POLOKWANE – Celebrated short story writer Reneilwe Malatji (49) has moved to a quiet farm on the outskirts of Haenertsburg to concentrate on her studies and to bring forth two more books.
Reneilwe was awarded the Aidoo-Snyder Book prize for the best original creative work by a woman in the year 2014, for her first collection of short stories entitled Love Interrupted.
The book’s setting is both the university town of Grahamstown and rural Limpopo. The stories included in this collection are those akin to eavesdropping on conversations, portraying the voices of black South African women who endure abuse from their partners or in some instances from their partner’s nyatsis (mistresses). She spent seven months writing the book and it was later published at a publishing house in Cape Town in the year 2012. The launch of her book was held in Polokwane, Cape Town, Johannesburg, Grahamstown and Thohoyandou.
A total of 1 200 copies have been sold to date.
Reneilwe, the oldest of five children, was born in the Modjadji village and grew up in Mamaila. Being the daughter of an academic and an educator, her academic career is quite commendable. She has acquired a B.A. in English and Sepedi, a post graduate teaching diploma and post graduate course in journalism and a Masters degree in creative writing, which she obtained at the University of Limpopo and Rhodes University, respectively. In addition, she has also enrolled for a PhD in creative writing at the University of the Western Cape.
She has also worked as a subject specialist and advisor to provincial educational departments, an outcome based education programmes facilitator and a part-time lecturer.
Reneilwe has mastered eight of South Africa’s 11 official languages, and hopes to travel to some European destinations during her upcoming trip to Birmingham, where she is set to present a paper in March 2018.
