Rešoketšwe Manenzhe
Rešoketšwe Manenzhe is a South African poet, short story writer and novelist. Her short stories and poems have appeared in the Kalahari Review, Fireside Fiction, Praxis Magazine, Lolwe, FIYAH, and the 2017 Sol Plaatjie European Union Anthology, among others. She has won the 2019 Writivism Short Story Prize, the 2020 Dinaane Debut Fiction Award, the 2021 inaugural Akuko Short Story Competition, the 2021 HSS Award for Best Fiction, and she was the first runner-up for the 2019 Collins Elesiro Prize for Fiction. In 2021 she was shortlisted for the Sunday Times CNA Literary Awards.
She holds a master’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Cape Town (UCT), which she obtained with distinction (in 2018). She has worked as a junior engineer for the South African cement company PPC, and as a lecturer and researcher at UCT’s Department of Chemical Engineering.
If you happen to meet her, please ask her about her debut novel published by Jacana Media in 2020. It’s called Scatterlings, and she’s sure you’ll love it. But please, also talk to her about the endangered wild fruit Balobedu children once enjoyed in summer, and the short story collection she is supposed to be editing. Although she identifies as a villager, she has somehow found herself living in the city of Cape Town for the past decade or so. Even she is baffled by this, so don’t dwell on it too much.
