| Intro | South African writer and poet |
| A.K.A. | Patricia Schonstein Pinnock |
| Is |
Writer Poet Children’s writer |
| From | South Africa |
| Type | Literature |
| Gender | female |
| Birth |
1 January 1952 |
| Age | 69 years |
Patricia Schonstein, who has also written under the name Patricia Schonstein Pinnock (born 1952) is a South African children’s writer, poet and novelist.
Life
Born and raised in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Schonstein lives in South Africa. She was schooled in a convent for six years from the age of nine. Later she lived in Grahamstown, where – observing the constant raids on homes in the black townships below, and realising the lack of black characters in children’s books – she resolved to write her own stories, poems and songs for children. After gaining a master’s degree in creative writing from the University of Cape Town, supervised by J. M. Coetzee, she became a full-time author. Her debut novel, Skyline, was shortlisted for the South African Sunday Times award for literature in 2001, was longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, won the Percy FitzPatrick Award in 2002 and won the French Prix du Marais.
Works
- Sing, Africa! poems and song for young children, 1990
- Thobileʼs dream, 1991
- Thobile and the Tortoises, 1992
- The king who loved birds, 1992
- Ouma’s Autumn, 1993
- We call the whales : ecological poems and songs for children, 1993
- Xhosa: a cultural grammar for beginners, 1994
- Saturday in Africa : living history through poetry, 1996
- Skyline, 2000
- A gathering of madonnas, and other poems, 2001
- A Time of Angels, 2003
- The Apothecary’s Daughter, 2004
- A Quilt of Dreams, 2006
- The Master’s Ruse, 2008
- Banquet at Brabazan, 2010