The Born Frees: Writing with the Girls of Gugulethu

A creative writing group unites and inspires girls of the first South African generation “born free.”

Born into post-apartheid South Africa, the young women of the townships around Cape Town still face daunting challenges. Their families and communities have been ravaged by poverty, violence, sexual abuse, and AIDS. Yet, as Kimberly Burge discovered when she set up a writing group in the township of Gugulethu, the spirit of these girls outshines their circumstances.

Girls such as irrepressibl...