Success Stories

Ufrieda Ho is a member of ANFASA and received a grant to complete her book; Paper Sons and Daughters released by Pan MacmillanSouth Africa in April last year. The book enjoyed considerable success at the time as a memoir of growing up Chinese in apartheid South Africa. The book continues to garner interest in the dialogues around belonging, identity and the stories of the country’s marginalised communities. This August the book was launched in the United States after Ohio University Press bought world rights to publish Ufrieda’s book as part of its Modern African Writing series. The acknowledgement that a South African story can resonate with a global audience is a nod to local authors and the continued need to create a textured narrative of this country.

Lauretta Ngcobo is an ANFASA member and recently published a book with UKZN press; Prodigal Daughters and ANFASA assisted her with the publishing contract to it. She has largely benefited from ANFASA’s copyright assistance regarding the difficulties she encountered with retrieving some of the rights from her previous publications in Britain and the United State of America. ANFASA got directly involved in the negotiations and helped her obtain the  film rights and translation rights which she was not even aware existed in her contracts.

 

Liz McGregor is an ANFASA member and author of the book; Khabzela. Her latest royalty statement showed ever dwindling sales. She knew Khabzela was being prescribed at US universities but to get the physical copy there is expensive, fortunately digital publishing transforms all that.  It also offers the prospect of once again having control of the manuscript she had sweated and wept over.  She dug out the contract she had signed in 2005 and sent it to ANFASA for assistance on how to get back her digital rights. She was informed that she had not ceded rights to the electronic version of Khabzela and received sound, practical advice on how to go about establishing this fact with the publisher, which she managed to do successfully. Today she has published the digital version of the book through Amazon.

 

Christa Kuljian is an independent development consultant and a writer. She was a 2010 Ruth First Fellow at Wits Journalism and focused her research on the Central Methodist Church. She received a grant to expand on the lecture and write a book, entitled Sanctuary, which was launched by Jacana Media in April 2013.The book explores how the City of Johannesburg is addressing the challenges presented at the Church and also explore how different points of tension have developed between different interest groups within the church itself.

 

Sophie von der Heyden is a lecturer at Stellenbosch University, where she specialises in marine molecular ecology and marine conservation planning. She received a grant to write a Southern African marine guide for children entitledSouthern African Sea Life: A Guide For Young Explorers. This book was published by Random Struik in 2012 and in it, she explores themes such as different marine habitats, animals and plants and why it is great to be a marine scientist! She hopes that this book will not only educate, but inspire a generation of environmental leaders.