Angela Makholwa

Literary Birthday – 17 March – Angela Makholwa

Happy Birthday, Angela Makholwa, born 17 March.

Five Quotes

  1. Write. Look at that pen or that keyboard and write. Then look for guidance. I wasn’t sure if I was on the right track and enrolled at Writers Write’s – How to Write a Novel course. Amanda Patterson was instrumental in getting me published.
  2. I think all novels possess a life of their own from inception right to the end. Each one is influenced by different ideas, the space that the writer is in at the specific time of writing and just the general mood and atmosphere in the writer’s life.
  3. Once I really get to know my characters, I become obsessed with them, even the ones whom I find irritating, menacing or just pathetic. They become like the oddball friend you can’t wait to meet up with because of the great conversations you’re guaranteed to have – that is what usually lures me back to the manuscript.
  4. I’m largely influenced by what’s going on in both my personal space and in the broader environment within South Africa. I’ve come to accept that I am a person of many sensibilities – especially when it comes to things that harm or endanger women and children
  5. Apartheid as a system was so oppressive that it was the only thing you could think about. As South Africans, as a society and as readers, we are maturing. We now truly have an audience that is reading for pleasure.

Read our interview with Writers Write graduate, Angela Makholwa

Angela Makholwa is a South African author. She is one of our most famous Writers Write graduates. Amanda Patterson taught her in 2006 and took her manuscript for Red Ink to Macmillan. Her other novels are The 30th Candle, Black Widow Society, and The Blessed Girl.

Source for image: Writers Write Event

by Amanda Patterson

Please click here for our Literary Birthday Calendar

Posted on: 17th March 2015
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