{"id":126,"date":"2017-11-23T19:33:11","date_gmt":"2017-11-23T19:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zirkvandenberg.com\/?page_id=126"},"modified":"2022-11-01T08:11:08","modified_gmt":"2022-10-31T19:11:08","slug":"cv","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/zirkvandenberg.com\/index.php\/cv\/","title":{"rendered":"Biography"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Photo taken by my friend the film cameraman Marc Degenaar, in the house of my friend the writer Andr\u00e9 le Roux.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I have written and published books in two languages and various genres. And I have been lucky enough to be nominated for the odd award, winning on occasion.<\/p>\n

My debut was a volume of literary short stories in Afrikaans – Ekstra Dun vir Meer Gevoel<\/strong> (=Extra Thin for more Feeling<\/em>). The stories have been widely anthologised. I then wrote the short historical novel Wydsbeen<\/strong> (=Spread-legged),<\/em> which was shortlisted for the Rapport Prize and CNA Debut Prize. I moved from South Africa to New Zealand in 1998 and switched to writing in English.<\/p>\n

This was the second time I’ve moved countries – I was born in Walvis Bay, Namibia, and moved from there to Bellville, South Africa, just before starting school. I studied at the University of Cape Town, and later lived in Mowbray, not far from the university. I now live in Auckland, New Zealand.<\/p>\n

Random House NZ published by crime story Nobody Dies<\/a><\/em><\/strong>\u00a0in 2004. The\u00a0NZ Herald<\/em> rated it one of the five best thrillers of the year – the only local book on the list. The NZ Listener<\/em> magazine headed their review quite flatteringly with the question \u201cIs Zirk van den Berg the best thriller writer in NZ?\u201d<\/a><\/strong> My Afrikaans translation of this book, ‘n Ander Mens<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, won the KykNet\/Rapport Award for best filmable book in South Africa in 2014. The movie inspired by the book was released in 2019, together with a re-release of the book.<\/p>\n

In 2014, Penguin South Africa published my novel about a Kiwi soldier in the Boer War, Half of One Thing<\/a><\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

My historical novel Parts Unknown<\/strong><\/em><\/a> is was published in October 2018, and the Afrikaans novella Ek Wens, Ek Wens<\/a><\/strong><\/em> in February 2019. This book won the 2020 W.A. Hofmeyr Prize for literature, as well as two awards at the 2020 kykNET-Rapport Book Awards – for fiction as well as for best filmable book.<\/p>\n

The English version of this book, I Wish, I Wish<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, was released in New Zealand in October 2020 and was a finalist for the 2021 NZ Booklovers Award for Fiction.<\/p>\n

The sequel to Parts Unknown<\/em>\u00a0(Tweegevreet<\/a><\/strong>) was published in South Africa in July 2020, in Afrikaans only, with the final part of the trilogy (Een of ander held<\/a><\/strong>) appearing in 2021.<\/p>\n

A short novel, Die onsigbare pou<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, about a fictional 1980s Afrikaans rock star, appeared in 2022.<\/p>\n

I also do translations from English into Afrikaans. Apart from translating my own work, I have translated three of Wilbur Smith’s novels into Afrikaans in recent years, two by Philip Kerr, as well as cricketer AB de Villiers’ autobiography. In 2016, I was one of the three finalists for the translation prize at the South African Literary Awards (SALA).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have written and published books in two languages and various genres. And I have been lucky enough to be…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zirkvandenberg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/126"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zirkvandenberg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zirkvandenberg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zirkvandenberg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zirkvandenberg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/zirkvandenberg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/126\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1038,"href":"https:\/\/zirkvandenberg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/126\/revisions\/1038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zirkvandenberg.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}