SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2026 WOMENS PRIZE FOR FICTION

A gentle and compassionate novel that explores the nuances of queer love and friendship.The Guardian, Derek Owusu

a tenderly written meditation on art, love and life thats as much about the search for self as for connection.Marie Claire, editors pick

Kelly writes the messiness of power dynamics well.Telegraph

A creative writing academic falls under the spell of his colleague, a poet whose life seems to shimmer with a freedom he cannot reach. At home, there is Michael: beautiful, steady, safe. But the poet is something else entirelyshe is restless, luminous, untouchable.

As his fixation deepens, the boundaries between admiration, desire and possession begin to blur. The poet, his Kingfisher, draws him further from the life he knows, into a world shaped by art, longing and illusion.

Then illness arrives, closing in on them all, and the tightrope hes been walking starts to sway.

Kingfisheris a beautifully crafted novel of queer desire and ambition, grief and creativity, and the fine lines between intimacy and obsession.