Troy Blacklaws

Who is Troy Blacklaws?

Troy Blacklaws is a writer and teacher from South Africa. He was born on 9 September 1965 in Natal Province. After his schooling at Paarl Boys' High School he studied at Rhodes University before being drafted. After serving in the army Blacklaws began teaching English.

Blacklaws' first novel, Karoo Boy, was published in 2004. The book was described as "a riotous vision of 1976 Cape Town" in Anderson Tepper's Village Voice review and "sensual, cinematic" in The New York Times. Chris Martin, of the band Coldplay, called Karoo Boy "the most colourful book I have ever read".

His second novel was Blood Orange, the story of a white boy in Africa. It was first published in 2005 and is a fusion of memoir and fiction. The novel was adapted for the stage by Blacklaws, Greig Coetzee and Craig Morris. The play, directed by Coetzee, was first performed by Morris at the Grahamstown Arts Festival, South Africa, in July 2006.

In 2010 Blacklaws published a fable: Bafana Bafana : A Story of Soccer, Magic and Mandela. Art by Andrew Stooke. Vikas Swarup, author of Slumdog Millionaire, had this to say of it: "A magical fable. Troy Blacklaws effortlessly conjures up the sights, sounds and rhythms of the South African landscape."