A Q&A with one of this year’s Malorie Blackman Recipients on creativity, community, and carving space for unheard voices.
A Q&A with one of this year’s Malorie Blackman Recipients on creativity, community, and carving space for unheard voices.
City Lit is proud to spotlight Ayanna van der Maten, one of the 2025–26 recipients of the Malorie Blackman Unheard Voices Scholarship. With a sharp eye for character and a growing list of accolades, Ayanna is a writer whose voice is already making waves. In this Q&A, she shares her path into fiction, the role writing plays in her life, and what she hopes to gain from her time at City Lit.
Tell us a little bit more about yourself and your writing background?
I started writing fiction when I was thirteen. I remember being bored of the shows on Netflix and started writing to keep myself entertained.
For the last three years, I’ve been working on my novel Pit. At the end of 2023, I was shortlisted for the Penguin #Merky Books New Writers' Prize, and this year I was shortlisted for the Future Worlds Prize.
What role does writing play in your life, and why is it important to you?
I write every day because I have a lot of ideas and I don’t want to lose them. I enjoy playing with characters and moving them around within my stories. I’ve been doing it for a long time, so I can’t imagine not doing it. Making a story work is really hard, but it’s a lot of fun too.
Who are your favourite writers and what stories have inspired you?
I like so many writers. Recently, it’s been stories by Alejandro Zambra and Shirley Jackson. I’m reading Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates at the moment, and I think it’s wonderful.
I also really like TV for feeling the pace of a good story. You can tell when an episode is unfolding well, information is revealed at just the right moment, and you get drawn in. I think the first episodes of The Last of Us and Interview With the Vampire are great examples of that.
What made you decide to study at City Lit?
I want to take my writing more seriously and hopefully find a teacher or mentor who can push me to try new things and offer guidance.
What made you decide to apply for the Malorie Blackman scholarship?
Malorie Blackman’s novels inspired me to write. I remember reading Hacker, Dead Gorgeous, and Noughts and Crosses as a child and thinking, “How great would it be if I could do this?” I’m really pleased that she’s read my work and chosen me to receive this scholarship.
What do you hope to achieve through the scholarship scheme?
I’m hoping to join the fiction masterclass. I’m getting along in my novel and I think it would be helpful to have the feedback of other writers as I get into the editing and rewriting part of it.
Study at City Lit
Learn to write stories, articles, and poetry in the same college where big names in literature such as Malorie Blackman and Andrea Levy have trained.
