fiction.wikisort.org - Writer

Kirsten Miller is a South African novelist, writer and artist with six full-length books published between 2006 and 2021.

Education

Miller has a BA (Hons.) cum laude and an MA summa cum laude from the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Career

Kirsten has held jobs as a university lecturer, creativity teacher and dolphin trainer and has lived in Gqeberha, London, Cape Town and Johannesburg.

Miller currently lives in Durban and is the director of the NGO Action in Autism which provides support and resources for autistic children and adults and their families. The organization also lobbies government and civil society to improve quality of life for people with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).[1] Her spare time is spent attending to her artwork and writing.[2]

Author

Miller's first book Children on the Bridge: A Story of Autism in South Africa is an autobiographical account of her early work as a tutor of autistic children. It details the challenges in dealing with these children and their families and the effect this work has on her personal life.[3][4]

Her first novel, All is Fish, was shortlisted for the 2005 European Union Literary Awards.[5] The novel is set in the resort town of Mtunzini in Zululand, South Africa and deals warmly with the complex relationships between the three central protagonists.[6][7]

In May 2014, the novel Sister Moon was published by Umuzi, Random House. Sister Moon is a story of love and growing up, of exclusion and abuse.[8] Two further novels The Hum of the Sun and All That is Left were published by NB Publishers, under their imprint Kwela Books, in 2018 and 2020 respectively. The Hum of the Sun has been translated into German for the Basel-based publisher Baobab Books. The novel will be released in September 2021 under the title Hörst du, wie der Himmel singt?.[9]

Miller has published short stories in five collections and was also a three times finalist in the SA Pen Awards.[10] In 2012 her autism themed play "Remember Joe" was published in Short, Sharp and Snappy, a collection of plays by South African playwrights and authors. Miller was a featured book reviewer for the Sunday Times and has contributed regularly to South African Airways' in-flight magazine Sawubona until 2014.[11]

Miller has written an illustrated children's book titled A Time for Fairies, which was published in South Africa in 2008.[12]

Public and TV appearances

Miller was featured in the 2008, 2015, 2018 and 2020 Time of the Writer International Writers Festivals alongside Breyten Breytenbach, Charles Mungoshi, Ananda Devi and John Pilger.[13][14] Kirsten has been a participant in the Franschhoek Literary Festival, the Midlands Literary Festival and the Karoo Writer's Festival.

SABC TV featured Kirsten Miller in the series The Power Within, aired in December 2009, where she discussed her work in autism, writing and art. She has made a number of TV and radio appearances where she has spoken about her writing and about her work in autism.

Artist

Miller's artwork works in fabric, oils and watercolours, drawing inspiration from her surroundings and thoughts. Johannesburg's Unity Gallery has held a solo exhibitions of her work in 2005 and 2012.[15][16] Her life-size fabric, beads and fibreglass commission of African Moo-nlight for CowParade was purchased on auction by the brewer SABMiller.[17]

Literary awards

• Her first novel, All is Fish, was shortlisted for the 2005 European Union Literary Awards.[5]
• 3 times finalist in the SA Pen Awards[10] for short stories.
• In 2016, Miller won the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize for Best Unpublished Adventure Manuscript with "The Hum of the Sun". Her prize from the Wilbur and Niso Smith Foundation allowed her to travel to Ireland and Spain, spending time in the cities of Dublin and Barcelona to do research for a future unnamed novel. The Hum of the Sun was published by Kwela Books in 2018.
• In 2018 and 2019, Miller won the Aziz Hassim Literary Awards (Main Category) awarded by the Minara Organisation for her manuscript "Comfortable Skin" (published in March 2020 as All That Is Left[18])[19] and her published work The Hum of the Sun.
• The Hum of the Sun was long-listed for the 2020 International Dublin Literary Award along with Cynthia Jele, Tim Winton and Haruki Murakami[20]

Selected publications

Literary Fiction

• Hörst du, wie der Himmel singt? (Baobab) 2021
• All That is Left - (Kwela) 2020
• The Hum of the Sun - (Kwela) 2018
• Sister Moon - (Umuzi) 2014
• All is Fish - (Jacana) 2007

Autobiography

• Children on the Bridge: A Story of Autism in South Africa - (Jacana) 2006

Short stories and plays in collections

• "Remember Joe" in Short, Sharp and Snappy - 2012
• "Mobile" in Africa Inside Out - 2012
• "Only in Art" in New Writing from Africa - 2009
• "Chance Encounter" in Dinaane: Short Stories by South African Women - 2007
• "The Chief's Spell" in African Road - 2006
• "White Boy" in African Compass - 2005
• "When the Master Calls" in Uncovered Mirrors - 1999

Illustrated children's book

• A Time for Faeries - (Reach) 2008

References

External links

• Kirsten Miller Homepage
• SABC TV Interview - All that is Left and TOW2020
• Radio Interview on The Hum of the Sun
• TV Interview on The Hum of the Sun
• Review of The Hum of the Sun on Afroliterature Archived 30 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine
• UKZN Centre for Creative Arts - Kirsten Miller Bio Archived 16 February 2018 at the Wayback Machine
• Tips on Writing a Winning Manuscript
• KZN Literary Tourism - Kirsten Miller^{[permanent dead link]}
• Wilbur and Niso Smith Foundation - Kirsten Miller in Ireland
• Wilbur and Niso Smith Foundation - Kirsten Miller visits Barcelona
• Sister Moon Review
• Action in Autism
• Autism South Africa Archived 30 May 2020 at the Wayback Machine
• All is fish, or is it? In conversation with Kirsten Miller, author of All is Fish^{[permanent dead link]}
• Janet van Eeden in conversation with Kirsten Miller about All is Fish Archived 27 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine
• International Time of the Writer - Author Bio: Kirsten Miller
• Tymon Smith chats to Kirsten Miller - audio download Archived 10 April 2008 at the Wayback Machine
• Kirsten Miller Reads from All is Fish - youtube video
• Kirsten Miller Reviews Justin Cartwright's "To Heaven by Water"^{[permanent dead link]}

---