Occupation Academic, writer Nationality South African | Name Michael Green Role Writer | |
Born 10 April 1954 (age 70)
Natal, South Africa ( 1954-04-10 ) Books For the Sake of Silence Education Stanford University, University of Natal | ||
Michael Cawood Green (born 10 April 1954) is a South African born academic and writer.
As a researcher he is most noted for his monograph, Novel Histories which explores the uses of history in South African fiction. He is the author of two works of historical fiction, Sinking: A Verse Novella about the 1964 Blyvooruitzicht sinkhole disaster, and For the Sake of Silence about the Trappists in South Africa.
Michael Green's fiction forms part of a 'new wave' of writing (see also Zakes Mda, Ivan Vladislavic, J. M. Coetzee) which explores the altered landscape of Post-apartheid South Africa. His work, as noted critic Leon de Kock puts it, "...speaks to the muteness of history, ... that ruptures the silence of time past, and further, ...talks so very eloquently about those who would not speak at all..."[1](Review: Leon de Kok, Sunday Times online, 15 June 2008)
Michael Green is currently Professor in English and Creative Writing at Northumbria University.
For The Sake of Silence
Winner of the 2009 Olive Schreiner Prize [2]
J. M. Coetzee writes, "Of the Trappist enterprise in nineteenth-century South Africa, with all its passionate personal rivalries and Byzantine internal politics, Michael Cawood Green has made a work of history cum fiction that will grip and sometimes amaze the reader."[3]