Biography

                                  Bessie Emery Head was born in 1937 in a mental institution in Petermaritzburg, South Africa to a

                                  Scottish mother, with serious psychiatric problems, and, a black stablehand father. She was

   Home Page             adopted by a cooured family who sent her to a missionery school. Here she graduated and went on

   Novelists                 to become a teacher in 1955. After just a few years Head decided that teaching was not the right

      Alan Paton           profession for her and became a journalist for 'Drum', a popular weekly magazine which features

      Nadine Gordimer articles and short stories by new  breeds of journalists. In 1960 Bessie married another journalist,

      Bessie Head        Harold Head, and had a son with him. Unfortunately the marriage didn't  last and they divorced in

   Poets                       1964. In the same year she and her son, Howard, moved to Botswana, where she again took up

  Short Story Writers  teaching. It was here,  in Botswana, where she started writing her novels. Later, Bessie developed

   Playwrights              some psychiatric problems and was admitted to a mental institution.

  References             On 17 April 1986 Bessie died from hepatitis at the age of only 49.

                                     Bessie wrote of her own experiences, of the traumatic and unsettling exsitance she lead. She deals

                                      with issues Athough her works seem to dwell on injustice, oppresion, and hopes of social change and

                                  peace, she presents much love and light and uses intense imagery to vividly describe the beauty to

                                  be found in both human and environmental nature.

                                           Works

                                  When Rain Clouds Gather (1969)

                                  Maru (1971)

                                  A Question of Power (1974)  (Click here to see a review)

                                  The collectors of Treasures (1977) - a collection of 13 short stories about human treasures.

                                  Serowe Village Of The Rainwind (1981) - a non-fiction of the history and myths of Serowe.

                                  A Bewitched Crossroads: An African Saga (1984)

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