Karina Magdalena Szczurek

Karina M Szczurek is the author and (co)editor of eleven works of fiction and non-fiction, most recently a memoir, The Fifth Mrs Brink, and an anthology of stories, Fluid: The Freedom to Be. Her doctoral thesis was published as Truer than Fiction: Nadine Gordimer Writing Post-Apartheid South Africa. She won the MML Literature Award in the Category English Drama in 2012 and received the Thomas Pringle Award for a portfolio of ad hoc reviews from the English Academy of Southern Africa in 2018. She is a board member of Short Story Day Africa. In 2019, she founded Karavan Press, an independent publishing house, and a year later, established the Philida Literary Award. She lives in Cape Town.  

Slices of heaven: Open Book Festival 2024

Karina Magdalena Szczurek Books and writers 2024-09-16

"The weekend of the Open Book Festival forced me to think a lot about life and death. And about heaven. This year, the brilliant scholar, writer and feminist Pumla Dineo Gqola officially opened the festival on Thursday evening at The Book Lounge, and called it her 'slice of heaven'. For many of us regulars, that is precisely what the Open Book weekend is: a slice of literary heaven."

Franschhoek Literary Festival 2024: A personal reflection

Karina Magdalena Szczurek Books and writers 2024-05-31

"I don’t get a vote in the South African elections, but in life – globally – I vote for tolerance and integrity. Literary beauty offers both."

Time travel with Time of the Writer festival

Karina Magdalena Szczurek Books and writers 2024-03-28

"This year’s theme for Time of the Writer was 'Reflections, resonance and revival'. Watching the diverse panels online strangely focused my attention on these concepts in ways that maybe an in-person attendance wouldn’t have."

An overview of the Cape Flats Book Festival 2023

Karina Magdalena Szczurek Books and writers 2023-11-15

"When a book festival brings the joy of reading and engaging with writers to places that are not known for such events, it is an additional pleasure to participate."

Better than ever: Open Book Festival 2023

Karina Magdalena Szczurek Books and writers 2023-09-20

"For me, Open Book was special in a different way. I have been attending literary festivals around the world as a reader for a quarter of a century, as a writer for almost two decades and as a publisher for the past four years, but never before have I felt that I truly embodied all three of these roles simultaneously and so fully at an event."

Short.Sharp.Stories anthology Fluid: interview with Bridget Pitt, author of “Paper Nautilus”

Karina Magdalena Szczurek, Bridget Pitt Books and writers 2023-08-22

"Storytelling has always been a way of making meaning of our lives, and of processing what has happened to us, individually and collectively. Many of the traditional stories that have been passed down orally, that are still passed down in some communities, emerged through processing traumatic events that the family or community had experienced."

Short.Sharp.Stories anthology Fluid: interview with Keith Oliver Lewis, author of “Blue Boy Lagoon"

Karina Magdalena Szczurek, Keith Oliver Lewis Books and writers 2023-08-21

"These characters are fictional, but they are also a quilt of real memories. With this story, I tried my best not to create archetypal characters or fall into the stereotypes that burden coloured characters in the media. I wanted to show these boys with all of their complexities, faults and facets. I believe that these are the things that make us human."

Short.Sharp.Stories anthology Fluid: interview with Lerato Moletsane, author of “Pink baloon trousers"

Karina Magdalena Szczurek, Lerato Moletsane Books and writers 2023-08-21

"When I saw the Short.Sharp.Stories call for submissions, I thought it would be a great idea to take a break from writing my memoir and stretch my imagination a bit, a welcome distraction from my reality."

Short.Sharp.Stories anthology Fluid: interview with Vuyokazi Ngemntu, author of “Mirror, Mirror"

Karina Magdalena Szczurek, Vuyokazi Ngemntu Books and writers 2023-07-19

"The ability to see ourselves in our myths allows us to be critical of ourselves and the world as we know it. This encourages us to envision a better world, in which we too are better versions of ourselves in our interactions with one another. At the root of it all are empathy and transference."

Short.Sharp.Stories anthology Fluid: interview with Peter-Adrian Altini, author of “Hanna. With two N’s”

Karina Magdalena Szczurek, Peter-Adrian Altini Books and writers 2023-07-18

“I was inspired to write this story after reading about the Aversion Project, a medical torture programme in South Africa during apartheid which identified gay soldiers in the South African Defence Force and forced them to submit to ‘curing’ their homosexuality. The doctor in charge later fled to Canada.”

Short.Sharp.Stories anthology Fluid: interview with Alex Latimer, author of "YOLO"

Karina Magdalena Szczurek, Alex Latimer Books and writers 2023-07-10

"I’ve found that as my career has progressed, I get the chance to work with more and more incredible people. For me, the fun is making a book or a comic or a novel that is better than what I could do on my own."

Short.Sharp.Stories anthology Fluid: interview with Shanice Ndlovu, author of "Of somo seeds"

Karina Magdalena Szczurek, Shanice Ndlovu Books and writers 2023-07-10

"I have a rough idea in my head of where places are, but what I will find there is a discovery each time and I can know only when I put it to the page. The reader and I find things together."

Short.Sharp.Stories anthology Fluid: interview with Kingsley Khobotlo, author of "Against the grain"

Karina Magdalena Szczurek, Kingsley Khobotlo Books and writers 2023-06-22

"One of the things I try to teach my students is that words can be a seed or a match, depending on how we use them. They have led to wars, and they have inspired nations."

Short.Sharp.Stories anthology Fluid: interview with Andrew Robert Wilson, author of "Seahorse"

Karina Magdalena Szczurek, Andrew Robert Wilson Books and writers 2023-06-22

"There is time and space in the Karoo that you don’t have in a city. In the Karoo, you experience not only a closeness to nature, but a closer coalface experience of society."

FLF 2023: Hope in times of chaos

Karina Magdalena Szczurek Books and writers 2023-06-10

For now, love, talk, write, have toast and tea – or bubbly – and live. If you want to explore the wonders of other lives, read.

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