Nozizwe Cynthia Jele is a

South African __NOTOC__ South African may relate to: * The nation of South Africa * South African Airways * South African English * South African people * Languages of South Africa * Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the Afric ...

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire to ...

. Her novel ''Happiness is a Four-Letter Word'' won the 2011

Commonwealth Writers' Prize Commonwealth Foundation presented a number of prizes between 1987 and 2011. The main award was called the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and was composed of two prizes: the Best Book Prize (overall and regional) was awarded from 1987 to 2011; the Best ...

for Best First Book, Africa Region and the M-Net film prize at the 2011

M-Net Literary Awards M-Net Literary Awards were a group of South African literary awards, awarded from 1991 to 2013. They were established and sponsored by M-Net (Electronic Media Network), a South African television station. The award was suspended indefinitely a ...

. The novel was later adapted into a 2016 movie.Leandra Engelbrecht
"Happiness Is a Four-Letter Word"
''Channel 24''. 10 February 2016. Retrieved 8 August 2016. She grew up in

Mpumalanga Mpumalanga () is a province of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Swazi, Xhosa, Ndebele and Zulu languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. It ...

, South Africa. She graduated from

North Central College North Central College is a private college in Naperville, Illinois. It is affiliated with the United Methodist Church and has nearly 70 areas of study in undergraduate majors, minors, and programs through 19 academic departments organized in thre ...

, with a BA degree in International Business in 2003. Jele worked as a public health officer for the Mpumalanga Health Department, and then spent a year in the United States as an au pair.

Career

In 2006, Jele self-published a guide, ''So You Wanna Be an Au Pair in the USA – What Your Agency Will Never Tell''. According to her, she became a writer accidentally, after attending a session held by an American author, who made the audience work in a short writing exercise. The author read a passage from a book and asked the audience to complete the first two paragraphs. She went on to live in the United Kingdom for a year. Upon her return to South Africa, Jele worked as a management consultant. She has recently established an economic development consultancy, Lombuso Consulting Group. In the 2008 BTA/Anglo-Platinum Short Story Competition, she won first place. In 2011, she won the 2011 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for the Best First Book in the African region for her novel ''Happiness is a Four-letter Word''. This novel is a story about four female friends living in Johannesburg. The novel was also shortlisted for the 2011 Booksellers Choice Award, and was later adapted into a movie. Upon its release in South Africa in 2016, the film became a box-office success. She works as a management consultant, and lives in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

Works

*''Happiness is a Four-Letter Word'',

Kwela Books Kwela Books is a South African publishing house founded in Cape Town in 1994 as a new imprint of NB Publishers. 1994-2004 In the first ten years it published several books. Notable publications * ''Kafka's Curse'' by Achmat Dangor * ''Bitter ...

, 2010, *''The Ones with Purpose'', Kwela Books, 2018,

References

External links

*http://storytime-cynthia-jele.blogspot.com/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Jele, Cynthia Living people North Central College alumni People from Mpumalanga South African women South African women novelists Year of birth missing (living people)