Sheila Meiring Fugard (born 1932 in England) is a writer of short stories and plays and the ex-wife of South African playwright

Athol Fugard Athol Fugard, Hon. , (born 11 June 1932), is a South African playwright, novelist, actor, and director widely regarded as South Africa's greatest playwright. He is best known for his political and penetrating plays opposing the system of apart ...

Personal history

Born in Birmingham, England in 1932, Sheila Meiring moved with her parents to South Africa, in 1940, when she was eight years old. She went to the University of Cape Town, where she wrote short stories and studied theatre. She met playwright

when she acted in one of his plays. In September 1956, she married Fugard and adopted his surname. In 1972, when she was 40 years old, Sheila Fugard published her first novel, ''The Castaways'', which won the Olive Schreiner Prize. Subsequently, she published other novels, including ''Rite of Passage'', in 1976, and ''A Revolutionary Woman'', in 1983. ''A Revolutionary Woman'', her best-known novel, takes place in the 1920s in the

Karoo The Karoo ( ; from the Afrikaans borrowing of the South Khoekhoe !Orakobab or Khoemana word ''ǃ’Aukarob'' "Hardveld") is a semi-desert natural region of South Africa. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its ext ...

district of South Africa and tells the story of a female disciple of Mahatma Gandhi who gets entangled in a rape case between a young colored boy and a young retarded Boer girl. ''Rite of Passage'' concerns a doctor and a young boy traumatized by a tribal circumcision ceremony. Fugard has also published collected poems, including ''Threshold'', in 1975, and ''Mystic Things'', in 1981. Athol Fugard acted in the BBC adaptation of her novel ''The Castaways''. Their daughter,

Lisa Fugard Lisa Fugard is a South African writer and actor. She was born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, the only child of playwright Athol Fugard and novelist Sheila Meiring Fugard. Career Fugard moved to New York City in 1980 to pursue an acting career, ...

, who has acted in some of her father's plays, such as ''My Children! My Africa!'', has also written a novel.

Bibliography

Novels

*''The Castaways'' (1972). . *''Rite of Passage'' (1976). . *''A Revolutionary Woman'' (1983). .

Poetry

*''Threshold'' (1975). . *''Mystic Things'' (1981). . *''The Magic Scattering Of A Life'' (2006). .

Biography

*
"Lady of Realisation
'. 1st ed. Cape Town: Maitri Publications, 1984. Copyright © The Library of Congress, No. Txu 140-945. Cape Town: Electronic Ed., luxlapis.tripod.com. 19 Apr. 1999. Accessed 30 Sept. 2008. (In 3 parts.) Buddhist Freda Bedi">Sister Palmo.">Buddhism">Buddh.html" ;"title="Buddhism.html" ;"title=" "spiritual biography" of Buddhism">Buddhist Freda Bedi">Sister Palmo.

References

External links

"Sheila Fugard"
(Index of articles) at ''Highbeam.com''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Fugard, Sheila Meiring 1932 births Living people South African women poets University of Cape Town alumni Writers from Birmingham, West Midlands 20th-century South African poets 21st-century South African writers South African women novelists 20th-century South African novelists 20th-century South African women writers 21st-century South African women writers