Books by Karen Jennings
Karen Jennings is a South African writer whose novel An Island was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2021, and her next novel, Crooked Seeds, longlisted for The Women’s Prize in 2025. For three years she was writer-in-residence as a post-doctoral fellow at the Laboratory for the Economics of Africa’s Past, Stellenbosch University, where she formed the ideas that have led to First of December.
Karen founded The Island Prize for unpublished African authors to help them get published globally. Now in its fifth year the prize has helped authors from all over the continent.
Interviews with Karen Jennings
The Best Historical Fiction Set in South Africa, recommended by Karen Jennings
To live and to write in South Africa is to engage with history, explains Karen Jennings, the acclaimed novelist and co-creator of the Island Prize for South African writers. Here, she recommends five historical fiction books set in South Africa for those who would like to improve their understanding of the country’s complex past.
