Lauren Beukes is a recovering journalist, TV scriptwriter, award-winning columnist and writer (aka glorified typist).
She’s the author of dystopian thriller Moxyland longlisted for the 2009 Sunday Times Fiction Prize
Her previous book, Maverick: Extraordinary Women From South Africa’s Past, a rollicking collection of biographies of real-life renegades and raconteurs, was nominated for the 2006 Alan Paton non-fiction award.
Her short stories have been published in various anthologies, including Open, FAB, African Road: New Writing from Southern Africa, 180 Degrees, Urban 03, Novel Idea and Touch: Stories of Contact
She has an MA in Creative Writing from UCT, but she got her real education from 12 years of freelance journalism. Writing for the likes of the Sunday Times, Colors, The Hollywood Reporter, Nature Medicine, Marie Claire, and The Big Issue, among others, she picked up really useful life-skills like sky-diving, pole-dancing and brewing mqombothi. Journalism also allowed her to hang out with AIDS activists, township vigilantes, electricity thieves, homeless sex workers, teen vampires, reluctant basejumpers and other interesting folk.
She lives in Cape Town with her husband and daughter
Email her at moxy(at)moxyland.com
Author Interviews:
Litnet: Bright Lights Bleak City
