Seema McArdle

Seema McArdle is a working-class writer born into a Newcastle-based Punjabi family. She is a winner of the National Centre for Writing 23/24 Escalator programme, where she worked on her debut children’s novel, mentored by Ashley Hickson-Lovence. Seema’s work has won the Publisher’s Prize at FABPrize 2020 and was shortlisted for the Penguin Random House WriteNow 2021 programme. She holds a BA (hons) in History & Sociology, a PGCE in Primary Education, and a CELTA, and has previously worked for The Independent, the Serious Fraud Office, the NHS, Norwich University of the Arts and as an educator. Seema is interested in the fascinating histories of British People of Colour, many of whom remain excluded from our history and story books. She works at the University of East Anglia, where she is a member of the Race Equality Steering Committee and helped launch South Asian Heritage Month. Seema is an active supporter of Show Racism the Red Card charity, and she is a contributor of the John Blanke Project.