She had had poems commissioned by the Ilkley Literature Festival and has edited two anthologies by Black Bough Press -
Sound and Vision and Shored Fragments (poems in response to T.S Eliot's The Waste Land).
Her first novel, The Clear-Eyed Man, was published in 2026. The novel was shortlisted by Hilary Mantel in the 2022 Mslexia Novel Prize and has undergone many visions and revisions since.
She has a BA in English from Goldsmiths College, University of London, a BSc in Mental Health Nursing and an MA in Creative Writing from Manchester Metropolitan University.
Her work often seeks to give a voice to those those who have not been able to speak for themselves in history, including those facing social or economic marginalisation, brutality or unfair representation.
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SUCCESS in the POETRY category of our Literary Prize for Kitty Donnelly - an NHS Psychiatric Nurse - Hammond House Publishing
Kitty Donnelly
Author
Kitty Donnelly is a poet and novelist. Her first poetry collection, The Impact of Limited Time, won the Indigo Dreams first collection award. Her second collection, In Dangerous Hours, is also published by Indigo Dreams.
Her poetry has been published widely in magazines and journals, including Magma, Quadrant, Mslexia, The Rialto and The American Journal of Poetry.
She has previously received a Creative Future Award and won the Hammond House International Literary Prize in 2023. Her poem, Lough Gur, came second in the Yeats' Thoor Ballylee Poetry Competition in 2023.
Reviews
The Clear-Eyed Man
If you like falling into a character's world and spending a week wondering what's happening to them every moment you're not reading, then this is a book for you. Encouraged by Hilary Mantel, no less.
Susie Wilson
The Clear-Eyed Man
I am completely blown away by [The Clear-Eyed Man]. I read it over two days, finding it difficult to put it down.
This is an exceptional first novel and I hope it receives all the plaudits it deserves.
Jake Halsey
The Clear-Eyed Man
A unique, well researched and emotionally weighty work by the Yorkshire-based writer.
Matt Smith
In Dangerous Hours
This is by turns oblique and direct, a collection subsumed by loss, grief and much poetic rumination, not to be missed. A moody work, indeed, to be salvaged from within the mists of poetic mystery and placed safely within your badge-bearing, bohemian knapsack, then taken to the fireside of a nearby inn, to be studied over a pint of mild.
Matt Smith
In Dangerous Hours
This is a book overflowing with authenticity. The poems throughout this collection are strongly evocative. Buy this if you appreciate incredibly evocative poetry.
The Impact of Limited Time
The Impact of Limited Time is a resonant and significant collection of poems. Donnelly’s poems explore [the issue of mental health] with the insight, empathy and optimism that it deserves.
Published Works
This poetry collection explores the human condition, drawing on a combination of personal experience and historical and fictional characters, including Rebecca De Winter, Zelda Fitzgerald and Laura Palmer. In chaotic and dangerous times, the redeeming power of nature is called upon more than ever.
This is a book overflowing with authenticity - The Book Bag
The Clear-eyed Man
In Dangerous Hours
West Yorkshire, 1885. Pregnant and barred from marrying her lover, Lena Starkie flees to London. Entering an East End rife with vice, Lena is preyed upon by the landlady of The Red Lion public house. Here she meets Marie, an enigmatic woman with a secret past. As the Whitechapel Murders commence, the two friends find themselves directly in the path of the killer known as Jack the Ripper.
In Dangerous Hours
This poetry collection explores the human condition, drawing on a combination of personal experience and historical and fictional characters, including Rebecca De Winter, Zelda Fitzgerald and Laura Palmer. In chaotic and dangerous times, the redeeming power of nature is called upon more than ever.
The Impact of Limited Time
This award-winning collection examines how past and present coexist, from childhood to childbirth and from death to rebirth. The narrators, in facing dark times, find beauty in the moment, and in the context of their limited time.
Connect with the Author
For literary inquiries, collaboration opportunities, or professional bookings, please reach out to Kitty Donnelly directly.
Based in West Yorkshire, UK