Marguerite Poland Author

Marguerite Poland (born 3 April 1950 in Johannesburg) is an award-winning South African writer of books for adults and children. Brought up in the Eastern Cape, she studied Social Anthropology and Xhosa, took a master's in Zulu literature and folktales, and was awarded a doctorate for her study of the cattle of the Zulus. Two of her books - The Mantis and the Moon and Woodash Stars - won South Africa's Percy FitzPatrick Award. The Train to Doringbult was short listed for the CNA Awards. Shades has been a matriculation set text for over a decade. And The Keeper received the Nielsen Booksellers' Choice Award in 2015 as the title South African book-sellers most enjoyed reading, selling and promoting the previous year. Translated into several languages but still largely unknown in the UK, the author won South Africa's highest civic award in 2016 for her contribution to the field of indigenous languages, literature and anthropology. In 2021 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Cecil Rhodes University.