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.
The heart has spaces – the love letters of André Brink and Ingrid Jonker
2015-11-18Karina Magdalena Szczurek on André Brink and Ingrid Jonker: "No other woman in André’s life had left as indelible a mark on him as Ingrid. No other haunted me as much in the beginning of our relationship."
Book review: Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
2015-07-30"Go Set a Watchman must be seen for what it is, a once discarded manuscript that is historically of enormous literary value as a long-lost cousin of its brilliant relative."
101 Detectives: Stories, and an interview with Ivan Vladislavić
2015-07-21On literary festivals: “But in my experience their primary function is to entertain readers. They appeal mainly to regular book buyers, to the people who join book clubs."
Book review: The Death's Head Chess Club by John Donoghue
2015-06-26"Even if they are 'only' fiction, at the root of such [historical war - editor's note] novels is a reality where pure evil manifests in human form and, as Donoghue’s narrator notes, the voices of the dead 'clamour to be heard'. This is precisely why the task of imagining these stories bears a great responsibility and should not be undertaken lightly."
Review: Tales of the Metric System by Imraan Coovadia
2014-11-19 "'(N)ovels are more important than ever … because they enable us to exercise our minds … allow us to step back and see where the history is taking us.' Coovadia’s latest testifies not only to the truth of this statement, but also to so much more."
Review: Entanglement by Steven Boykey Sidley
2014-10-10 Professor Jared Borowitz observes that the trouble with the universe is that “it has tricks and unpleasant surprises and irritating little quirks, and refuses to be ordered.”
Review of Divided Lives: Dreams of a Mother and Daughter by Lyndall Gordon
2014-09-29 "Literary history has a tendency to focus on the great deeds of renowned men. Women’s lives often end up sinking like dresses in a lagoon, pushed down by the rudders of ignorance and neglect. Lyndall Gordon’s writing inflates them with life-saving breath which allows them to float and sparkle in the sunlight of recognition."
The Image of a Pie: Reflections on Open Book 2014
2014-09-25 "I should have started shedding tears at the beginning of the event, when the woman who is our national treasure, Sindiwe Magona, noticed that we were only a few people in the audience while the whole of South Africa should have been attending."
Review: Garden of Dreams by Melissa Siebert
2014-08-20 Karina Szczurek reviews Garden of Dreams by Melissa Siebert.
A tribute to Nadine Gordimer
2014-07-17 "A signature is what defines you." Karina Szczurek, who completed her PhD on Nadine Gordimer’s post-apartheid writing, writes an In Memoriam contribution and shares a personal photo of Gordimer's signature.