The Bed Book of Short Stories

Author Biographies

306 Author Biographies Ellen Banda-Aaku’s first book for children, Wandi’s Little Voice, won the 2004 Macmillan Writers’ prize for Africa, New Children’s Writer Award. In 2007 she won the Commonwealth Short Story Competition for her story, ‘Sozi’s Box’. Her short story, ‘Lost’, was published in Jambula Tree & other short stories, The Caine Prize for African Writing 8th Annual anthology. Originally from Zambia, she has lived and worked in Zambia, the UK, Ghana and South Africa. Now based in the UK, she holds a Masters degree in Creative Writing from the University of Cape Town. Jayne Bauling, based in White River in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa, has enjoyed a successful career in women’s fiction, with 17 novels published in the UK. Her teen novel E Eights, published 2009, won the Macmillan Writer’s Prize for Africa. Her poetry has received poetry awards from SAFM and POWA, and has been published in Ons Klyntji, The Lowvelder, ourobos review and on LitNet. Her poetry is included in POWA’s latest Breaking the Silence collection, Murmurs of the Girl in Me. Short stories and novels were shortlisted for the 2009 Baobab Prize and the Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature 2010. Amongst many interests, she collaborates with other Mpumalanga writers, doing workshops for women living with HIV/AIDS. Rita Britz, a qualified tour guide and a passionate traveller, is originally from the Highveld. She qualified as a teacher and taught for 11 years, before she and her husband bought on auction, in 1994, a small country hotel. This hotel is situated in a quiet little South African village, and provides inspiration for stories. Marina Chichava is a Mozambican anthropologist, poet, musician and writer. She co-founded the poetry ensemble Lagama, which has led to the growth of the spoken-word/slam poetry movement among young people in her home town of Maputo, Mozambique. Marina is also the lead singer and songwriter of local band The Rocats. She has performed in and around Mozambique, where she works in the field of HIV/AIDS and child protection. Marina is at present at the University of Cape Town doing her Masters in Social Anthropology. 307 Tinashe Chidyausiku lives and works in Harare, Zimbabwe. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Humanities from Africa University, Mutare, Zimbabwe, where she majored in English. She works currently as a high school teacher, teaching English literature and history. Erika Coetzee is a freelance researcher and writer living in Cape Town, South Africa. She works mainly as a materials’ developer, in collaboration with non-governmental organisations in South Africa and internationally, focussing mainly on democracy, human rights and development. She also writes learning materials for schoolchildren and youth in the areas of social science and history, and has co-authored 10 text books for various educational publishers. She holds a Masters degree in Philosophy from Stellenbosch University. Joanne Fedler’sbooks have sold more than 180 000 copies worldwide. She is a former women’s rights advocate and CEO of a not-for-profit advocacy centre. She writes for Vogue, teaches life-writing classes and is a motivational speaker. She has worked to raise money for abused women, breast cancer research and post-natal depression. Her latest book When Hungry, Eat, published 2010, is a spiritual memoir about losing weight, immigrating and the gifts of hunger. She is originally South African, and lives now in Sydney, Australia. Melissa Gardiner grew up in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. She began writing at an early age, which culminated in her studies towards a degree in Journalism and Media studies at Rhodes University, where she graduated in 2007. Melissa is currently writing her first novel. Rosemund Handler holds a Masters degree in creative writing from the University of Cape Town. She has written stories and poems for many years, published in South Africa and in the US, where she lived for fourteen years. Her novels include Madlands (2006), Katy’s Kid (2007), and Tsamma Season which was published to great acclaim in 2009, and is currently short-listed for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. She now lives in Cape Town, South Africa. Joanne Hichens holds a Masters degree in Creative Writing from the University of Cape Town. She co-authored a crime novel, Out To Score (2006), has authored the teen novel, Stained, short-listed for the Sanlam Youth Literature award and published in 2009 as part of the Ransom Press Cutting Edge series. She has written for a number of magazines...