John Eppel: A Brief Biography

This material has been provided by Professor Brian Jones, founder of 'amabooks [GPL].

John Eppel's recent books are the novels The Curse of the Ripe Tomato and The Holy Innocents, and the poetry collection Selected Poems: 1965-1995.

John Eppel's other books include three novels and two slim volumes of poetry. His first novel, D.G.G. Berry's The Great North Road, won the M-net Prize in South Africa, and was listed in The Weekly Mail & Guardian as one of the best 20 South African books published between 1948 and 1994.

His second novel, Hatchings, was shortlisted for the M-net Prize. It was chosen by the distinguished critic, Anthony Chennels, for the series in the Times Literary Supplement, August 2001, on the most significant books to have come out of Africa.

His third novel, The Giraffe Man, has been translated into French and will be published in France later this year.

Eppel's first book of poems, Spoils of War, won the Ingrid Jonker Prize in South Africa. Poems from this and his second book, Sonata for Matabeleland, are now studied at a number of schools and literary institutions. Six of his poems were chosen for The Heart in Exile, a Penguin book of South African poetry.


Zimbabwe OV Literature [Politics] John Eppel

Last modified 2 June 2003