Diana Evans was born in London and spent part of her childhood in Lagos, Nigeria, her mother’s country. She studied Media Studies at the University of Sussex and was a dancer in the Brighton-based troupe Mashango before becoming a journalist and author. A former music and arts editor of Pride Magazine, she has written features, essays and criticism for Marie Claire, The Independent, The Observer, The Guardian, The Telegraph, Financial Times and Harper’s Bazaar to name a few. Her short fiction has been anthologised in volumes by Penguin, Serpent’s Tail and Bookslam Productions. She holds a master’s degree in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia and has taught writing workshops at venues including Arvon and Royal Holloway College.

Evans’s first novel, 26a, received a Betty Trask award, a nomination for the Guardian First Book Award, and was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel and Commonwealth Best First Book awards. It was the Decibel Writer of the Year winner at the 2006 British Book Awards and the inaugural winner of the Orange Award for New Writers. It has been translated into twelve languages. Her second novel, The Wonder, was also published by Chatto & Windus to critical acclaim. She is currently writing her third novel and reviews books for the national press.