Katya Balen

Katya Balen is a children’s author. She was previously co-director of a charity that supports neurodivergent and autistic people to access creative opportunities. She studied English at university, and completed an MA researching the impact of stories on autistic children’s behaviour. She lives in South London with her partner and their dog.

Her debut children’s novel The Space We’re In was published by Bloomsbury in 2019 and was selected as the Sunday Times Children’s Book of the Week as well as being shortlisted for the Branford Boase award.

Katya’s second novel, October, October, was published in 2021 to widespread acclaim and was again selected as the Times Children’s Book of the Week. In 2022, October, October scored a double victory, winning both the Yoto Carnegie Medal and the Shadowers’ Choice Award. Jennifer. Horan, Chair of Judges, praised the book’s “captivating story feature exquisite descriptions of the natural world and relationships that develop and heal” and called it “expertly written, beautiful and lyrical”. Just one week later, October, October was shortlisted for the James Cropper Wainwright Prize in the first ever Children’s Writing on Nature and Conservation category.

Since October, October‘s release, Balen has published another middle-grade novel with Bloomsbury, The Light in Everything, which won the 2023 UKLA Book Award in the 7-10+ category, as well as Foxlight (Bloomsbury, 2023). She has also written two novellas, published by Barrington Stoke – Birdsong, in July 2022, and Night Jar, in June 2023.

Her first book in an exciting new adventure series for young readers, The Thames and Tide Club: The Secret City, was published in May 2023 by Bloomsbury. The second instalment, The Thames and Tide Club: Squid Invasion, came out in February. Her new novella, Little House, was published in March 2024.

Katya’s latest book, Ghostlines (Bloomsbury, 2024), is a sea-soaked story of friendship, community and discovering what it means to carry home in your heart.

Photo courtesy of Patrick Simpson