Arja Salafranca

Contributor

Arja Salafranca is a South African writer and content creator for Now Novel. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from Wits University (2012) and currently lives in Johannesburg.

Biography:

Her first poetry collection, A life stripped of illusions, received the 1994 Sanlam Award for poetry, while a short story, ‘Couple on the Beach’ received a Sanlam Award in 1999. Her second collection of poetry, The fire in which we burn, was published by Dye Hard Press in 2000. She received the 2009 Dalro Award for poetry. Her third poetry collection, Beyond touch, was a co-winner of the 2016 Sala Awards. Her debut collection of short stories, The Thin Line, was published by Modjaji Books in 2010. It was long-listed for the Wole Soyinka Award in 2012.

She has edited three anthologies of prose most recently Fool’s Gold (2019), which was shortlisted for the 2020 Awards.

She edited the Life supplement in the Johannesburg-based The Sunday Independent from 2003 to 2016.

Her next publication is a collection of creative non-fiction to be published in 2024, consisting of memoir and travel stories.

Find out more:

Recent posts

Voices on the page: points to consider when writing dialogue

Dialogue is a fictional tool: it is not the kind of conversation you would have in real life, and nor should it be. In real life we ask our partners if they have remembered to buy the milk, and if they say yes, that’s it. That’s hardly riveting conversation. There’s no ‘story’ in this simple exc...

September 11th, 2023

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9 ways to reclaim your writing groove

At one point you fell in love with your characters. They lived in your head, and you knew exactly what was going to happen in your novel. You could see your characters in vivid detail: what they wore, the way the sun fell as they ate at a picnic, could picture the darkness of a room at night wit...

September 4th, 2023

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Crime writing: 10 pointers from the experts

From not having your protagonist eat too many scrambled eggs to writing what you know--and don't know--here's a roundup of advice from crime writing aficionados. Of all the advice about how to write thrilling crime novels, who knew that having your detective eat less scrambled eggs might...

August 28th, 2023

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How to write a novella: 6 essential tips

Learning how to write a novella is excellent preparation for writing your first novel. It enables you to work out characters and themes more extensively than a short story does. Writing a novella gives you helpful scaffolding for an expanded and more detailed book or series. Read on for a h...

August 21st, 2023

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How to use poetry in fiction

Stretching eyes west, Over the sea, Wind foul or fair, Always stood she Prospect-impressed; Solely out there Did her gaze rest, Never elsewhere Seemed charm to be. From ‘The Riddle’ by Thomas Hardy This is how John Fowles begins his novel, The French Lieutenant’s Woman, that h...

August 14th, 2023

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Pros and cons of self-publishing  –  should you do it?

So you’ve finally written your novel and you want to get it published. You’ve heard of the tremendous success of self-published authors, such as Colleen Hoover.  Now you’re wondering if that’s the way to go. Is it? Colleen Hoover was originally a self-published author. As of Octo...

July 24th, 2023

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