Jo-Anne Richards is a South African novelist with a PhD in Creative Writing, whose work has been published internationally. She she mentors writers, offers literary assessments and teaches creative writing through All About Writing.

Her first novel, The Innocence of Roast Chicken, was originally published in 1996 by Headline Review in the UK, and has now been re-released in 2019 as part of the Picador Africa Heritage Series. See synopsis and review quotes.

In this prestigious collection, her book joins those of writers like Frank Chikane, Ellen Kuzwayo, Nelson Mandela, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Pallo Jordon and Johan Steyn. The collection features “bestselling titles” which Pan Macmillan believes “deserve rebranding and a new lease of life in bookstores and on readers’ bookshelves”.

When it first appeared, it topped the South African bestseller list in its first week and remained there for 15 weeks. It was nominated for the International Impac Dublin Literary Award, short-listed for the M-Net Book Prize and chosen as the 1997 Dillon’s Debut novel in London, to be showcased in UK book stores as an “outstanding first novel”.

The new edition of the novel includes new material in the form of an essay about her experiences as a post-apartheid writer and her writing journey since then. Read more about The Innocence of Roast Chicken.

Her latest novel, The Imagined Child, Picador Africa, was released in 2013. See synopsis and review quotes. My Brother’s Book, was also published by Picador Africa. See synopsis and review quotes.