10×10 is a series of 10 minute podcasts with presenter and journalist Rosie Goldsmith commissioned and originally published by the Commonwealth Writers. In each podcast Rosie spends 10 minutes talking to authors from five different parts of the world.
The podcasts include Margaret Atwood from Canada, Jamaica’s Lorna Goodison, Sri Lankan-born writer Romesh Gunesekera and Welsh Fflur Dafydd. Each podcast features an interview with the author about their life, writing and motivation as well as a reading from their work.
Marlene Van Niekerk is a South African poet, critic, novelist and dramatist. After stints in Mainz, Stuttgart and Amsterdam, she returned to South Africa where she is a professor of philosophy and literature. In 2013, Marlene’s controversial poem, “Mud School”, about the provision of schools in South Africa, provoked an angry response from the country’s government. Her work includes three collections of poetry, two collections of short stories and three novels. Her fiction has been translated widely. Listen to the podcast with Marlene Van Niekerk.