Salford PhD candidate wins $25k international prize

Valerie Waterhouse is the winner of the inaugural Kitty Kelley Dissertation Fellowship from the Biographers International Organisation (BIO) for her writing into the often overlooked working class writer Malachi Whitaker.

The fellowship is provided for a doctoral student writing a dissertation in English focused on another person’s life or the lives of two or more individuals. Kitty Kelley is the bestselling author of multiple biographical works, and has written on the likes of Oprah Winfrey, the Bush Family, Frank Sinatra and Elizabeth Taylor.

Valerie was announced the winner at the National Press Club in Washington DC by biographer Linda Leavell.

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 and I will make Kitty Kelley and BIO proud!”

Her thesis comprises of a literary biography of Whitaker and 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 perspective of a Northern, upper-working-class woman, but it also contributes to renewed efforts to consider Modernism in a broader, more inclusive context.

Valerie is the author of the Afterword for the new edition of Whitaker’s 1939 memoir And So Did I which is due to be published in September 2025 and in 2019, she co-organised the installation of a Blue Plaque with Bradford Civic Society at Whitaker’s birthplace in Wrose, Bradford.

Later this year, she will speak at the Bradford Literary Festival and Ilkley Literature Festival, lecture on Whitaker at the University of Cambridge's Literature Cambridge Online event and is organising a series of other events to celebrate the 130th anniversary of Whitaker’s birth in September.

Valerie’s lead supervisor Professor Ursula Hurley said: “We are thrilled for Valerie. This award is 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 female 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!”