When introducing Frankie Murrey last night at the first UCT Writers Series event taking place at The Book Lounge, Sindiswa Busuku called Frankie a “worker of the imagination”. It is an apt title for the literary powerhouse that she is. Every time I listen to Frankie speak about her work – the curation of the Open Book Festival and her writing – I am inspired. Her words make me want to return to my own writing. The way she reads and actually sees the world, in books and beyond, is a true gift to the literary community. She was in conversation with the ever-thoughtful, funny and incisive Bongani Kona. Listening to them discuss literature and Frankie’s “distinctive” – as Bongani called it – debut, Everyone Dies, was an extraordinary experience.
Here are only a few snippets of what Frankie shared with the audience:
“I read compulsively. If nothing else is available, I will read the text on a shampoo bottle.”
“It’s amazing to see what is happening in this country moving onto the published page.”
“Everything I know, everything I am is through books, through reading and writing.”
“I’m interested in writing in such a way that anything I write about becomes accessible while still preserving the beauty of language; I’m interested in finding a simplicity that holds.”
“I love microscopes because they allow you to look at something in an intense way.”
Click here to buy Everyone Dies at The Book Lounge: Everyone Dies by Frankie Murrey
In March 2024, Frankie won the HSS Award for Best Emerging Author in the Fiction Category for Everyone Dies.
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