Joanne Fedler (born 1967) is an Australian author. She is the author of 10 books including ''Secret Mothers' Business''; ''When Hungry, Eat''; and ''Your Story: How to Write It so Others Will Want to Read It''.

Biography

Fedler was born in South Africa and has studied law in both South Africa and the US. She has law degrees from the

University of the Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), commonly known as Wits University or Wits, is a multi-campus Public university, public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg, South Africa. The universit ...

and from

Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...

which she attended on a Fulbright scholarship in 1993. She was a lecturer in law at the

from 1994–1995. She lives in Sydney with her husband and two children.

Books

Her first novel, ''The Dreamcloth'', was published by Jacana MediaJacana
/ref> in 2005. ''The Dreamcloth'' was nominated for the ''

Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'' Fiction Prize in 2006. Jennifer Crocker wrote that "''The Dreamcloth'' marks a watershed moment in South African fiction." In 2006, her book ''Secret Mothers' Business'' was published in Australia by Allen & Unwin. It has also been published in South Africa and the United Kingdom, with rights sold in Germany,

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

, and

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

. To date it has sold over 600,000 copies worldwide. She is also the author of ''Things Without A Name'', a contemporary love story set in the world of rape and

domestic violence Domestic violence is violence that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes r ...

, published by

Allen & Unwin George Allen & Unwin was a British publishing company formed in 1911 when Sir Stanley Unwin purchased a controlling interest in George Allen & Co. It became one of the leading publishers of the twentieth century and established an Australian ...

(2008); ''When Hungry, Eat'' (2010), Allen & Unwin; ''It Doesn't Have to Be So Hard: the Secrets to Finding and Keeping Intimacy'', co-authored with Graeme Friedman, (2012) Random House; ''The Reunion'', published by Allen & Unwin (2012); and ''Love in the Time of Contempt: Consolation for Parents of Teenagers'', Hardie Grant Books (2015). Her latest book, ''Your Story: How to Write It so Others Will Want to Read It'' was published by Hay House in 2017.

Activism

Joanne Fedler has made appearances at the Sydney Writers Festival, the Jewish Sydney Writers Festival, the Dymocks Literacy Foundation Great Debate, and the Gidget Foundation to raise money for

post-natal depression The postpartum (or postnatal) period begins after childbirth and is typically considered to last for six to eight weeks. There are three distinct phases of the postnatal period; the acute phase, lasting for six to twelve hours after birth; the ...

. In 1996, she set up a legal advocacy centre to end

violence against women Violence against women (VAW), also known as gender-based violence (GBV) or sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), violent, violence primarily committed by Man, men or boys against woman, women or girls. Such violence is often considered hat ...

of which she was the CEO until 1998. Joanne was also one of the founding directors of Moonstone Media, which produces and publishes branded books designed to enhance organisations and businesses profiles in their markets. In 2006, Moonstone Media published ''A Pocketful of Sequins'', a book of inspirational quotes by people whose lives have been affected by breast cancer for the three national breast cancer organisations in Australia to raise money for breast cancer research.

References

Notes

Bibliography

;Books #
Your Story: how to write it so others will want to read it
', Hay House, 2017 #''It Doesn't Have To Be So Hard: the Secrets to Finding and Keeping Intimacy'', forthcoming

Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...

, 2012. Co-written with Graeme Friedman (''The Fossil Artist''). #''When Hungry, Eat'',

, 2010. #''Things Without A Name'',

, 2008. #''Secret Mothers' Business'',

, 2006. #''The Dreamcloth'', Jacana Media, 2005. #''25 Essential Things you should do before getting married'', sixtyminutebooks, 2003. #''An Endless Ball of String'', The Life Story Project, Sydney, 2004. #''My Maria'', The Life Story Project, Sydney, 2003. #''Ideological Virgins and Other Myths: six principles for legal revisioning'', co-editor, Law Race and Gender Unit, UCT and Justice College, 2001. #''Reclaiming Women's Spaces: New Perspectives on

Violence against women Violence against women (VAW), also known as gender-based violence (GBV) or sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), violent, violence primarily committed by Man, men or boys against woman, women or girls. Such violence is often considered hat ...

in South Africa'', Nisaa Institute for Women's Development, co-editor with Yoon Park and Zubeda Dangor, 2000. #''Tshwaranang National Legal Manual for Counsellors of Raped and Battered Women'', Progress Press,

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

, South Africa 1999. ;Academic articles # 'The idea of changing places in intercultural communication,' Communitas Journal for Community Communication and Information Impact, (with Ilze Olckers), vol 6, 2001 at 1. # 'Affirmative Action for South African women through the Employment Equity Act: will women benefit economically?' Lola Press, April 2000. # 'Violence against women,' in chapter on Equality, LAWSA, Butterworths, 1997. # 'Pornography: Reasonable and Justifiable Limitations,' in The Constitution of South Africa from a Gender Perspective, edited by Sandra Liebenberg, The Community Law Centre,

University of the Western Cape The University of the Western Cape (UWC; ) is a Public university, public research university in Bellville, South Africa, Bellville, near Cape Town, South Africa. The university was established in 1959 by the Politics of South Africa, South ...

, 1995 at 143. # 'A

Feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

Perspective on Pornography,' in Between Speech and Silence: Hate Speech, Pornography and the New South Africa, edited by Jane Duncan, FXI and IDASA, 1996 at 44. # 'The Right to Life,' in

Constitutional Law Constitutional law is a body of law which defines the role, powers, and structure of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the parliament or legislature, and the judiciary; as well as the basic rights of citizens and, in ...

of South Africa loose-leaf service, eds

Chaskalson Arthur Chaskalson Order of the Baobab, SCOB, (24 November 1931 – 1 December 2012) was President of the Constitutional Court of South Africa from 1994 to 2001 and Chief Justice of South Africa from 2001 to 2005. Chaskalson was a member of the ...

et al., 1996, Juta & Co. # 'Lawyering

Domestic Violence Domestic violence is violence that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes r ...

through the Prevention of Family Violence Act: an evaluation after a year in operation,' 1995

South African Law Journal The ''South African Law Journal'' is a quarterly law journal published by Juta & Co. It is South Africa's leading law journal and the second oldest law journal in the English-speaking world, after the ''University of Pennsylvania Law Review''. H ...

112 at 231. # 'Legal Education in South Africa,' 72 Oregon Law Review (1993) at 999. # 'On Dual Becomings: Towards Womanist Lawyering,' 1994 Agenda 21. # 'The Reasonable Man in a Post-

Apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

South Africa,' 3

Wits University The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), commonly known as Wits University or Wits, is a multi-campus public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg, South Africa. The university has its roots in ...

Student Law Review 1991 at 1. # 'The Inequitable Contract and the Role of South African Courts,' 2

Student Law Review 1990 at 56.

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fedler, Joanne 1967 births Living people 21st-century Australian novelists Australian non-fiction writers Australian women novelists Jewish Australian writers South African emigrants to Australia South African Jews Writers from Sydney 21st-century Australian women writers