Mary Watson’s fourth novel – Blood to Poison – will be released on 14 April 2022. It might take a little while longer to reach our shores in South Africa, but this is where the story originated, and we can’t wait for it to come home to local readers.
Today, on the seventh anniversary of André Brink’s death, we pay tribute to his life and work and announce that the Philida Literary Award, established in his memory in 2020, goes to Mary Watson and is awarded to her for an oeuvre of literary excellence.
Mary Watson is from Cape Town and now lives on the west coast of Ireland. She’s worked as an art museum guide, library assistant, theatre duty manager, and an actor in children’s musicals. She has a PhD from the University of Cape Town where she taught for many years. She won the Caine Prize in 2006 and writes short stories, contemporary fiction and young adult fantasy. The Wren Hunt (Bloomsbury, 2018), was shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards and her latest, Blood to Poison, is out in April 2022.
Mary Watson on accepting the Philida Literary Award: “I was thinking of André a little while earlier … How I never dreamed how incredibly supportive he’d be when I summoned up the nerve to pop those pages [of Moss] in his pigeon hole. So thank you so very much. I am truly, truly honoured.”
2004 Moss
2013 The Cutting Room
2018 The Wren Hunt
2019 The Wickerlight
‘I can honestly say that I have seldom, in South African literature, come across short stories of such suggestive power as these … Our literature will be the richer for accommodating a voice of this calibre, persuasive power and exquisite beauty.’
– André Brink about Moss
‘This novel is the work of someone who really knows what they’re doing, who knows how to use words to draw in and enchant her readers, and who has proven herself time and time again as a master storyteller.’
– Sally Partridge about The Wren Hunt
The 2022 Philida Literary Award judges were Sally Partridge, Karina M. Szczurek, Lester Walbrugh and Christy Weyer.
Her ‘Being’ series is reminiscent of ‘Sex and the City’, giving that same salubrious dose of feel-good endorphins that comes with a group of women who are there for each other through thick and thin.
Qarnita Loxton’s Being Dianne, launched in 2021, is the fourth book in a series about the lives of four feisty friends (Kari, Lily, Shelley and Dianne) – the stories of their loves and losses, and the way in which they have each other’s backs when the rubber hits the road. It is reminiscent of Sex and the City – giving that same salubrious dose of feel-good endorphins that comes with a group of women who are there for each other through thick and thin.
In Being Dianne, Dianne is struggling to navigate her relationship with her daughters, particularly the elder one, Kate, who has become withdrawn and seems to be harbouring a secret. Dianne’s first post-divorce relationship has fallen apart. She meets a younger woman, Faye, on Tinder. The prickly thing is that the only people who know that Dianne is bisexual are her friends in the awesome foursome group. And while Faye seems to be planning the wedding cake in her head, Dianne, on her side, is nowhere near ready to commit.
The Being series started with Being Kari, which was published in 2017, a year after Loxton’s mother died. “It was a bit of a midlife crisis. I was a lawyer and when I had my first son, I quit my job to start consulting. I found that I needed more – something challenging and creative. I did an online creative writing course and it opened my mind as to what I was able to do. At the time, I had come to realise that female friendships were a big part of my support system. They told us on the writing course to write about something that would sustain us for a year, so I decided to write about the friendships between women.”
Continue reading: Daily Maverick
Qarnita Loxton is one of the authors of Chasing Marian.
Four strangers, two cities, one chance online meeting.
What could these four possibly have in common?
Find out in Chasing Marian, a heart-warming and hilarious story about finding connection and friendship.
Amy Heydendrych, Qarnita Loxton, Pamela Power and Gail Schimmel are friends and established authors. When 2020 and 2021 saw all in-person literary festivals cancelled, they decided to channel the disappointment of not seeing one another in real life (IRL) into writing a novel together. For the title and final cover reveal of The Most Anticipated Feel-Good Novel of 2022, Pan Macmillan SA turned the spotlight on the four awesome co-authors of Chasing Marian to ask them some quick questions.
Continue reading and listen to CapeTalk’s Sara-Jayne Makwala King interview the four authors: “The Most Anticipated Feel-Good Novel of 2022 …”
“Last week was actually such fun! I was nervous before the event, as I usually am with anything where there is an audience. But the online part of it added an extra layer of nerves. What if I said stupid things and it was recorded forever? And online makes it harder to tell if what you are saying is interesting to the audience, it’s impossible to know if someone has fallen asleep in the front row. Yes, that happened to Pamela and me at the Franschhoek Literary Festival where we first met. It was my first as part of a panel discussion and Pamela saved the day. Nevermind the sleeping woman, Friday afternoon heat and stuffy venue, she had me and the rest of the room laughing. Last Tuesday was no different, Pamela made it so much fun that I forgot to be nervous and forgot that anyone else was watching!”
Qarnita Loxton Blog
You can watch the recording of the launch here: Exclusive Books FB
Today, Qarnita Loxton, the winner of the Philida Literary Award in 2021, received her award certificate at the Book Lounge. Please note her novels – Being Kari, Being Lily and Being Shelley – on the shelf next to her, all available from the Book Lounge. Congratulations, Qarnita! And happy reading, Everyone!
Philida Literary Award 