“WHEN best-selling novelist Jo-Anne Richards accepted an invitation to speak at the Karoo Writers Festival (July 19-22), we were super excited,” said festival organiser, Lisa Ker.
Richards will talk about the writer’s life, why we write and how we read, during the festival programme at The Shed on Saturday, July 21.
Her acclaimed first novel, The Innocence of Roast Chicken (1996) is still a book club favourite. She has subsequently written four other novels.
“She is a terrific speaker, but what a waste not to share her talents as one of South Africa’s most experienced writing teachers! Especially seeing she was coming to Cradock all the way from Cape Town,” said Ker.
In addition to her talk, Richards has agreed to present one of her short practical workshop sessions to a focus group of 15 participants on July 19 (15:00 to 17:30).
The cost is R150 and bookings can be made by sending an e-mail to karoowritersfestival@gmail.com. No previous writing experience is necessary.
Jo-Anne grew up in Port Elizabeth, where she attended the Collegiate Girls’ High School. She has an Honours degree in Journalism and Linguistics from Rhodes University.
She was awarded a PhD in Creative Writing by Wits University, where she was a lecturer in journalism for 15 years.
During her career, she has served on the full-time staff of The Star, the Sunday Express, the Cape Times and Evening Post – reporting, sub-editing and news-editing.
Her articles have been published in a number of magazines and newspapers, including Fair Lady, Elle, Diversions, and the Sunday Times Magazine.
She lives in Cape Town, where she teaches creative writing. She and a group of colleagues run a variety of online writing courses from a website called allaboutwriting.com. There are helpful options for everything from business writing to producing full-length novels.
For the full festival programme, go to karoowritersfestival.weebly.com