Paige Nick is a South African novelist, columnist and advertising

copywriter Copywriting is the act or occupation of writing text for the purpose of advertising or other forms of marketing. The product, called copy or sales copy, is written content that aims to increase brand awareness and ultimately persuade a person or ...

Early life

Paige Rachael Nick grew up in

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

, South Africa. She was a Rotary Exchange Student in Dickinson, North Dakota in 1992 where she graduated from Dickinson High School and attended

Dickinson State University Dickinson State University (DSU) is a public university in Dickinson, North Dakota. It is part of the North Dakota University System. It was founded in 1918 as Dickinson State Normal School and granted full university status in 1987. History Di ...

. In January 1993 she studied copywriting and marketing at AAA School of Advertising. In December 1993, she joined TBWA Hunt Lascaris Cape Town for a student holiday job. She was hired there as a junior copywriter in January 1994.

Career

Books

Nick's first book, ''A Million Miles from Normal'', published in May 2010 and her second novel, ''This Way Up'', was published in May 2011, both by Penguin Books South Africa. In 2013 she joined up with

Sarah Lotz Sarah Lotz is a British novelist, author and screenwriter from South Africa, best known for her horror fiction novel The Three. Biography Sarah Lotz was born in Wolverhampton, England. She left home as a teenager and briefly lived in Paris and ...

and Helen Moffett, to co-author a series of

Choose Your Own Adventure ''Choose Your Own Adventure'' is a series of children's gamebooks where each story is written from a second-person point of view, with the reader assuming the role of the protagonist and making choices that determine the main character's actio ...

erotic novels, including, ''A Girl Walks into a Bar'', ''A Girl Walks into a Wedding'' and '' Girl Walks into a Blind Date'', which were sold in 21 countries around the world. They were published by Little, Brown (UK) and Harper Collins USA and Jonathan Ball Publishers in South Africa. In April 2015 Nick's ''Pens Behaving Badly'' was published by Kwela Books South Africa. It is a compilation of her Sunday Times columns and the crazy letters they inspired.

Column

From October 2011 to February 2015 Nick wrote a weekly column on sex, dating, and romance, and other crazy shenanigans, for the

Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...

newspaper. In February 2015, her column went from being a weekly column, to a monthly column.

Advertising

For more than twenty years, Nick has worked in various ad agencies on a number of local and international brands, including BMW, Levi’s Jeans, Nashua, Cosmopolitan Magazine, Allan Gray, kulula, Sanlam and Santam. Nick has won numerous local and international awards including Loeries, and two Loerie Grand Prix, awards at Cannes, The Art Director’s Club of New York, Clios, and recognition at D&D.

The Good Book Appreciation Society

In 2013 Nick started The Good Book Appreciation Society on Facebook. Wary of Facebook pages for book lovers that have become a playground for self-promotion, Nick started the "secret" virtual book club as a place for readers (many of them writers too), to post honestly about books, by way of reviews, queries and interviews with authors. As of March 2015 the club had over 3000 members.

Bibliography

* A Million Miles from Normal (2010) * This Way Up (2011) * A Girl Walks into a Bar (2013) By Helena S. Paige * A Girl Walks into a Wedding (2014) By Helena S. Paige * A Girl Walks into a Blind Date (2015) By Helena S. Paige * Pens Behaving Badly (2015)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nick, Paige 1974 births Living people Writers from Cape Town South African columnists South African women columnists Dickinson State University alumni South African women novelists 21st-century South African novelists 21st-century South African women writers