Jean-Marie van Schalkwyk, with her manuscript-in-progress, Where It All Ends, is a 2022 New Voices writer. Congratulations, Jean-Marie.

Childhood sweethearts Isabel, the orphaned granddaughter of a tenant farmer, and Nicholas, son of the wealthy farm owner, are torn apart as war erupts between the Boers and the British in the spring of 1899.

Nicholas joins the ill-fated Lötter Commando, while Isabel suffers the ravages of hunger, disease and the elements in a concentration camp. By the end of the war, Isabel has lost all she has ever held dear. Devastated, alone and with nowhere else to go, she joins an ambitious big game hunter as camp cook. In the heart of Africa, Isabel hopes to forget and find some semblance of peace.  

About Jean-Marie: At age 11, I wandered into the school library. I remember the smell of the old books. The creek of the old floorboards, the dusty ceiling fan clinking rhythmically overhead as I waded through the silence in the small, deserted room.

When the Lion Feeds caught my eye, and the adventures within changed my life forever. I found myself in another time and place, witnessing exhilarating moments of passion, adventure and success followed by the heartbreaking depths of loss, disappointment and suffering. For the first time, I felt the power of words. I have loved words ever since.