Marlene van Niekerk
Marlene van Niekerk was born in 1954 in the Caledon district of the Western Cape. She studied philosophy, languages and literature at the universities of Stellenbosch, Amsterdam and the Witwatersrand. She is a lecturer in the Department of Afrikaans and Nederlands at Stellenbosch where she teaches creative writing.
She is the author of two collections of poetry, Sprokkelster (1976) and Groenstaar (1983) and a collection of short stories, Die vrou wat haar verkyker vergeet het (1992). Her first novel, Triomf (1994) proved to be a runaway success. It won the M-Net Prize, the CNA Literary Award, as well as the Noma Award for African Literature. It has been translated into and published in English, French, Danish and Dutch.
Her latest novel, Agaat, was published to critical acclaim and awarded the University of Johannesburg Prize for best creative work in Afrikaans in 2005, the M-Net Award for best novel as well as being short listed for the Bookseller's Choice Award for South Africa.
