KRIS EVANS

Kris (Ilyas) is a writer based in Vancouver, BC. Originally from the UK, he was born in Bristol and has lived and worked in London, Beirut, and LA. In his 20s he published two novels under a pseudonym, had numerous plays produced for BBC Radio, and sold options on feature-length screenplays. His journalism appeared in outlets including Dazed and Al Jazeera and his corporate work includes long-form articles and animation scripts for Microsoft and Siemens. He has taught creative writing at Falmouth University and the Faber Academy. After a long hiatus, he is returning to writing with a memoir about how he became a Muslim, slated for publication by Beacon Books in 2026.

BOOK

Everyone deals with big life questions: How will I find my future spouse? What if we are unable to have children? How will I cope with losing a parent? And what should I do when the doctor walks in the room with my test results and a look that says the news is bad.

Kris Evans was never very good at atheism, but religion didn’t appeal either. His book is the unlikely story of how he stumbled his way into Islam in a mosque not far from the Hollywood sign while on a trip to LA, and how the uniqueness of Islam – infusing mundane daily tasks with spiritual meaning – became for him like a form of training before life’s marathon. That marathon would be a cancer diagnosis.

By turns profound and funny, the book is a love story – to a spouse, to a new language, to a new religion.

Why I wrote this book:

I think there is a clear gap where the interior, emotional arc of religious conversion is not being fully told in memoir. I wanted to capture the emotion, to throw the reader into the profound transformation – internal and external – that a person goes through when becoming a Muslim. Stories about the big moments of life – getting married, trying to have children, facing the loss of a loved one, facing a life-threatening diagnosis for yourself – are too often addressed in memoir and autobiography through a secular worldview that just runs out of road when it comes to these questions. My book is an attempt to give a wide audience a different view of how a person might cope with life’s difficulties.

ABOUT ME

Hi. I’m Kris – or Ilyas. I was born in Bristol and grew up in rural south-west England. Mostly trees, cows and more cows. It’s a beautiful area, but I wanted to escape. So I did. I lived in London, then Beirut, then LA. In between, I travelled all over the Middle East and North Africa. These days I live in Vancouver, BC.

I have been a writer my whole life and in my 20s and early 30s had some novels published under a pseudonym as well as writing a few plays for BBC Radio and selling options on a couple of feature-length screenplays. Later, I co-created the graphic novel Hiddenfolk. I also wrote for magazines like Dazed and Arena as well as news outlets including Al Jazeera and The (London) Times. Then I stopped writing for many years and just concentrated on corporate work and figuring out if there was an alternative to atheism which just wasn’t making sense to me anymore. I read and read and read. I converted to Islam about thirteen years ago. You can hear about my journey here.

Recently, I re-started my writing career and had an essay published in Overtly Lit. My memoir of how and why I became a Muslim is going to be published by Beacon Books in 2026.

My day job is copywriting. I’ve worked for agencies and client-side, writing long-form articles and animation scripts for the likes of Microsoft, Siemens, the European Union and many other organisations.

As a student, I have a BA in Media & Communication Studies from Birmingham City University, a Postgrad Diploma in Screenwriting from UCLA, and an MA in Islamic Studies from the University of Birmingham. As a lecturer, I have designed and taught classes on narrative and novel writing for the MA Professional Writing at Falmouth University and the Faber Academy.

My original goal was to be a professional skateboarder, but there were too many cobbles where I lived.

Anyway, enough about me. What’s going on with you?