I Write the Yawning Void

I Write the Yawning Void
Author: Sindiwe Magona
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2023-07
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1776148185

Sindiwe Magona is a celebrated South African writer, storyteller and motivational speaker known mainly for her autobiographies, biographies, novels, short stories, poetry and children’s books. I Write the Yawning Void is a collection of essays that highlight her engagement with writing that span the transition from apartheid to the post-apartheid period and addresses themes such as HIV/Aids, language and culture, home and belonging. Magona worked as a teacher, domestic worker and spent two decades working for the United Nations in the United States of America. She has received many awards for her fierce and fearless writing ‘truth to power’. Her written work is often informed by her lived experience of being a black woman resisting subjugation and poverty. These essays bring to life many facets of Magona’s personal history as well as her deepest convictions, her love for her country and despair at the problems that continue to plague it, and her belief in her ability to activate change. They demonstrate Magona’s engaging storytelling and mastery of the essay form which serve as meaningful supplements to her fictional works, while simultaneously offering direct and insightful responses to the conditions that inspired them. Through her essays Magona offers a reimagining of a broken society and the role literature can play in casting new light on old wounds.

I Write the Yawning Void

I Write the Yawning Void
Author: Sindiwe Magona
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2023-07-01
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1776148215

Sindiwe Magona is a celebrated South African writer, storyteller and motivational speaker known mainly for her autobiographies, biographies, novels, short stories, poetry and children’s books. I Write the Yawning Void is a collection of essays that highlight her engagement with writing that span the transition from apartheid to the post-apartheid period and addresses themes such as HIV/Aids, language and culture, home and belonging. Magona worked as a teacher, domestic worker and spent two decades working for the United Nations in the United States of America. She has received many awards for her fierce and fearless writing ‘truth to power’. Her written work is often informed by her lived experience of being a black woman resisting subjugation and poverty. These essays bring to life many facets of Magona’s personal history as well as her deepest convictions, her love for her country and despair at the problems that continue to plague it, and her belief in her ability to activate change. They demonstrate Magona’s engaging storytelling and mastery of the essay form which serve as meaningful supplements to her fictional works, while simultaneously offering direct and insightful responses to the conditions that inspired them. Through her essays Magona offers a reimagining of a broken society and the role literature can play in casting new light on old wounds.

Sindiwe Magona and the Power of Paradox

Sindiwe Magona and the Power of Paradox
Author: Renée Schatteman
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 254
Release: 2024-04-23
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1040020216

This book examines the work of Sindiwe Magona, one of South Africa’s most prolific and groundbreaking writers, widely recognized for highlighting the everyday experiences of women and the domestic side of apartheid. A pioneer among black African women writers, she is equally respected as storyteller, advocate for children’s education, activist for HIV/AIDS awareness, and champion of indigenous languages. In this book, Renée Schatteman contends that Magona’s most important contribution comes through her refusal to choose sides in the contentious debates that have polarized public discourse following apartheid. By straddling two (or more) sides of a controversy and challenging any who do harm to others (and to the nation), regardless of their position, she blurs distinctions that are assumed to be absolute, opens new avenues of understanding, and inspires alternative visions for the future. By occupying the space of paradox, she undermines the closed epistemological structures inherited from apartheid and champions the need for interdependence, truth-telling, and dialogue. Covering her creative production over three decades (which includes novels, autobiographies and biographies, short story collections, children’s books, and literature about HIV/AIDS), this book is an essential read for Magona enthusiasts as well as for researchers of African literature and postcolonial South Africa.

Prairie Lotus

Prairie Lotus
Author: Linda Sue Park
Publisher: Clarion Books
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2020
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 132878150X

In this compelling, emotionally engaging novel set in 1880, a half-Chinese girl and her white father try to make a home in Dakota Territory, in the face of racism and resistance.

The Writer's Handbook, 1984

The Writer's Handbook, 1984
Author: Sylvia K. Burack
Publisher: Writer
Total Pages: 790
Release: 1984
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN:

"Manuscript market section", ed. by U.G. Olsen, 1941-44; by E.P. Werby, 1945-