We are overjoyed to announce that our PhD candidate Valerie Waterhouse has won the inaugural Kitty Kelley dissertation fellowship, worth $25,000!
Valerie received the award for her research on the often-overlooked Northern working-class writer, Malachi Whitaker (1895–1976). Her thesis comprises a literary biography of Malachi Whitaker (1895–1976), with a critical reflection on biographical processes. The work represents essential research on a once-popular yet now-forgotten literary figure. Not only does the dissertation offer unique insights into the experience of war, economic pressures, and the publishing industry from the often-overlooked perspective of a Northern, upper-working-class woman, but it also contributes to renewed efforts to consider Modernism in a broader, more inclusive context.
University archivist Dr Alex Mitchell commented: “The biographical work gives a real sense of Malachi’s life and personality. As a subject, it is original and a new contribution to knowledge. We rarely hear about the lives of upper-working-class female writers, especially the impact of their adolescence.”
Lead supervisor Professor Ursula Hurley added: “We are thrilled for Valerie. This award is a testament to her hard work, talent, and determination. Her thesis links Modernism to the working classes and the north of England rather than London, Bloomsbury, and upper-class writers.”
Co-supervisor Dr Alicia Rouverol said: “Valerie’s biography of Malachi Whitaker will make a substantive contribution, not only to the legacy of Northern women writers but to the field of the Modernist canon that continues to expand. We are so excited not just for Valerie’s award but also for the biography itself. Stunning work!”
Valerie said: “This award is a game-changer for me. Writing biography is an intense and often isolated business, and being selected by a committee of published biographers has given me the confidence that my work is worthwhile. I hope, one day, that Malachi & I will make Kitty Kelley and BIO proud!”
The fellowship, endowed by best-selling biographer Kitty Kelley and awarded by the Biographers International Organization (BIO), provides $25,000 to a doctoral student writing a dissertation in English focused on another person’s life. See here for more information about the award.
Announcing the winner at the National Press Club in Washington DC, biographer Linda Leavell praised the University of Salford for positioning the discipline of writing Biography within Creative Writing. “Yay for recognition at the Academy and yay for recognition that Biography is Creative Writing,” she said.
Valerie is the author of the Afterword for the new edition of Whitaker’s 1939 memoir, And So Did I (coming out in September 2025, with Recovered Books, Boiler House Press, University of East Anglia; ). In 2019, with Bradford Civic Society, she co-organised the installation of a Blue Plaque at Whitaker’s birthplace house in Wrose. Later this year, she will lecture on Whitaker for Cambridge University’s Literature Cambridge Online. She will speak at the Bradford Literary Festival on 3rd July. This autumn, she is organising a series of events celebrating “130 Years of Malachi Whitaker”, born on 23rd September 1895. On October 12th, she will present at the Ilkley Literature Festival.