Marion Scher, award-winning journalist, author and media consultant, has written much about mental health over the last 28 years. She received a Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Journalism Fellowship from the Carter Center in Atlanta in 2005. Her previous book around people’s lived experiences with mental health issues, Surfacing – people coping with depression and mental illness was published in 2021. Her latest book is called Big Bully.
Age Restriction: 14+
Craig Higginson is an internationally acclaimed playwright and novelist. His plays have been performed and produced in many theatres and festivals around the world. His novels include Last Summer (Picador Africa, 2010; Mercure de France, 2017), The Landscape Painter (Picador Africa, 2011), The Dream House (Picador Africa, 2015; Mercure de France, 2016) and The White Room (Picador Africa and St Martin’s Press (ebook), 2018). Craig has won several national awards in South Africa and Britain for his writing. The Dream House is the IEB English matric set work for South African schools (2019–2021).
Age Restriction: 14+
“Sukoluhle “Sue” Nyathi was born, bred and educated in Bulawayo, and now resides in South Africa. She describes herself as an investment analyst by profession and a writer by passion. She has a career spanning over 15 years in the financial services sector which fate retired her from in 2018 so she could pursue writing full time. This has led her to not only focusing on fiction writing but screen writing too.
Sue is the author of three published novels: The Polygamist (2012) The Gold Diggers (2018) and A Family Affair (2020) She recently edited an anthology titled: When Secrets Become Stories, Women Speak Out(2021) which is a compilation of nonfiction essays with a gender based violence theme.”
Age Restriction: 14+
Gail Schimmel and Fiona Snyckers – bestselling novelists and pod cast hosts – talk about planning, plotting and the discipline of writing. Fiona Snyckers is a South African writer who has published eight novels. In 2020 she won the South African Literary Award for best novel and the NIHSS Humanities Award for best novel for Lacuna (Picador Africa). She has been nominated five times for the Sunday Times Fiction Prize. Fiona lives in Johannesburg with her family.
Gail Schimmel has published eight novels, most recently the newly launched The Finish Line (2024) and Little Secrets (2023). She is an admitted attorney who is currently the CEO of the Advertising Regulatory Board. Gail co-hosts the podcast The Hidden Lives of Writers. She has written 9 cozy mysteries (and counting) with Kate Sidley writing as Katie Gayle.
Gail lives and works in Johannesburg.
Age Restriction: 14+
