modern classic of Welsh literature and sits on the Welsh curriculum. The film adaptation – with a screenplay by Caryl herself – went on to win six Welsh BAFTAs and the Spirit of the Festival Award at the 2010 Celtic Media Festival. Lewis' other screenwriting work includes BBC/S4C thrillers Hinterland and Hidden.

In 2022, having written in Welsh for more than two decades, Caryl blazed onto the English scene with the launch of three English-language titles. First came her adult novel Drift (Doubleday) - ‘a truly beautiful and haunting novel, and an incredible feat of storytelling’ (Donal Ryan). It was named Waterstones Welsh Book of the Year, and later scooped Wales Book of the Year, with Caryl making history as the only author to ever win this coveted award in both languages. Next came her middle-grade novel, Seed (Macmillan), which was nominated for both the Branford Boase and a Week Junior Award. Finally, her picture book, The Boy Who Dreamed Dragons (Puffin, and with illustrations by Carmen Saldana) was published to enormous acclaim and scooped Book of the Week/Book of the Year nods in a number of media outlets.

Recent works include Bitter Honey (Doubleday), Quill and the Last Generation (Macmillan), a middle-grade fantasy inspired by the Celtic myths, which was nominated for Indie Book Awards 2026, and The Danger of Small Things (Simon & Schuster), Caryl’s YA debut.

Caryl is a visiting lecturer in Creative Writing at Cardiff University. Her writing has been sold in over 25 languages.