South African authors – South Africa has produced a diversity of writers many of whom have distinguished themselves in the literary world. With 11 official languages, writers from nearly all the recognized tongues of South Africa including English, Afrikaans, Sesotho and Setswana have made their literary mark in both fiction and factual works.
Two South African Authors have won the Nobel Prize for Literature. The first was Nadine Gordimer in 1991 and then J.M. Coetzee in 2003 (Before that he was the first and one of only two authors in the world to have won the Booker Prize for literature twice). Both these authors have written in English.
Nadine Gordimer was born on November 20th 1923 in the town of Springs on the Witwatersrand in the Transvaal. She attended the University of the Witwatersrand and gained early distinction as a short story writer and novelist. She has written 10 novels, 10 short story collections, 3 non-fiction works and was a contributor to the New Yorker and other leading journals. She has received honorary degrees from many of the world’s leading universities. Nadine Gordimer has lived all her life in South Africa and continues to do so to this day.
John Maxwell Coetzee was born on the 9th February 1940 in Cape Town, his home language was English. He attended the University of Cape Town graduating with honors in English and Mathematics. After applying and being denied permanent residence in the United States where he had been lecturing, he returned to South Africa and between 1972 and 2000 held various positions at Cape Town University, the final position being as Distinguished Professor of Literature.
In 2002 J.M. Coetzee emigrated to Australia and lives in Adelaide, South Australia holding an honorary position at the University of Adelaide. He received the Booker prize for his novel “The life and times of Michael K” in 1983 and again in 1999 for “Disgrace” and, of course, culminating in the Nobel Prize in 2003.
Andre Brink, Wilbur Smith, Bryce Courtnay and Alan Paton are just a few, amongst many, other well known South African writers.