Sindiwe Magona
| Sindiwe Magona | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born |
27 August 1943 South Africa |
| Nationality | South African |
| Occupation | Author, motivational speaker, teacher, translator |
Sindiwe Magona (born 27 August 1943) is a South African writer.
Life
A native of the Transkei, she grew up in a township near Cape Town, where she worked as a domestic and completed her secondary education by correspondence. Magona later graduated from the University of South Africa and earned a Master of Science Degree in Organisational Social Work from Columbia University.[1] In 1993 she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Hartwick College, Oneonta, and in 1997 she was a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow in the non-fiction category.
She worked in various capacities for the United Nations over 20 years, retiring in 2003,[2] and currently lives in South Africa. In 2007 she was awarded the Grinzane Award[3] for writing that addresses social concerns, the Molteno Gold Medal for promoting the Xhosa culture and language, as well as a Lifetime Achievement Award for contribution to South African Literature. In 2011 she was given the Order of iKhamanga, a Presidential Award and the highest such award in South Africa, and in 2012 she was joint winner with Nadine Gordimer of the Imbokodo Award.[1] In the 2013 computer-animated adventure comedy film Khumba she was the voice actor for the character Gemsbok Healer.
She is Writer-in-Residence at the University of the Western Cape and is currently working at Georgia State University.[4]
Literary career
She published her autobiography To My Children's Children in 1990. In 1998, she published Mother to Mother, a fictionalized account of the Amy Biehl killing,[5] which she adapted to a play. This was performed at the Baxter Theatre complex in late 2009 and the film rights to the novel were acquired by Type A Films in 2003.[6] She has also written autobiographies and short story collections. Her novel Beauty's Gift was shortlisted for the 2009 Commonwealth Writers' Prize Best Book, Africa Region.[2][7][8] In 2009, Please, Take Photographs, her first collection of poems, was published.
Works
- 1990 : To My Children's Children
- 1991 : Living, Loving and Lying Awake at Night
- 1992 : Forced to Grow
- 1996 : Push Push
- 1998 : Mother to Mother
- 2006 : The Best Meal Ever!
- 2008 : Beauty's Gift
- 2009 : Please, Take Photographs
- 2014 : The Woman on the Moon
References
- 1 2 "About Sindiwe Magona", official website.
- 1 2 "Sindiwe Magona", South African History Online.
- ↑ "Premio Grinzane - Terra d'Otranto", Città di Otranto.
- ↑ "Sindiwe Magona", Georgia State University.
- ↑ "Mother To Mother (review)". Blue Rectangle. Retrieved 2010-06-14.
- ↑ Harris, Dana (6 August 2003). "Universal Pictures acquires Sindiwe Magona's novel". Variety. Retrieved 24 November 2009.
- ↑ Commonwealth Foundation List of prize winners.
- ↑ "Commonwealth Writers Prize", Literary Festivals UK.
External links
- Sindiwe Magona official website
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