CHASING DEADLINES, a story about rising above your circumstances ...

255pp., illus., paperback, Self-Published, No Place, 2025

In her memoir Rusana Philander discusses her 30 years of working as a journalist and the stories she has covered, reflecting especially on the emotional toll of the "crime beat" and the "extraordinary ordinary" potential and triumph within marginalised communities.

Rusana Philander was born in District Six and raised in Bishop Lavis on the Cape Flats. She started out at a community newspaper at the age of 16, studied journalism at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, and has worked for many publications and newspapers, including Die Burger, MetroBurger, the Daily Voice, Rapport and the Cape Argus.