About SA Writers' College -

In 2004, journalists Nichola Meyer and Lisa Lazarus co-designed the Magazine Journalism Short Course, and taught at Boston Language College and CityVarsity in Cape Town, South Africa.

The Magazine Journalism Course proved to be so popular that they decided to train on a national level - by taking the course online. SA Writers' College was launched in 2005.

The hallmark of SA Writers' College Courses is that the courses offer real training by real writers. The tutors know what writing will sell, and what won't. The courses are practical, current and to the point. Each course answers all the questions an aspirant writer will need to write in a specific field, and teaches students to write high quality copy in the correct style for their genre.

The college now trains more than two hundred students each year. Since its inception in 2005, 18 new writing courses were added to the curriculum, and more courses are being developed for 2010. Contact us by clicking here.

Some facts about us -

• More than 28 companies support our writing courses, including many of the major publishing houses: Highbury Safika Media, New Media Publishers, Caxton Publishers, SABC, Juta, Associated Magazines, Multichoice, Mediaweb, British American Tobacco, Stellenbosch University, Engel & Völkers, SA Décor & Design, Nedbank, Standard Bank, Old Mutual, Democratic Alliance, Vital Health Foods, International SOS, Pfizer, Omage Holdings, TWP Consulting, BM Analysts, Natal Museum SA, bs3 and Emperor's Palace.
• We have trained over 500 students in South Africa, New Zealand and Australia since 2005.
• Our tutors have collectively accumulated more than 40 international writing awards. Read about them below. We only employ full-time, professional writers as our tutors.
• We have over 450 pages of writing resources on our website - 150 of these free to the public.
• We currently have 3 800 pages of course notes written by our tutors - specialist writing knowledge for each genre of writing.

Our College Mission -

We aim to provide students with affordable, specialist writing tuition of exceptional standard. Specifically, all courses are geared to impart and assess writing skills, as well as industry knowledge.

Our College Vision -

We aim to remain one of the top international online writing colleges.

Our Staff at SA Writers' College -

  Nichola Meyer

Principal: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Nichola Meyer started her career as a freelance writer in 2001, and has written feature and cover articles for several leading magazines, among them O: The Oprah Magazine, Femina, Your Baby, Essentials and Cape Town's Child. With a university Major in English and a Masters Degree in Psychology, Nichola has a special interest in reporting on issues of interest to women and parents.

Previously she lectured in psychology, taught English to High School Pupils since 1998, and presented the Magazine Journalism Short Course since 2004 at CityVarsity Film & Television and Multimedia School, as well as at Boston Language College. She launched SA Writers' College in 2005.

Koos Turenhout

Administrator: Student Enquiries and Applications

Koos Turenhout has been involved in Higher Education for the past six years at a private institution. During this time he has been a department head and has served on the academic board. For any questions about the college and our courses, please mail Koos at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or contact us by clicking here.

 Karin Schimke

Tutor: Magazine Journalism

Karin Schimke was a political writer for The Star and The Cape Times before turning to freelancing in 2000. She has written columns and feature articles for a variety of mainstream newspapers and magazines, and also publishes short stories and poetry. She reviews books for the Cape Times and has a regular column on Parent24.com.

Karin has written two non-fiction books: Fabulously 40 and beyond (with Margie Orford), and Mother Country due for publication in 2010. Her children's picture book Layla had a lovely dad is due for publication late in 2009. She also edited Open, a collection of literary erotic short stories by South African women writers.

Karin mentors and tutors young writers at a publishing house, and is currently working on a novel and a collection of her poems for possible publication. She hosts a regular weekly poetry happening called Off The Wall in Observatory, Cape Town.

 Lisa Lazarus

Tutor: Magazine Journalism

Lisa Lazarus is a freelance journalist for a variety of publications, including Men's Health, Shape, Cosmopolitan, Femina, Healthy Pregnancy and the Mail & Guardian. Her memoir The Book of Jacob  has  been published by Oshun

Previously she worked as Principal of CityVarsity for six years. She has a Masters Degree in Educational Psychology, and is currently completing a Masters degree in Creative Writing at the University of Cape Town.

Topics of Interest: relationships, psychology, health, sex, pregnancy, personal opinion columns

Tutor: Magazine Journalism

 Tracey Hawthorne

Tutor: Magazine Journalism

Tracey Hawthorne has written features and columns for numerous leading publications in SA, including  CAPE etc, Cosmopolitan, Fairlady (including 'Urban Exile', a column that ran for 13 issues), Femina, Getaway, GQ (for which she was books editor for 32 issues), House and Leisure, JSE, Men's Health (for which her feature 'Bone Chilling' was a Mondi nominee), O, Prive, Proud!, Psychologies, Shape, Style, You.

Tracey has also written for Business Day, Sunday Times, Sunday Life (Sunday supplement), has written and/or contributed to over 10 fiction and non-fiction books, including four First Field Guides (Struik), Frommer's South Africa (Macmillan), Tumble-Turn: The Natalie du Toit story (Oshun), The John Platter South African Wine Guide 2008 (Newsome McDowall) and Open (Oshun), and edited upwards of 30 other non-fiction books, including over 20 for Struik's Natural History division and (most recently) Boerejood (Jacana), My Dad by South African Sons (Two Dogs) and The King's Eye and John Vorster's Elbow (in production).

She also currently compiles three weekly electronic newsletters for Old Mutual.

Tutor: Magazine Journalism

Leonie Joubert is an award-winning science journalist, columnist and author. She writes for many publications, including Getaway, Africa Geographic, Engineering News, SA4x4, Xplore, African Decisions, Progress, EarthYear, Farmers Weekly, Wine Magazine, the Extra Virgin newsletter, Wine News, the Sunday Independent, Sunday Argus, Sunday Tribune, Cape Times, and the Mail & Guardian.

Leonie won two Merit Awards at the SAB Environmental Journalists of the Year Awards (2006 and 2007) in print media. She is the author of Scorched: South Africa's Changing Climate (winner of an Honorary 2007 Sunday Times Alan Paton Non-Fiction Award) and Boiling Point (the Ruth First Memorial Lecture). Other books by her, currently in production, are Invaded: the Biological Invasion of South Africa (est. 2008) and two school resources books.

Leonie has a Bachelor of Journalism and Media Studies from Rhodes University and a Masters in Journalism from Stellenbosch University.

 

Tutor: International Travel Writing

Yvonne has been a travel editor and writer for over 20 years. She's edited the travel section of the largest newspaper in New Zealand as well as the country's first dedicated glossy travel magazine. She's worked at Conde Nast Traveler in New York. Yvonne has won numerous travel writing awards including a fellowship to study travel writing at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom.

Other awards include: Dulux Junior Feature Writer of the Year (1983); Young Reporter of the Year (1983); Qantas best newspaper tourism/transport feature (1994); Cathay Pacific Travel Writer of the Year (1995); Qantas Best newspaper health/medicine feature (1997); Avis Awards - best article about the travel industry (in 1995,1998 and 2000); Commonwealth Media Awards - winner tourism & transport (in 1997 and 1998); Qantas award for best government, diplomacy & foreign affairs feature (2000); Qantas Travel Journalist Award (2004); MPA Lifestyle Journalist of the Year (2004); Qantas Media Awards Winner Best Tourism & Travel Column (2007).

Yvonne has a BA in English & Religious Studies, as well as a post-graduate diploma of Journalism from the University of Canterbury. She has previously taught travel writing at the University of auckland.

 Ginny Swart

Tutor: Short Story Writing

Ginny Swart has sold over 300 short stories to women's magazines all over the world. On any day of every month she has at least 15 stories out there on editors' desks. Her more serious work has appeared in literary publications in America, South Africa, Canada, New Zealand and on the Web. She is also the author of three romance novels (Ulverscroft Press UK) a book of short stories (Lulu.com) and a book for teenagers: Nosipho and the King of Bones (MacMillan Boleswa SA). In 2003 Ginny won the esteemed UK The Real Writers' Prize from over 4000 entrants.

 Noel Cisneros

 Beth Cooper

Tutor: Hard News Journalism

Beth Cooper has been a news journalist for 12 years. Former assistant news editor on The Herald before turning freelance in 2005, she has worked as a senior correspondent, reporter and news editor and covered various beats from crime and courts, to health and education.

Now a writer and columnist for several top local and international magazines and websites, including Femina, BBC Online, True Love, Sawubona, Your Baby, Living & Loving and Natural Health, she holds a Journalism degree from Rhodes University and Honours in English from the University of South Africa. Her most recent book is called The Greatest Breastfeeding Tips in the World.

 Karen Jeynes

Tutor: Scriptwriting

Karen Jeynes studied English and Drama at UCT. Her plays include "Laying Blame", "sky too big", "Backwards in High Heels" (co-authored with the cast), "Don't Mention Sex", "Kiss Kiss" and the multi award-winning "Everybody Else (is Fucking Perfect)". She has also directed "The Best Man", "Pillow Talk" and "Txt Me". Her adaptation of Thomas Rapakgadi's "The Purse is Mine" aired on Bush Radio last year, and she is busy writing a radio drama series for Safm with Nkuli Sibeko, tentatively entitled "Office Hours".

Her teenage novel, Jacques Attack (co-authored with Nkuli Sibeko) was published in 2004, and her new book, Flipside, co-authored with Eeshaam September, is due for release this year.

Read an interview with Karen here.

 Susan Williams

Tutor: The Writing Coach Course and the Grammar Skills Course

Susan Williams is the founder and managing director of Prose&Coms, a communications company that specialises in corporate publications, training and storytelling for strategic, motivational and therapeutic purposes.

She obtained a BA degree with specialisation in languages and philosophy, two BA Honours degrees in Philosophy and Applied Linguistics plus a post-graduate education diploma from Rand Afrikaans University (now UJ).

With a strong background in education and vast experience at multinational corporations, Susan consults and offers services in her areas of expertise. Since starting her business in 2000, she has been contracted to manage group publishing projects with international distribution, on developing corporate and technical training video scripts and presentations and on developing induction and other internal and public training programmes. She offers The Writing Coach Course, a distance learning English general and business writing course, through SA Writers' College.

She is also a public speaker, a facilitator with specific interest in facilitating World Café, Dialogue and Storytelling sessions and a trainer of business speech-writing and speaking skills.

Susan is a member of Toastmasters International and the Johannesburg Storytelling Circle.

 Henrietta Rose-Innes

Tutor: "Write A Novel" Course

Henrietta Rose-Innes has written two novels, Shark's Egg (Kwela, 2000) and The Rock Alphabet (Kwela, 2004), and has compiled a book of South African writing, Nice Times! A Book of South African Pleasures and Delights (Double Storey, 2006).  A number of her short stories and essays have appeared in local and international publications.

Most recently, her story "Poison" won the 2007 Southern African PEN / HSBC Writing Award. She won the 2008 Caine Prize for African Writing.

With years of experience as a freelance literary editor (including Kwela, Juta, Umuzi and Jacana), Henrietta is familiar with both ends of the publishing process. As well as giving detailed input on manuscripts, she can offer guidance on various aspects of "the writing life": the joys and challenges, the topical issues and opportunities, and the nitty-gritty of dealing with agents, publishers and contracts. You can visit her website by clicking here.

 Jo-Anne Richards

Tutor: "Write A Novel" Course

Jo-Anne Richards is the author of four novels, her latest being My Brother's Book, published by Picador. Her first book was The Innocence of Roast Chicken, published by Headline in London, shortlisted for the M-Net Book Prize and nominated for the Impac International Dublin Award. It was chosen as a "Dillon's Debut" in the UK, to be showcased as an "outstanding first novel". Her books have been translated into German and French and she was invited to Bayreuth University in Germany to speak on her writing when the translation of her second book, Touching the Lighthouse, launched. She has had short stories published in five collections, by Headline in London, Penguin, Double Storey, Jacana and Oshun.

She is Academic Co-ordinator of the Honours in Journalism at Wits University and supervises Masters students in the Creative Writing programme. She also runs a Writers' Circle in Johannesburg.

 Diane Awerbuck

Tutor: "Write A Novel" Course

Diane Awerbuck's first novel, Gardening at Night, was awarded the Commonwealth Best First Book Award (Africa and the Caribbean) in 2004 and was short-listed for the Dublin IMPAC Award in 2005. Her short stories are published regularly in magazines and anthologies, and her work has been translated into German, Swedish, Mandarin and Russian.

Diane's recent publications include a doctorate - The spirit and the letter: Warblogs, trauma and the public sphere - from the University of Cape Town, where she was a Mellon Foundation Fellow for the duration of her studies. She is at work on a co-operative novel (with Henrietta Rose-Innes, Mary Watson and Lauren Beukes) titled Exquisite Corpse. Her next short story, The Keeper, is due out in an international anthology in 2010.

She teaches Narrative and Aesthetics at the Cape Town branch of The South African School of Motion Picture Medium and Live Performance (AFDA), and writes and edits educational materials and oversees content development for a publishing services company (www.electricbookworks.com). She also works as a freelance journalist and reviewer for the South African Sunday Times, and blogs for Mail and Guardian's Thoughtleader.

 Wilna Adriaanse

Tutor: "Skryf 'n Roman" Course

Wilna Adriaanse is in die Noord-Kaap gebore, maar het op Worcester, in die Boland, grootgeword. Na matriek aan die Hoërskool Worcester, behaal sy die grade BA en BA Hons in Ontwikkelingsadministrasie aan die Universiteit van Stellenbosch. Verder studie in Sielkunde volg aan die Universiteit van Suid Afrika.

Sedert 2000 het sy 12 boeke geskryf en gepubliseer. Van die meer onlangse boeke is, Rebecca, Met ander woorde en Die boek van Ester.

In 2002 wen sy Lapa-uitgewers se Liefdesverhaaltoekenning. In 2009 word Die Boek van Ester benoem vir die M-Net prys vir Mees Verfilmbare manuskrip en dieselfde boek wen ‘n ATKV/Sanlam Woordveertjie vir Beste Liefdesverhaal.

Wilna is op die oomblik besig met haar Meestersgraad in Kreatiewe Skryfkuns aan die Universiteit van Kaapstad.

 Alex Smith

Tutor: "Write A Novel" Course

Alex Smith is the author of two novels, Algeria's Way and Drinking from the Dragon's Well, both published by Random House Umuzi. Drinking from the Dragon's Well was long-listed for the Sunday Times Alan Paton Award. Four Drunk Beauties, her third novel is to be published by Umuzi in 2010.

Alex has had many short stories published in anthologies and journals. Her short story 'Buffalo Panting at the Moon' was short-listed for the 2007 SA PEN Literary Awards.

Most recently her writing appeared in Touch, along with other SA writers, including Henrietta Rose-Innes, Damon Galgut, Andre Brink, and Nadine Gordimer.Alex was shortlisted for the 2009 PEN/Studzinski Literary Award.

 Helen Brain

Tutor: "Write A Children's Book" Course & "The Basics of Creative Writing" Course

Helen Brain is the author of 30 books for children, and has contributed stories and plays to numerous school anthologies. Her teen novel, "Tamara", won an ATKV award. She has also written several short stories for adults. Her memoir, Here Be Lions, was published by Oshun in 2006.

As a teacher, Helen likes to unlock her pupils' creativity, and help them overcome the fear of failure. She says: "I can't turn you into a writer like a wizard with a magic wand, but I can tell you it's a long road to being a published writer, and a companion who knows the way can make the journey easier." Read more about Helen here .

 Carina Diedericks-Hugo

Afrikaans Tutor: "Write A Children's Book" Course & "The Basics of Creative Writing" Course

Carina Diedericks-Hugo is gebore in Johannesburg en het grootgeword in Pretoria en Kaapstad. Na matriek aan Herschel Girls' School in Kaapstad, studeer sy aan die Universiteit van Stellenbosch en behaal die grade BA (Internasionale Studies), Honneurs Afrikaans en Nederlands (cum laude) en MPhil (Joernalistiek). Sy is die skrywer van die Thomas@-reeks en ander boeke sluit in Koning Henry, Operasie M.I.A.A.U. en Die verdrinking van Josua van Eden.

Sy is al benoem vir die Sanlamprys vir Jeuglektuur en die M.E.R.-prys. Sy het die ATKV-Kinderboekprys reeds vyf maal gewen. As sy nie stories skryf nie, werk sy as uitgewersredakteur by Protea Boekhuis.

 Fiona Walsh

Tutor: Write a Great Press Release

Fiona Walsh has an MA in Communications from the City of London University, and over 12 years experience as a publicist. She started her PR career as a senior account executive with international PR firm Grayling, based in Dublin, Ireland, where clients included Weetabix, Colgate and Mills & Boon. She subsequently worked as press officer for English National Ballet, head of press for the Royal National Theatre and director of press and marketing for Bermuda Shorts Film, all based in London.

On moving to South Africa she worked for David Barrett PR, where clients included Transnet and SAA. Since going freelance, she has worked for a diverse range of clients, including Sony Pictures Television International, Tourism Ireland, the Market Theatre, SABC3, MNet, Talk Radio 702 and David Krut Publishing. Fiona has also been a lecturer in public relations at Boston Media House, Johannesburg.

 Mandy Speechly

Tutor: The Copywriting Course

Mandy Speechly has been working as a copywriter in the advertising industry for over fifteen years. She has worked full-time and as a freelancer for leading international advertising agencies in Johannesburg and Cape Town, on a range of different media including television, print, radio, brochures, promotions and websites.

Mandy is now Head of Copy at the AAA School of Advertising in Cape Town where she works as the Graduate Copywriting Lecturer. She also runs part-time copywriting courses in the evenings and continues to work for different advertising agencies and clients on a freelance basis.

 Karen Lotter

Tutor: The Writing For The Web Course

Karen Lotter is a journalist and writer based in Durban, South Africa. She runs a company (www.ethekwiniweb.co.za) specializing in creating websites, writing creative and interesting content and optimizing sites for search engines.

She has written profiles, features, advertising copy, obituaries, press releases, and columns in magazines, company newsletters and newspapers, and written and produced corporate scripts.

Since she stopped writing political speeches (after 13 years in the trenches), she has focused on writing for the web and presenting workshops on communications-related issues. She has been a Feature Writer at Suite 101.com (www.suite101.com), a Canadian based Contents Website for 18 months. Her first novel will be published mid-2009.