Aletrishe Nietrà

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Aletrishe Nietrà (b. 1921) is an African-American author, born in South Africa.

[edit] Life

Born in 1921 in Mangaung, South Africa, she spent most of her childhood living with friends of the family, as her mother was only 18 years old at the time of her birth. Aletrishe worked for little money until the 1950s when she met her future-husband Álexander Ỹicht. The two married on March 5, 1958, and they had their first child Blanchë Ỹicht in 1959. Blanchë would rise to fame as being the mother to Sillian, and the daughter of Aletrishe. Aletrishe began writing in the 1960s, after feeling moved by Martin Luther King Jr's revelation in the United States.

Her first novel Painted Pictures, The First Color, is about racism, and how she dealt with racial discrimination by white visitors to southern Africa. The novel was published in 1969, though it wouldn't reach success until the 1990s. In 1985 she wrote another novel, Painted Pictures, The Second Color, a sequel to the original Painted Pictures. This novel focused on her life from the 1960s to the 1980s and the role racial discrimination played.

In 1989, her granddaughter Sillian was born as a deafblind, which brought great sorrow to Aletrishe, Blanchë, and Álexander. Though this would later inspire Altetrishe to continue her writing. In 1991 Aletrishe released Unknown Pictures, which focused on her great-granddaughter and how her first two years of life were affected by being deafblind.

During May 1994, Aletrishe visited America and was inspired to write several more continuing novels to her original Painted Pictures series. In October 1995, Painted Pictures 3: Combining The Colors, was released. This novel was numbered because Aletrishe wanted fans to be aware that this would be her last novel in the Painted Pictures series, and that it focused on how the two races (black and white) could work together to become friends.

In April 1994, Sillian died from breathing complications possibly caused by air pollution. Sillian would have celebrated her fifth brithday within the following month. This led to the delay of the final Painted Pictures novel, and possibly is the reason why it's the final book in the series.

Two more novels were released before the new millennium, Working Friends, and Secret Night. Both books failed to attract the attention that the Painted Pictures series had received, which led to Aletrishe going back into writing for the new millennium.

In December 2002, three novels were released simaltaneously, December, which focused on her childhood, Fishing For Love, a romantic novel about her marriage, and Memory Tree, a sympathetic novel about her future death and her family's plans after she passes on.

Three years later Aletrishe (after staying hidden from fans) released her announced - final book will be Paint Pictures: Today, which will focus on how racism plays an effect worldwide in the present time. Aletrishe plans on releasing the novel before the end of 2006.

[edit] Nietrà Reading

Aletrishe distributes her novels from an independent company called Her Stories, formed in 1970 with the help from her husband Álexander. Being an independent company, her novels didn't attract too much attention. Aletrishe felt this was because the name wasn't attractive to others and this led to the name change to Nietrà Reading in 1972.

There is a question about weither or not Nietrà Reading still exists, as her most recent novel Memory Tree was published by Álexander Ỹicht Reading. Which has led many fans to believe that her husband Álexander has taken over her business so she can spend more time on her writing.

Both of them are aging, and so there is a question as to whether the name will change to Eckers Books, which is the imprint Blanchë released her self-published novel Candlesticks under. It is possible that Blanchë is starting her own writing business.