I was born in Jelenia Góra, Poland, and lived in Austria, the United States and Wales, before finding a home in South Africa when I met and married the love of my life, the author André Brink. My doctoral thesis was published as Truer than Fiction: Nadine Gordimer Writing Post-Apartheid South Africa (2008). I am the editor of Touch: Stories of Contact (2009), Encounters with André Brink (2010), Contrary: Critical Responses to the Novels of André Brink (with Willie Burger, 2013), Water: New Short Fiction from Africa (with Nick Mulgrew, 2015), Misplaced & Other Stories: New Short Fiction from African Kids (with Catherine Shepherd, 2017), Hair: Weaving and Unpicking Stories of Identity (with Joanne Hichens, 2019), Disruption: New Short Fiction from Africa (with Rachol Zadok and Jason Mykl Snyman, 2021) and Fluid: The Freedom to Be (with Joanne Hichens, 2023). My play for young adults, A Change of Mind, won the MML Literature Award in the Category English Drama in 2012. I also write short stories, essays, poetry and book reviews. In 2018, I received the Thomas Pringle Award for a portfolio of ad hoc reviews from the English Academy of Southern Africa. My debut novel, Invisible Others (2014), was longlisted for the 2015 Sunday Times Barry Ronge Fiction Prize. My memoir The Fifth Mrs Brink was published in 2017 and You Make Me Possible: The Love Letters of Karina M. Szczurek and André Brink in 2018. I am a board member of Short Story Day Africa. In 2019, I founded Karavan Press, an independent publishing house devoted to excellence and integrity. In 2020, I established the Philida Literary Award and a year later the Karavan Press Literary Festival. I live in Cape Town with my cat family: Glinka, Salieri and Mozart.
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Karina Magdalena 
Hey!
You have traveled in several places! This is my dream life, I hope I will get to do that. I look forward to read your blog!
good luck in your future endeavors !!!
Thank you! Travelling is wonderful. Relocating permanently is not always easy. I had my fair share of and feel enriched by both experiences, despite having had to deal with a lot of loss in the process. If I remember correctly you live in NY. My home in the States was Warwick, NY. I spent two and a half happy years there.
Hi Karina, thanks for the follow and I am so happy to have visited your blog. You have done well as an author, playwright amongst others! Admirable! Will be back for more of your blog posts! :-)
Hej Karina! Dużo dobrego o Tobie słyszałam. Pamiętam Cię przez mgłę jako dwudziestoparoletnią dziewczynę, wówczas ja miałam może z 8 lat. Aż miło mi się ogląda Twoją stronę, przeczytałabym chętnie książkę “Invisible Others”, ale niestety jeszcze nie jestem na tak zaawansowanym języku angielskim, żeby zrozumieć przynajmniej połowę. Musiałabym siedzieć przy słowniku polsko-angielskim. Napisz kiedyś, mam nadzieję, że pamiętasz kuzynkę (: Pozdrawiam z jesiennej Polski. Marcelina
Oczywiście, że pamiętam. Zaraz napiszę! :)
Hi Karina, sorry to hear about your loss and my thoughts are with you. I am interested ti hear if you would explore the idea of writing a play/script about business, I have a professional business practice and my thoughts are how can we get the concept of management transferred to managers via a stage type approach – I am asking you because of your eclectic experiences to writing. Let me know and I hope you pick this up
Very sorry, but I know nothing about the subject you are proposing.
Thanks for the reply, is there any chance we can have a 30 minute coffee then I can explain – perhaps you can give me some guidance as I am the content expert in this matter but not necessarily the ability to transfer my message
Hi Karina,
Thanks so much for your wonderful piece about the JLF in Litnet! So touched by your support of the festival as well as your support of my work. And it was lovely to share our experiences as expats. Please send on your e-mail address.
Warmest,
Anne
Cześć,
od lat śledzę Twoje “pisanie”. Tak wiele się zmieniło w naszym krajobrazie. Daliśmy spory krok do przodu. Szczególnie Ty. Napisz do Wielunia.
Zdzisław
Czy my sie znamy?
Thank you for following my blog!
Thanks for the blog follow.