UCT Feature Writing | Meet Andre Wiesner

Meet Andre Wiesner

André Wiesner is a professional writer based in Cape Town, South Africa. He has long been active in feature journalism, both as a practitioner and teacher, and has won awards for his work. He was a PICA Consumer Journalist of the Year, and in 2001 won a Mondi award for Best Feature. André has freelanced for innumerable magazine and newspaper titles. His research has taken him into dank mountain caves, crocodile-infested rivers, mortuaries, movie sets, TV dating shows, the fighting ring in no-holds-barred martial arts, and to the roof of the sky, where he tumbled about in zero-gravity inside a military jet.

André was a tenured academic at the Centre for Film and Media Studies at UCT for several years, where he lectured, presented seminars and convened courses that dealt with an array of media and reporting topics. However, his principal teaching area was in feature journalism and, at postgraduate level, its advanced equivalent, narrative literary journalism. André was the convener and lead teacher in the Centre’s prestigious competitive-entry course on Print Journalism; he also was a supervisor in the university’s MA Creative Writing programme.

In addition to his work as a writer, André is an editor, website developer and media consultant who draws on wide-ranging experience in radio, television and the internet. He is active not only in mainstream media but also within the corporate and NGO sectors, and he believes that knowledge of the techniques of feature writing is valuable to anyone pursuing a professional career in literature, journalism, publishing or communications.

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