Karen Jennings Popular Books

Karen Jennings Biography & Facts

Karen Jennings (born 1982) is a South African author. Early life and education Jennings was born in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1982, the daughter of an Afrikaans mother and an English father; both of her parents were teachers. She has master's degrees in English literature and creative writing from the University of Cape Town, and a PhD in creative writing from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. As of 2021, she is pursuing doctoral work in history at the University of Johannesburg. She has done post-doctoral research at the Federal University of Goiás, Brazil, on the historical relationship between science and literature, with particular reference to eusocial insects. Career Jennings edited Feast, Famine & Potluck, a collection of African short stories published in 2014 by Modjaji Books for Short Story Day Africa. Her first novel Finding Soutbek was shortlisted for the 2013 Etisalat Prize for Literature (now known as the 9mobile Prize for Literature). Her book An Island, written with support from a Miles Moreland Foundation Writing Scholarship, was longlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize. Personal life Jennings is married to a Brazilian scientist and lived in Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic. Awards Winner English Section of the Maskew Miller Longman Literature Awards, 2009 for "Mia and the Shark" (short story) Winner Africa Region Prize of the Commonwealth Short Story Competition, 2010 for "From Dark" (short story) Shortlisted Etisalat Prize for Literature, 2013 for Finding Soutbek Longlisted The Booker Prize, 2021 for An Island Co-winner K. Sello Duiker Memorial Award (one of the annual South African Literary Awards), 2021 for An Island Works Finding Soutbek (Holland Park Press, 2013, ISBN 9781907320200) – novel Away from the Dead (Holland Park Press, 2014, ISBN 9781907320439) – short stories Travels with My Father: An Autobiographical Novel (Holland Park Press, 2016, ISBN 9781907320699) – novel/memoir Space Inhabited by Echoes (Holland Park Press, 2018, ISBN 9781907320774) – poetry Upturned Earth (Holland Park Press, 2019, ISBN 9781907320910) - novel An Island (Holland House Books, 2020, ISBN 9781910688922) – novel Crooked Seeds. Hogarth. 16 April 2024. ISBN 978-0-593-59712-5. References. Discover the Karen Jennings popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Karen Jennings books.

Best Seller Karen Jennings Books of 2024

  • Shake on It and Spit in the Dirt synopsis, comments

    Shake on It and Spit in the Dirt

    Lynne Gregg and Karen Jennings

    This is a multicultural juvenile novel targeted for ages nine to twelve. But people eight to eightyeight have read this book and enjoyed it. Set in the East Texas Piney Woods, two ...

  • I, Witness synopsis, comments

    I, Witness

    Niki Mackay

    'A cracking thriller and a great female protagonist.' C.J. Tudor, author of Sunday Times Bestseller The Chalk Man'I couldn't put I,Witness down, this is a 2018 mustread' Phoebe Mor...

  • How Sweet It Is synopsis, comments

    How Sweet It Is

    Robin Lee Hatcher

    He lost his brother. She lost her dream. Together, they might find what they’re really looking for.Holly Stanford is doing the best she can with the restaurant she inherited f...

  • Crooked Seeds synopsis, comments

    Crooked Seeds

    Karen Jennings

    A woman in postapartheid South Africa confronts her family’s troubling past in this taut and daring novel about national trauma and collective guiltfrom the Booker Prize–longlisted...

  • A Kiss After Dying synopsis, comments

    A Kiss After Dying

    Ashok Banker

    NOTHING TASTES SWEETER THAN REVENGE . . . The irresistible new thriller with a twist you'll never see coming'An addictive thriller in which revenge is a dish best served deliciousl...

  • An Island synopsis, comments

    An Island

    Karen Jennings

    NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE  A “beautifully and sparingly constructed” (The New York Times) novel about a lighthouse keeper with a mys...