Publications
In 2009 I was the winner of the Latitude Festival/Notes from the Underground short story competition with, The Bones of St Ignatious.
Marge(Sheba, 1985) dealt with subject of child sexual abuse in the style of a thriller. It was one of the first British novels to tackle this issue in the format of a genre novel. It caused quite a stir when it came out and was reviewed widely in the national press. It was also bought by the German publisher, Frauoffensiv.
Marge was optioned by several different film production companies over the years; the rights were finally bought by a German company via the Mohrbooks Agency.
City Limits said: “ Kitty Fitzgerald’s lens keeps shifting. One moment there’s raging beauty and clarity,the next a rational view that what we’re watching is psychosis on the loose. It takes courage to dredge up such a voice, Kitty Fitzgerald’s done it, at the crucial moments her writing never falters.”
Snapdragons (Brandon, 1999) is a rite of passage novel about two sisters who move from rural Ireland to England in the 1960s and get involved with the ‘underworld’ of the Midlands.
Books Ireland said that Snapdragons was “…a tautly written novel...an original and daring book…clever and funny; dotted with humorous conversations with God.”
Small Acts Of Treachery (Brandon, 2001), tells the story of the relationship between a suspected terrorist in detention in England and her Special Services interrogator, dealing on the way with corruption in aid agencies and corporate duplicity.
Small Acts Of Treachery was nominated for the 2002 Sunday Independent/Hughes & Hughes Best Irish Novel of the Year award.
The Northern Echo said that Small Acts Of Treachery was “a gripping, complex novel full of pace and energy.”
Pigtopia (Faber & Faber, September 2005) (Miramax USA, October 2005) is narrated by the two very different voices of Jack and Holly – a pair whose unlikely bond, formed around the pigs Jack rears in secret, is threatened by the intolerance of those around them.
Pigtopia was a finalist in the Barnes & Noble Discover Awards (USA 2006) The Independent on Sunday said that Pigtopia was “a linguistic tour de force which grips and repels, each chapter sparkles with the eccentricity of her imagination; she has created a combination of moral fable and domestic drama which is a pleasure to devour.”
The Scotsman said that Pigtopia was “a novel whose boldness is itself a triumph of the poetic imagination. Kitty Fitzgerald announces herself as a writer of stylistic daring who cuts her own furrow.'
In 2003 I was commissioned, along with David Almond and Peter Mortimer, by Durham County Council to co-write a book called The Art & Craft of Short Story Writing.
In addition to my published fiction, four of my plays have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4, most recently, Pig Paradise, (1999) starring Christopher Eccleston. Eight of my theatre plays have been produced and I have worked with most of the North East region’s theatre companies.
