A life less ordinary: author, publisher and lifelong rebel Melinda Ferguson reflects on the women who shaped her

Wow. That’s a hard question. I can’t really separate myself as a woman from me, the author and publisher. As all three, in this complex and amazing country, it’s hard not to be deeply affected by all the suffering out there; perhaps as women, because we are capable of giving birth, our hearts are more affected by violence and injustice. And so I attempt to make some kind of impact by writing and publishing books that address difficult and uncomfortable issues like addiction, trauma, violence and survival — subjects many people tend to run away from.

As the world gets more crazy by the hour, it’s been really important for me to write books like Bamboozled , a memoir I wrote during lockdown on the abuse of global power and the search for inner freedom and joy. I have felt compelled to publish books like Rape: A South African Nightmare by Prof Pumla Dineo Gqola, and the newly released future-now dystopian novel, The Sound of Ice by Megan Choritz.

I have always been drawn to rebels, especially women who refused to stay in a box that was constructed to keep them controlled by the patriarchy.

In 2023, I was deeply driven to write When Love Kills , which remains one of the most shocking and devastating tragedies in our contemporary landscape, where two bright and talented people senselessly lost their lives.

Which book(s) by a South African woman writer made the single biggest contribution(s) to your literary work?

I have always been drawn to rebels, especially women who refused to stay in a box that was constructed to keep them controlled by the patriarchy. As a 13-year-old, I read The Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner.

To me, the book wasn’t just a great South African novel; it was a revolutionary one. I loved its heroine, Lyndall, who rejected the idea that a woman’s destiny was marriage and obedience. Those ideas shocked Victorian society, and they really inspired me as a young woman.

Over the years, Schreiner has fascinated me. Long before feminism became a real movement, she was challenging the patriarchy. She was really brave, uncompromising and decades ahead of her time.

As a writer and lifelong rebel myself, I feel a deep kinship with her. She proved that words could be weapons that were powerful enough to change the conversation and impact the status quo. I like to believe I am trying to do the same.

Margaret Atwood wrote, “A word after a word after a word is power.” How do you reclaim your power as a woman writer in South Africa?

As a South African woman writer, reclaiming that power means refusing to be silenced or sanitised. It means telling the stories that make people uncomfortable, even enraged, because those are often the stories that matter most.

When I wrote and published When Love Kills , I was severely ostracised by the keyboard ninjas on social media. I was even vilified for daring to write “a black story”.

The book explores toxic love, coercive control, hip-hop culture and the devastating consequences of intimate partner violence. It isn’t about sensationalising tragedy but rather asking brutal and painful questions and giving voice to issues that too often remain hidden behind closed doors.