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Overview
I
am an Assistant Editor and the Books Editor of The Sunday
Independent. I am also an op-ed columnist and feature writer,
specializing in in-depth-profiles.
I was one of the judges of the Commonwealth Writer’s
Prize, Africa region, in 2008. I have for the past two years been
on the judging panel of the Sunday Times Alan Paton non-fiction
award. I was the winner of the 2009 South African Literary Award
for Journalism in the Print Media category.
Profile
Interviews
I
have until last year, conducted weekly in-depth interviews,
usually with South African politicians or public figures whom
circumstance has placed in “the hot seat”.
Most
recent interviews include the top leadership of the ANC; Gwede
Mantashe, the ANC secretary general, Mathews Phosa, the ANC
treasurer-general, Lindiwe Sisulu, the minister of housing, Enver
Surtey, the justice minister, Pallo Jordan, the arts and culture
minister, Blade Nzimande, the South African Communist Party
general secretary. I have interviewed Zwelinzima Vavi, the general
secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions several
times; Julius Malema, the ANC Youth League President and Vusi
Pikoli, the axed director of public prosecutions. I interviewed
Jessie Duarte, the ANC national spokesperson and Carl Niehaus, the
former ANC spokesperson who fell from grace, Jackson Mthembu, who
replaced Duarte; and from the opposition Cope party, Mosioua
Lekota, Cope’s former national organiser, Mluleki George,
Cope’s treasurer and Lynda Odendaal, Cope’s second deputy
president. I interviewed Tendai Biti, Zimbabwe’s minister of
finance and Arthur Mutumbara, Zimbabwe’s deputy prime minister.
I write in-depth news related pieces and have an interest in
African and international affairs.
Profile
interviews include a range of international and local writers,
including Amartya
Sen, the Nobel economics laureate, Alli Allawi, Iraq’s former
defence minister and author, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, the Kenyan
writer, Edna O’Brien, the Irish writer, Kiran Desai, winner of
the 2006 Man Booker prize, Pieter-Dirk Uys, the South African
satirist, George Bizos, (Nelson Mandela’s lawyer).
I
have conducted in-depth interviews with the Nobel literature
laureates, Nadine Gordimer, Doris Lessing and Wole Soyinka;
Cornell West, Henry Louis Gates, Mahmoud Mamdani, Susan
Sontag, Carlos Fuentes, Ariel Dorfman, Chinua Achebe, Ken Wiwa,
Spanish Felipe Fernando Armesto, Paul Theroux, Francesca
Marciano, Iain Banks Graham Swift, Keith Richburg, Kinky Friedman,
Jeffrey Archer, Ken Follet.
South
African writers include Zakes Mda, John Matshikiza, Andre Brink,
Antjie Krog, Shaun Johnson, Adam Levin, Edwin Cameron, Ivan
Vladislavic Anne Landsman, Mandla Langa, Lesego Rampolokeng, Chris
Van Wyk, Ivan Vladislavic, Eric Miyeni and William Gumede,
Profile
interviews with a variety of cultural figures, include the
cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro, the photographer David Goldblatt and
the artist Penny Siopis.
My
work involves copy-tasting and editing several pages of the Sunday
Independent, including the Dispatches section, the International
and Africa pages.
I
freelance for Afropolitan
and Leadership magazines
and I am currently working on an MA in politics by research at
Wits University.
Background
I
have worked in journalism for three decades. I started freelancing
for Business Day and The Star newspapers as well as
for Fair Lady magazine.
I
have been employed at Independent newspapers since November 1990,
working for several of its publications.
I
am a fiction writer and my short story collection, Holding Back
Midnight was published in 1992 and short-listed for the CNA
debut award. My short stories have been published in
anthologies and magazines both locally and abroad. They have also
been broadcast on the SABC’s Short Story. A short story Love
in Lalaland was published in a new South African collection
called Touch, compiled
by Karina Magdalena Szczurek, (Zebra Press) in June 2009.
.
I
have researched and edited two books, The Fifties People of
South Africa and The Finest Photographs from the Old Drum,
published by Bailey's African Photo Archives. I have researched a
short film, Have You Seen Drum Recently?
First
prize in the 1999 FNB Vita/Herstoria short story competition and
winner of the 1996 National Book Journalist Award. Finalist for
several Mondi Newspaper awards for “creative writing” and
columns and for Arts and Culture Journalist award
NOTE:
A detailed account of my employment history follows.
EDUCATIONAL
QUALIFICATIONS
Last
school attended:
Northview
High, Johannesburg (1968 - 1972)
Highest
standard passed:
Transvaal
University Entrance Matric - first class pass)
HIGHER EDUCATION
University
attended:
University
of the Witwatersrand
Degree
obtained:
BA
(graduated 1976)
Subjects:
English,
French, History of Art, Drama History, German
LANGUAGES
Swedish:
Written and spoken Swedish at university level. Studied at
Stockholm's Studieframjandet 1981- 1984
Zulu:
Passed first module in Interman Zulu beginner's course in 1993,
Easy Zulu Conversation course in March 1999 and Interman Zulu
Module Two in 2000. Zulu for Beginners, Unisa, 2002
SOCIETY
MEMBERSHIP
Member
of the Professional Journalist’s Association
I
was a member of the Congress of South African Writers (COSAW) from
1989 until 1998.
EMPLOYMENT
HISTORY
Current:
The
Sunday Independent
Position
held:
Assistant
editor; Books Editor. Features writer
1997-98
Correspondent for Pan African News Agency (PANA) on gender issues
Freelanced
for Swedish magazine Moderna Tider
Previous
employment:
Saturday
Star, 1993-1994
Nature
of work:
Profile
columnist and news related features.
Previous
employment:
Sunday
Star, August 1991-1993
Nature
of work:
Senior
news and feature writer for the Sunday Star as well as Sunday
Life, a weekend supplement.
Previous
employment:
Sunday
Magazine, November 1990 - August 1991
Nature
of work:
Staff
writer, wrote the magazine's lead story and several features each
week
Previous
employment:
You
magazine. June 1988 - October 1990
Nature
of work:
Feature writer. Wrote shock and horror stories for “common
denominator” audience as well as personality profiles with local
celebrities. At this time I freelanced for Style Magazine, Fair
Lady, Living and True Love magazines as well as Business
Day and The Star newspaper and published short stories
in various journals.
Previous
employment
Bailey's
African Photo Archives (Drum Archives), 1986 to July 1988
Nature
of work:
Researcher
Books
completed:
The Finest Photos from the Old Drum and The Fifties People of
South Africa
Wrote
a short biography of the singer Tandie Klaasen
Edited
a biography of the jazz artist Kippie Moeketsi, entitled Kippie,
Sad Man of Jazz
Researched
a book on the Sixties in South Africa for Bailey’s African Photo
Archives.
Researched
Film about the Fifties in South Africa entitled Have You Seen
Drum Recently?
During
this period wrote freelance articles for Fair Lady, The Star
and Business Day
Previous
employment:
April
1984 - May 1986
Worked
as an advertising copywriter in advertising agencies including
Grey Perspectives where I worked as radio producer and copywriter
on all major ac
Previous
employment:
March
1980 - April 1984 traveled to Italy, Greece, London, Copenhagen,
Norway. Lived in Sweden for three and a half years. Studied
Swedish at the Studieframjandet, to University level and was
accepted at the University of Stockholm as an anthropology
student, but chose to return to South Africa.
In
Sweden taught English as a second language to Swedish and Finnish
adult students, pensioners and to a class of Korean engineers.
Worked
half-time in a day care centre. My charge was a handicapped girl.
Washed dishes and worked briefly at the Bromma Krykogard, a
cemetery outside of Stockholm as a gardener.
Previous
employment:
January
1976 - March 1980
Worked
as a copywriter for advertising agencies Grey Phillips, Bunton,
Mundell and Blake, Lindsay Smithers and Kuper Hands on all major
accounts.
FICTION PORTFOLIO
Holding Back
Midnight,
my debut collection of thirteen short stories published by Cosaw
in 1992, spans a time from adolescence to adulthood, the stories
explore Johannesburg life from the Fifties through to midnight of
the year 2000. The stories are located in Sophiatown, Triomf,
Houghton, downtown Johannesburg and Stockholm. Most of the stories
in the collection have been published in anthologies and
magazines, both local and international, and broadcast on the
SABC.
The
collection was the finalist in the 1992 CNA Debut Prize. The title
story, Holding Back Midnight has appeared in Leonardo,
a joint publication of the Independent on Sunday, El Pais, la
Republica and Le Monde. It appeared in The Penguin
Book of Contemporary South African Short and in The Omnibus of
a Century of South African Short Stories (Ad Donker publishers,
2007)
The
short story, Mindreader was published in the anthology Rendezvous
of Victory, (Kwela books, 1999).
The
short story, Metamorphosis was published in the festschrift, Nadine
Gordimer; A Writing Life (1998). The short story Hero,
appeared in A South African Anthology of Women's Writing
(Cosaw, 1994). Short story I Could Have Loved Gold won
prize in the 1990 Chapters Literary Competition.
It
was published in Raising the Blinds: A Century of South African
Women's Stories (Ad Donker 1991) and in Fair Lady
magazine.
Four
short stories, Foreigners, Jo'burg City, Birthday, Smooching
Beryl appeared in Hippogriff New Writing 1991.
(Hippogriff Press).
Short
story, Sugaring It appeared in the Vita Anthology of New
South African Short Fiction (Justified Press, 1988).
Magazines:
Short stories have been published in Cosmopolitan (South
Africa and Holland), Fair Lady, Femina, Tribute, Jewish
Affairs, and local literary magazines Staffrider, Sesame,
Slug News and New Damn Thing.
Radio:
Book reviewer for SAFM for several years
Compiled
a program for The Poet Speaks, Anne Sexton: Live or Die in
1993.
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