fiction.wikisort.org - Writer

Karen Jennings (born 1982) is a South African author.[1][2]

Early life and education

Jennings was born in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1982, the daughter of an Afrikaans mother and an English father; both of her parents were teachers.[2][3] She has master's degrees in English literature and creative writing from the University of Cape Town,[3] and a PhD in creative writing from the University of KwaZulu-Natal.[1] As of 2021^[update], she is pursuing doctoral work in history at the University of Johannesburg.[4] She has done post-doctoral research at the Federal University of Goiás, Brazil, on the historical relationship between science and literature, with particular reference to eusocial insects.[5]

Career

Jennings edited Feast, Famine & Potluck, a collection of African short stories published in 2014 by Modjaji Books for Short Story Day Africa.[6] Her first novel Finding Soutbek was shortlisted for the 2013 Etisalat Prize for Literature (now known as the 9mobile Prize for Literature).[7] Her book An Island, written with support from a Miles Moreland Foundation Writing Scholarship, was longlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize.[8][9]

Personal life

Jennings is married to a Brazilian scientist and lived in Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic.[2]

Awards

• Winner English Section of the Maskew Miller Longman Literature Awards, 2009 for "Mia and the Shark" (short story)
• Winner Africa Region Prize of the Commonwealth Short Story Competition, 2010 for "From Dark" (short story)
• Shortlisted Etisalat Prize for Literature, 2013 for Finding Soutbek
• Longlisted The Booker Prize, 2021 for An Island
• Co-winner K. Sello Duiker Memorial Award (one of the annual South African Literary Awards), 2021 for An Island

Works

• An Island (Holland House Books, 2020, ISBN 9781910688922) – novel
• Upturned Earth (Holland Park Press, 2019, ISBN 9781907320910) - novel
• Space Inhabited by Echoes (Holland Park Press, 2018, ISBN 9781907320774) – poetry[10][11]
• Travels with My Father: An Autobiographical Novel (Holland Park Press, 2016, ISBN 9781907320699) – novel/memoir [12]
• Away from the Dead (Holland Park Press, 2014, ISBN 9781907320439) – short stories
• Finding Soutbek (Holland Park Press, 2013, ISBN 9781907320200) – novel[13]

References

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