Kishani Widyaratna

Kishani Widyaratna is an Editor at Picador Books and joined in 2016. At Picador she publishes literary fiction, poetry and all stripes of quality non-fiction. She is passionate about nurturing bold new writing talent and is a longstanding Contributing Editor for The White Review, a quarterly literary magazine. Kishani is keen to champion underrepresented voices and expand the publishing of distinctive international writing. In non-fiction, she is particularly interested in writers who challenge the status quo and critique culture, society and politics. In fiction, she is drawn to stories that engage with the world and the way we live, writers who push boundaries thematically or formally, and writing that cuts through everything. Her authors include Sinéad Gleeson, Jamie Quatro, Julia Armfield, Olivia Laing, Andrea Lawlor, Jericho Brown, Mieko Kawakami, Safiya Sinclair, Behrouz Boochani and Layli Long Soldier. Kishani was also one of the editors for Robin Robertson’s The Long Takewhich was shortlisted for the Man Booker prize last year and Olivia Laing’s Crudowhich was shortlisted for the Goldsmith’s prize.Alongside her publisher she publishes Alan Hollinghurst, Emma Donoghue and Carol Ann Duffy. She previously worked at Faber Books, Quercus and Penguin Random House.