Ceridwen Dovey
Encyclopedia
Ceridwen Dovey is a South Africa
n and Australia
n social anthropologist and author
.
, South Africa and grew up between South Africa and Australia. Her parents derived her unusual name from one of the protagonists in Richard Llewellyn's
1939 Welsh novel, How Green Was My Valley
. Dovey attended high school in Australia at North Sydney Girls High School
before going to the United States in 1999 to study at Harvard University
as an undergraduate where she completed a joint degree in Anthropology and Visual & Environmental Studies in 2003. During her time at Harvard, Dovey made documentaries that highlighted the relationships between farmers and rural laborers in post-apartheid South Africa. She made a documentary about wine farm labor relations in the Western Cape of South Africa, Aftertaste, as part of her Honors thesis, which is distributed by John Marshall's Documentary Educational Resources http://www.der.org/films/aftertaste.html.
In 2004 Dovey worked briefly for the television programme NOW with Bill Moyers at Channel Thirteen
in New York
before returning to South Africa to study creative writing at the University of Cape Town
. She wrote her first novel Blood Kin as her thesis for an MA
in creative writing under the supervision of poet Stephen Watson
. She now lives in New York City. Her parents live in Sydney and her sister, Lindiwe Dovey, is a lecturer in African Cinema at SOAS in London.
, Blood Kin: A Novel was published by Atlantic Books
(U.K.), Penguin (South Africa) and Penguin (Australia) in July 2007, and by Viking in North America
in March 2008. It will be published in a total of fourteen countries, including Germany, France, Italy, Holland, and Sweden. It was shortlisted in 2007 for the U.K.'s John Llewellyn Rhys Prize
for British/Commonwealth authors under the age of 35, and was shortlisted in 2008 for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book (Africa). It tells the story of a fictional military coup from the perspective of the overthrown leader’s portraitist, chef, and barber. The novel is deliberately ambiguous in its setting.
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
n and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n social anthropologist and author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
.
Biography
Dovey was born in PietermaritzburgPietermaritzburg
Pietermaritzburg is the capital and second largest city in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It was founded in 1838, and is currently governed by the Msunduzi Local Municipality. Its "purist" Zulu name is umGungundlovu, and this is the name used for the district municipality...
, South Africa and grew up between South Africa and Australia. Her parents derived her unusual name from one of the protagonists in Richard Llewellyn's
Richard Llewellyn
Richard Dafydd Vivian Llewellyn Lloyd , better known by his pen name Richard Llewellyn, was a Welsh novelist.Llewellyn Richard Dafydd Vivian Llewellyn Lloyd (8 December 1906 – 30 November 1983), better known by his pen name Richard Llewellyn, was a Welsh novelist.Llewellyn Richard Dafydd...
1939 Welsh novel, How Green Was My Valley
How Green Was My Valley
How Green Was My Valley is a 1939 novel by Richard Llewellyn, telling the story through narration of the main character, of his Welsh family and the mining community in which they live. The author had claimed to have based the book on his own knowledge of the Gilfach Goch area, but this was proven...
. Dovey attended high school in Australia at North Sydney Girls High School
North Sydney Girls High School
North Sydney Girls High School is an academically selective, public high school for girls, located at Crows Nest, on the Lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia....
before going to the United States in 1999 to study at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
as an undergraduate where she completed a joint degree in Anthropology and Visual & Environmental Studies in 2003. During her time at Harvard, Dovey made documentaries that highlighted the relationships between farmers and rural laborers in post-apartheid South Africa. She made a documentary about wine farm labor relations in the Western Cape of South Africa, Aftertaste, as part of her Honors thesis, which is distributed by John Marshall's Documentary Educational Resources http://www.der.org/films/aftertaste.html.
In 2004 Dovey worked briefly for the television programme NOW with Bill Moyers at Channel Thirteen
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
before returning to South Africa to study creative writing at the University of Cape Town
University of Cape Town
The University of Cape Town is a public research university located in Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. UCT was founded in 1829 as the South African College, and is the oldest university in South Africa and the second oldest extant university in Africa.-History:The roots of...
. She wrote her first novel Blood Kin as her thesis for an MA
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
in creative writing under the supervision of poet Stephen Watson
Stephen Watson
Stephen Watson was a South African poet.Most of his poetry is about the city of Cape Town, where he lived most of his life. He was a professor in English at the University of Cape Town...
. She now lives in New York City. Her parents live in Sydney and her sister, Lindiwe Dovey, is a lecturer in African Cinema at SOAS in London.
Work
Dovey's first novelNovel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
, Blood Kin: A Novel was published by Atlantic Books
Atlantic Books
Atlantic Books is an independent British publishing house, founded by Toby Mundy in 2000. Atlantic Books won the Imprint and Editor of the Year award at the British Books Awards in 2005 and 2009. It also was Independent Publisher of the Year in 2009....
(U.K.), Penguin (South Africa) and Penguin (Australia) in July 2007, and by Viking in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
in March 2008. It will be published in a total of fourteen countries, including Germany, France, Italy, Holland, and Sweden. It was shortlisted in 2007 for the U.K.'s John Llewellyn Rhys Prize
John Llewellyn Rhys Prize
The John Llewellyn Rhys Prize is a literary prize awarded annually for the best work of literature by an author from the Commonwealth aged 35 or under, written in English and published in the United Kingdom...
for British/Commonwealth authors under the age of 35, and was shortlisted in 2008 for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book (Africa). It tells the story of a fictional military coup from the perspective of the overthrown leader’s portraitist, chef, and barber. The novel is deliberately ambiguous in its setting.