Katherine Rundell

Katherine Rundell, an English author and academic, has built a substantial reputation in the literary world with several award-winning books under her belt. Her work "Impossible Creatures" was named Waterstones Book of the Year in 2023, while "Rooftoppers" bagged the overall Waterstones Children's Book Prize, the Blue Peter Book Award for Best Story in 2015, and was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. In addition to these accolades, Rundell's "Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms" won the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award for fiction in 2015, and "The Explorer" was the recipient of the 2017 Costa Book Awards children's book prize.

Not only confined to books, Rundell's writing prowess extends to plays, with "Life According to Saki" winning the 2016 Carol Tambor Best of Edinburgh Award and subsequently opening Off-Broadway in February 2017. Her academic background is evident in her 2022 book "Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne," which not only won the Baillie Gifford Prize but also made her the youngest ever winner of the award. This academic background is further supported by her Fellowship at All Souls College, Oxford, and her election as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2020.

Rundell's reach extends beyond the written word; she has made appearances on BBC Radio 4 programmes such as "Start the Week," "Poetry Please," "Seriously...," "Private Passions," and "Front Row," where she discussed environmental themes from her book. Her book "Impossible Creatures" is set to be adapted by Walt Disney Studios into a live-action film, a testament to her storytelling abilities. Notably, Rundell is known for her philanthropy, having donated the Baillie Gifford prize money to charity, supporting Blue Ventures and a refugee charity.