Karen Jennings
Karen Jennings was born in Cape Town in 1982. She has a Master's Degree in English Literature from the University of Cape Town completed a Master's Degree in Creative Writing. Her book, An island, was longlisted for the Booker prize in 2021.
Washing by hand: a brief look at Cape laundry since the 17th century
2024-09-05"Reading about this aspect of Cape history formed part of the inspiration for a recent short story of mine, a work of flash fiction, which is about a young woman and her grandmother, and their different approaches to doing laundry, particularly their underwear. While ostensibly about panties (as the story is titled), it is also about our country’s long and difficult history, about ourselves and about memory."
Waiting for water
2024-05-02"I don’t have the answers or pretend that any of this is easy. Nor will I accept that the ANC inherited an immaculate country in 1994. There was a lot to address – many vast inequalities and systems which were already corrupt and unjust. But it is now 30 years later and there is no denying the fact that we should be much further along ..."
An island by Karen Jennings: an interview
2021-02-19"Violence begets violence. Samuel has been exposed to it from a young age through the different stages that his country has gone through politically, and through the effects of those changes on him and those around him."
