Write Co graduate wins debut novel award

Writers Write graduate and Write Co facilitator and editor, Morne Malan, has won Tafelberg's Great Novel Competition, in the Debut Novel Category. The judges were Prof. Andre P. Brink, Jakes Gerwel and Louise Viljoen.

Morne Malan was shortlisted for the SA Pen Award for his entry - Jason's Kiss. Morne, a novelist, playwright, copywriter and editor, facilitates Skrywers Skryf for The Write Co. This course is the Afrikaans version of Writers Write, which now boasts 25 published graduate authors in only three years.

He has written a laugh-out-loud, contemporary novel, Bush Baby, which Laura Boon, of The Laura Boon Literary Agency, has taken on.

He adds, "I've also written a youth novel about a girl coming to terms with the fact that her brother's gay. The novel is funny. I didn't want another heavy coming-of-age story. I wanted to write something that teenagers and their parents will want to read."

"Morne's strong point is his humour," says Amanda Patterson, founder of The Write Co. "Added to his great plots, wonderful characterisation and his flawless, easy-to-read style, Morne Malan, is a talent to be watched."

Equally talented in English and Afrikaans, one wonders what he will do next. "I might do something in Northern Sotho," he says. "I would like Afrikaans publishers to free their minds of the idea that all Afrikaans novels should be literary," says Morne. "I want to be a writer. And writers do write! I'd also like to help other Afrikaans writers to embrace their passion and to unleash their talent."