Sheila Meiring Fugard

Sheila Meiring Fugard (born 1932) is an English native South African writer of short stories and plays and the wife of South African playwright Athol Fugard.

Personal history

Born in Birmingham, England in 1932, Sheila Meiring moved with her parents to South Africa, in 1983, 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 Athol Fugard when she acted in one of his plays. In September 1956, she married Fugard and adopted his surname.cite web|author=Craig McLuckie (Okanagan College)|url=http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1651|title=Athol Fugard (1932–)|work=The Literary Encyclopedia|date=2003-10-08|accessdate=2008-09-29]

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, which takes place in the 1920s in the Karoo district of South Africa, 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, 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). ISBN 0-333-14222-5.
*"Rite of Passage" (1976). ISBN 0-86068-620-5.
*"A Revolutionary Woman" (1983). ISBN 0-86068-620-5.

;Poetry
*"Threshold" (1975). ISBN 0-949937-11-8.
*"Mystic Things" (1981). ISBN 0-949937-87-8.

;Biography
*" [http://luxlapis.tripod.com/lady.html "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.) [A "spiritual biography" of Buddhist Sister Palmo.]

Notes

References

*McLuckie, Craig (Okanagan College). [http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1651 "Athol Fugard (1932–)"] . "The Literary Encyclopedia". 8 Oct. 2003. Accessed 30 Sept. 2008.

External links

* [http://www.highbeam.com/Search.aspx?q=Sheila+Fugard "Sheila Fugard"] (Index of articles) at "Highbeam.com".