Patricia Schonstein

Born and raised in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Schonstein lives in South Africa where she works as a full-time author.[1]

Schonstein holds a master's degree in creative writing from the University of Cape Town, supervised by 2003 Nobel Literature Laureate J. M. Coetzee, who has endorsed much of her work. Her poetry has been endorsed by 1984 Nobel Peace Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Schonstein serves on the Poetry in McGregor committee and presents the annual Patricia Schonstein – Poetry in McGregor Award.[2]

She has been an honorary member of Southern African Friendship and Aid Network Sweden (SAFRAN) since 2008, and served as deputy editor of the poetry quarterly, Stanzas (2015-2020).

• Her debut novel, Skyline, won the French Prix du Marais in 2005; won the Percy FitzPatrick Award in 2002; took second place in the South African Sunday Times Fiction Award in 2001;[3] was long-listed for the 2002 International Dublin Literary Award; was listed in the South African Twenty-Five Must-Reads in 2007; and was listed in the Swedish En Bok for alle.[4]
• A Time of Angels took second place in the South African Sunday Times Fiction Award in 2004; and was short-listed for the 2004 Booksellers’ Choice Award.
• The Apothecary’s Daughter was listed in the Sunday Times Read Your Way Through Democracy in 2014.[5]
• Banquet at Brabazan was short-listed for the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize Africa Best Book in 2011.[1]
• Schonstein was the winner of the 1997 Young Africa Award (Short Stories Category).[1]

• Heather Acott, 'Dark Humor: Satire, the Baroque, and the Carnivalesque in Patricia Schonstein’s Banquet at Brabazan and Ingrid Winterbach’s The Elusive Moth', Kritika Kultura 18 (2012): 134-48
• Michael Chapman and Margaret Lenta (Ed.) SA Lit and beyond 2000 Representing the African Diaspora J.U. Jacobs 315-332