Jo-Anne Richards is a South African novelist and journalist, who lectures at Wits University in Johannesburg. Her fourth book, My Brother’s Book, was published in March 2008 by Picador Africa. See synopsis and extract from first chapter.

Her first novel, The Innocence of Roast Chicken, topped the South African bestseller list in the week it appeared and remained there for 15 weeks.

Innocence, and her second novel, Touching the Lighthouse, were published under the Headline Review imprint in the UK, and published in German by Droemer Knaur. Her third book, Sad at the Edges, launched in 2003, was published by Stephan Phillips.

She has been short-listed for the M-Net Book Prize and nominated for the Impac International Dublin Literary Award. Her first book was chosen as a Dillon’s Debut in London, to be showcased as an “outstanding first novel”.

When the German translation of Lighthouse was launched, she was invited to speak at Bayreuth University in Germany on Writing in a Transitional Society.

Film rights for Innocence were sold to a British production company based at Pinewood Studios. Jo-Anne co-wrote the screenplay with award-winning screenplay writer Richard Beynon. South African-born director Ross Devenish agreed to direct the movie. Sufficient funds were not raised and rights have reverted.

Jo-Anne has published short stories in five collections. One was in a collection of women’s writing by Headline and Cosmopolitan UK and another in Laugh the Beloved Country, edited by Harvey Tyson and James Clarke and published by Double Storey Books. A third appeared in From Joburg to Jozi, published by Penguin. A short piece was published in Something to Write Home About, by Jacana, a collection of behind-the-scenes stories by journalists around the world. Another short story appeared in a collection entitled Twist, published by Oshun, late in 2006.

She is a lecturer and academic co-ordinator of the Honours programme in Journalism and Media Studies at Wits University, where she is also involved with the Masters programme in Creative Writing.

She teaches writing skills in journalism, narrative journalism and creative writing. She runs a Writers’ Circle, with colleague Richard Beynon.

She has worked full-time for four South African newspapers – The Star, the Sunday Express, the Cape Times and Evening Post. She has written features and supplements for South African magazines and newspapers. These include Fair Lady, Femina, Psychologies, Oprah, Real Simple, Leadership, Living, Elle, True Love, Quality Life, Sunday Times Magazine and Lifestyle, and the Mail & Guardian.

She has also contributed to  international titles, including The Guardian in London, Vanity Fair and Talk in New York.

Jo-Anne has a number of different hats. She is co-editing a book, The Clinical Genetic Education Manual, with Professor Arnold Christianson of the Department of Human Genetics. This is a comprehensive work on human genetics, intended for all health professionals, including primary health carers. It is being written in plain language and will eventually be used by health professionals all over Africa, many of whom don’t speak English as a first language.

As vice-chair of the South African Inherited Disorders Association, she represented South Africa at the Biovision World Life Sciences Conference in Lyon in March in 2007, as part of the International Genetics Alliance delegation.

As national chair of the Turner Syndrome Contact Group of South Africa, she produced an informational pamphlet on the genetic disorder – the first information document on a genetic disorder to be translated into eight local languages.

She and Richard Beynon launched a new site, allaboutlove.net, on Valentine’s Day 2008. Allaboutlove.net is a website dedicated to nurturing and publishing writers of the best romantic fiction. It offers writing courses, and feedback, on various aspects of romantic fiction.

Jo-Anne has two children. She lives with the writer Fred de Vries in Johannesburg. They spend every second weekend in a small traditional Free State house in the agricultural village of Vrede, which means Peace. They have fruit trees and cows next door.

Her parents still live in Port Elizabeth, where she was born and bred. Her brother, Professor Guy Richards, is an internationally known respiratory physician, also at Wits. He is head of respiratory ICU at the Johannesburg Hospital.

Contact

josierichards@gmail.com