KARINA MAGDALENA SZCZUREK is a writer and literary critic. Born in Poland, she studied in Austria and Wales, and moved to South Africa in 2005. She holds a PhD in English and American Studies from the University of Salzburg and is the author of Truer than Fiction: Nadine Gordimer Writing Post-Apartheid South Africa. Her short stories, poetry and essays have appeared in various publications locally and abroad, and she is a regular book reviewer for the Sunday Independent and the online art magazine Itch. She lives in Cape Town with her husband, André Brink.