Karen Jennings (born 1982) is a South African author.
Early life and education
Jennings was born in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1982, the daughter of an Afrikaans mother and an English father; both of her parents were teachers. She has master's degrees in English literature and creative writing from the University of Cape Town, and a PhD in creative writing from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. As of 2021, she is pursuing doctoral work in history at the University of Johannesburg. She has done post-doctoral research at the Federal University of Goiás, Brazil, on the historical relationship between science and literature, with particular reference to eusocial insects.
Career
Jennings edited Feast, Famine & Potluck, a collection of African short stories published in 2014 by Modjaji Books for Short Story Day Africa. Her first novel Finding Soutbek was shortlisted for the 2013 Etisalat Prize for Literature (now known as the 9mobile Prize for Literature). Her book An Island, written with support from a Miles Moreland Foundation Writing Scholarship, was longlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize.
Personal life
Jennings is married to a Brazilian scientist and lived in Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Awards
- Winner English Section of the Maskew Miller Longman Literature Awards, 2009 for "Mia and the Shark" (short story)
- Winner Africa Region Prize of the Commonwealth Short Story Competition, 2010 for "From Dark" (short story)
- Shortlisted Etisalat Prize for Literature, 2013 for Finding Soutbek
- Longlisted The Booker Prize, 2021 for An Island
- Co-winner K. Sello Duiker Memorial Award (one of the annual South African Literary Awards), 2021 for An Island
Works
- Finding Soutbek (Holland Park Press, 2013, ISBN 9781907320200) – novel
- Away from the Dead (Holland Park Press, 2014, ISBN 9781907320439) – short stories
- Travels with My Father: An Autobiographical Novel (Holland Park Press, 2016, ISBN 9781907320699) – novel/memoir
- Space Inhabited by Echoes (Holland Park Press, 2018, ISBN 9781907320774) – poetry
- Upturned Earth (Holland Park Press, 2019, ISBN 9781907320910) - novel
- An Island (Holland House Books, 2020, ISBN 9781910688922) – novel
- Crooked Seeds. Hogarth. 16 April 2024. ISBN 978-0-593-59712-5. – novel
References
- ^ "Karen Jennings". Holland Park Press. 2013. Retrieved 6 August 2021.
- ^ Cosslett, Rhiannon Lucy (5 August 2021). "'I've been poor for a long time': after many rejections, Karen Jennings is up for the Booker". The Guardian.
- ^ "Karen Jennings, Author at LitNet". LitNet. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
- Hitchens, Joanne (19 February 2021). "An island by Karen Jennings: an interview". LitNet. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
- "Authors: Karen Jennings". Holland House Books. Retrieved 6 August 2021.
- Jennings, Karen, ed. (2013). Feast, famine & potluck. South Africa: Short Story Day Africa. ISBN 978-0-620-58886-7. OCLC 915159052.
- "Etisalat Prize for Literature Announces 2013 Shortlist". Etisalat Prize. 23 January 2014. Archived from the original on 1 March 2014. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
- Self, John (5 August 2021). "An Island by Karen Jennings review — the dark horse of Booker 2021". The Times.
- de Waal, Shaun (27 July 2021). "'This is an extraordinary moment for me': SA writer Karen Jennings on Booker longlist". Arts.
- Viljoen, Shaun. "Finding Soutbek." Tydskrif vir Letterkunde, vol. 50, no. 2, 2013, pp. 207+.
- Kolbe, Helena (6 January 2017). "Book review: Travels with My Father by Karen Jennings". LitNet. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
- Ullyatt, Tony (4 October 2018). "Space inhabited by echoes by Karen Jennings: a review". LitNet. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
- Szczurek, Karina M. (10 August 2018). "Space Inhabited by Echoes: Karen Jennings". Cape Times. Retrieved 6 August 2021 – via PressReader.
- Charles, Ron (9 April 2024). "Review | 'Crooked Seeds' is hard to read and impossible to look away from". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 15 May 2024.
- Self, John (2 April 2024). "Crooked Seeds by Karen Jennings review – a perfectly realised fictional creation". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 15 May 2024.