2024 Authors

Jaco Alant

Jaco Alant is ‘n skrywer en akademikus. Sy eerste roman Is mos Oos (Protea Boekhuis, 2021) word op die kortlys geplaas vir die Eugene Marais-prys. Hy publiseer die kortverhale “Le trouble et la belle sorcière” in Tydskrif vir Letterkunde (1984) en “Die meisie met die soutspiere” in New Contrast (1998). In 2001 gee hy drie uitgawes van die “little magazine” Swartskrif uit waarin hy sy eie materiaal asook bydraes van Richard Bertelsmann en Karel Willemse publiseer. As akademikus publiseer hy ‘n twintigtal studies, in Frans, Engels en Afrikaans, oor ondermeer Dan Sleigh (Eilande), die CD Afri-Frans, die filosowe Jacques Derrida en Louis Althusser en die teorie van mondelinge oorlewering. Hy publiseer ook ‘n boek oor Afrikaans, Parlons Afrikaans, by die Franse uitgewer L’Harmattan (2004) asook ‘n reeks opiniestukke oor Afrikaans (Litnet, 2005 – 2015). Hy is mede-professor in Frans aan die Universiteit van KwaZulu-Natal en woon in Durban.

Julio Agrella

Julio Agrella was born, more than 6 decades ago, in Springs. He grew up in Springs and Brakpan. It shows. After a few decades in the corporate world, he retired at age 50 to a smallholding between Hoekwil and Karatara in the Outeniqua Mountains. His first novel, Zeus van Wyngaardt en die godin van die jag, was published in August 2021. His fourth novel, Zeus van Wyngaardt en die godin van deemoed should be on the shelves in August 2024.

Anthony Akerman

Anthony Akerman is an acclaimed playwright with extensive work in radio and television. His award-winning stage plays include “Somewhere on the Border,” “Dark Outsider,” and “Old Boys.” He wrote his first play while living in Holland; “Somewhere on the Border” is a moving depiction of life as a soldier in Angola. Although banned in South Africa, it was eventually staged and nominated for the DALRO Best Play Award.

His memoir, “Lucky Bastard,” which explores his life shaped by adoption. Akerman’s latest play, “Leading Ladies,” is set in Johannesburg’s Standard Theatre during World War II, celebrating theatre’s resilience in times of crisis. It won the 2021 WGSA Muse Award for Best Stage Play.

Nicola Bower

Emotionally action packed. These are the words that describe Nikki Bi-polar Bear. An exciting and surprising life, full of highs and lows, Nikki started her career in the film industry, fell off her horse after 7 years with panic, devastation, exhaustion and thoughts of suicide. So she runs away to another province to start her next – make it up as you go along – career in marketing and PR, which followed her, intercepted with helping Save the Rhinos and other NGO work for children. After forever, being the wonderlust that she is, she ended up in CT, married to her soul mate who she found, in yet, another province, and started doing what she does best. Helping others through giving the voiceless a voice. And that is what has driven her her whole life – to help others. And the result – well, read on. Find out all about it… how she has made it this far being on the bottom end of the pendulum, that bi-polar thing… to the top, and undoubtedly to the bottom again many more times to come.

Michael Boyd

Michael Boyd grew up in Southern Africa – between Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa – before moving to the UK, where he attended the University of Kent. He worked for some time at the Sundance, Telluride, Film Africa and Cambridge Film Festivals. He was also the director and curator of the longest-running African film festival in the UK, the Cambridge African Film Festival. He then turned to a career in teaching and returned to Africa. Having taught in the Northwest Province and Kenya, he now lives in Johannesburg, continuing to work as an English teacher. He recently completed an MA in Creative Writing at the University of the Witwatersrand, and has published short stories in New Contrast, The Coinage Book, Active Muse, Odd Magazine and MONO Literary Journal. His story “Mama Blue” was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2023. The Weight of Shade is his debut novel.

Roger Chennells

Roger Chennells is a human rights lawyer and conflict resolver by trade. He holds a B.Com degree from the University of Stellenbosch, a Master of Law from the London School of Economics and a PhD from the Central University of Lancashire. He has run his legal practice, Chennells Albertyn from Stellenbosch since 1980, specialising in labour, land, environmental and human rights law, with an overall emphasis on public interest law affecting rural communities, and Indigenous communities in particular.

Over the last decade his primary interest has returned to the dilemmas and choices of Africa, both at a policy and at a practical level.

Roger lives in Somerset West with two border collies, Milly and Cody. He recently received his orange belt in karate and is an enthusiastic surfer and hiker.

Tim Cohen

Tim Cohen is the Business Editor of Daily Maverick. He began his journalism career on Dome newspaper, the official student newspaper of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, whose production schedule was largely dependent on the availability of beer. He graduated to the last outpost, The Natal Witness, which was fuelled by tea, but was subsequently lured to the coffee-infused domain of Business Day. On Business Day, he was political correspondent, finance editor, London correspondent and editor at large, among a variety of other posts. He was subsequently the Editor of the Financial Mail and Business Day before moving to the Daily Maverick. It was probably the coffee.

David Butler

David Butler was born and raised in Zululand where his maternal grandparents were pioneer sugar farmers. He grew up on their farm, learned to speak Zulu quite well and developed a lifelong appreciation of and interest in the Zulu people and their customs. His parents, vehemently opposed to apartheid, taught him to see past colour, creed and race – they afforded him what was then considered to be a liberal education and he grew up keenly aware of injustice, inequality, and racial discrimination. 

He married his wife Sonja in 1973 and, disillusioned with South African politics and unable to see a future for his children in the country of his birth, immigrated with his entire family (23 members in all) to Australia in 1977-78, where he has lived ever since. 

He always wanted to write a book about South Africa that was interesting, authentic and based upon fact. The historical fiction Feet With No Nose is David’s first novel and was ten years in the making. 

David is retired and lives happily on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland where he indulges his passion for writing, doing what he can for conservation – especially the rainforests of Far North Queensland – and regaling his grandchildren with stories of a bygone era.   

Robert-Ian Caldwell

Robert-Ian Caldwell was nicknamed Doc when he was 10. This put paid to a future legal career and he qualified as a medic at the age of 25. Over the years he wrote materia non medica for medical publications, but it was only at 70 that he wrote his first scientific paper. This led to a doctorate in his 75th year. Doc Doc Doc then retired to Knysna, turned 80 this year and, just before thus achieving octogenarian status, published his first book. An ongoing midlife crisis has resulted in his appearing on stage for the past 40 years. He has written erratically to his Aunt Ethel over a similar period.

Darryl Earl David

Darryl Earl David – maverick extraordinaire – recently published his memoir, BookBedonnerd! The Road to Elsewhere. With a sting in his tail, he tells it all. Darryl is the most experienced pioneer of book festivals in South Africa – over the years he has curated more than a hundred. Many are in far-flung areas of the Karoo, such as in Richmond, that fairytale town Darryl branded as Africa’s only Book Town way back in 2007. BookBedonnerd, the book festival that is synonymous with Book Town Richmond  is one of the most joyous festivals around. Darryl also managed against all expectations to have the city of Durban elevated to a Unesco City of Literature, Hermanus to a Unesco City of Gastronomy and Howick a Unesco City of Craft and Folk Art. All three Unesco projects were firsts on the African continent. Darryl is also the author of three coffee table books on country churches of South Africa. And he may well be the only Indian lecturer of Afrikaans in Africa.

Margaretha Deysel Stemmet

Margaretha Deysel Stemmet was born in Springs Gauteng. She studied at the Konservatorium der Stadt Wien in Vienna Austria and sang as soprano soloist at the opera house in Graz, Austria for four years, before returning to South Africa where she sang for the four Arts Councils. She married Johan Stemmet of the SABC in 1971 and then settled in Cape Town. She regularly sang Lieder programmes for the SABC and is a founder member of the Songmakers’ Guild. In 2009 she received the Cape Town Mayor’s Medal for her contribution to cultural affairs. She taught singing at the University of Stellenbosch and at the University of the Western Cape. She published her autobiography “From Largo to Larmenier” in 2016 and in the same year at the Bookbedonnerd Festival in Richmond the book won the J.M. Coetzee/Athol Fugard prize as the best autobiography. In her latest book, “South African Envoys of Opera”, she wrote about 114 South African opera singers who have made a name for themselves on the operatic stages of the world.

C. J. Driver

C. J. Driver, always known as Jonty, was born in Cape Town in 1939. He was the author of ten collections of poetry, five novels, and numerous works of non-fiction. President of the anti-apartheid National Union of South African Students in 1963–4, Jonty was detained in solitary confinement by the security police, subsequently fleeing to England. He became stateless and his writings were banned. His professional life was spent as a schoolmaster in Hong Kong and England. Jonty died in England in 2023. Since then, he has been hailed as one of South Africa’s major modern poets.

Jane Evans

Jane Evans has held positions on a number of ECD government bodies, as well as serving as a trustee on a number of trusts. These include the Helen Suzman Foundation, the St Anne’s School Board of Governors, PAST and the Lee Berger Foundation for Exploration Trust. Jane has a particular interest in palaeoanthropology. She has received a number of awards, including “Woman of the Year” awarded by the Star newspaper, The Johannesburg College of Education’s Rectors Gold Medal “for exceptional contribution to education in South Africa”, and the Chancellors Medal awarded by the University of Pretoria.

Gaireyah Fredericks

Gaireyah self-publiseer talle bundels en lees haar werk by verskeie feeste, o.a. KKNK, Tuin van digters, Prins Albert leesfees en die McGregor poetry festival. Kaaps is Hollands en Mientjies, haar twee debuut bundels word albei vir die Eugene Marais-literêre prys benoem. Sy wen die 2016 Patricia Schonstein Poetry in McGregor Award en ook die DCAS dramafees vir “Beste draaiboek” in 2016. In dieselfde jaar verower sy die Naliba’li Story Bosso-toekenning provinsiaal met haar kinderstorie, “Elkeen hetta krakie” en ook werf sy die tweede plek in die AVBOB-poësie kompetisie met haar Kaapse gedig, “Dood”. In 2020 word sy die Neville Alexander prestige prys toegeken. Sy doen tans haar M by Rhodes universiteit in Kreatiewe skryfkuns.

Anna Funder

Anna is one of Australia’s most acclaimed and awarded writers. Her books STASILAND and ALL THAT I AM are prize-winning international bestsellers, translated into many languages. WIFEDOM, hailed as a ‘masterpiece’, has been chosen as a Notable Book of 2023 by the New York Times and a Book of the Year by The Times, The Economist, the Financial Times, the Daily Telegraph (UK) and The Telegraph (UK).

Anna’s signature works tell true stories of courage, resistance, conscience and love, illuminating the human condition in times of tyranny and surveillance. She ‘explores the space between the conscience and the soul’ (Scotland on Sunday) and ‘uncovers everyday heroes buried by history’ (The Observer). In her worlds ‘wit survives and inhumanity is often undermined by its ironies’ (The Times).

Anna’s novella THE GIRL WITH THE DOGS reimagines love in the age of the tracking device.

Michael Cawood Green

Michael Cawood Green was born and raised in South Africa and supported his undergraduate university studies as a stoker on steam engines. He was Senior Professor and Head of English at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, and then Head of the university’s School of Literary Studies, Media, and Creative Arts. He is also the author of three works of historical fiction, Sinking: A Verse Novella,  For the Sake of Silence winner of the Olive Schreiner Prize for Prose, and The Ghosting of Anne Armstrong.  Green relocated to the UK in 2009, taking up a professorial post in Creative Writing at Northumbria University before leaving the university to write full-time. He is now a Professor Emeritus and Visiting Fellow, at the Institute of the Humanities, Northumbria University, UK and a Research Fellow at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He is currently completing his fourth work creative nonfiction.

Michael Cawood Green will give a reading from and presentation on The Ghosting of Anne Armstrong.

Michael Green (aka R.R. Ryger)

Green se eerste boek (DIE HOL GEVOEL) is in 1989 publiseer. Sedertdien het verskeie ander, waaronder DRANK, SEKS EN DAVID BOWIE, gevolg. Green skryf ook onder die naam R.R. Ryger boeke. Hy word as enig in sy soort in die Afrikaanse letterkunde beskou en word in sommige kringe as omstrede beskou. Hy is ook ’n sportskrywer en sy rugbyboek STRYD VAN DIE REUSE word by die Richmondfees bekendgestel. Green en sy seun Gareth maak ook musiekvideo’s en is tans besig om aan ’n kortfilm met die naam MY PA DIE ALIEN te werk.

Stryd van die Reuse: R.R. Ryger is al vir langer as 35 jaar ’n sportskrywer. In hierdie boek vertel hy rugbystories. Dis nie net oor die Springbokke nie, maar ook van Jan en Alleman. Daar is onderhoude met spelers – van Springbokkapteins tot klubspelers. Stories oor wat agter die skerms gebeur het.

Gail Patricia Gilbride

Gail Patricia Gilbride was born in Pretoria and despite playing with dinky cars in the dust, she developed a love for dolls, ballet, and all things pink. These days she lives on the edge of the Hemel en Aarde valley with her family, where she swims in the sea, writes, gardens, and paints.

Gail holds a Bachelor of Arts degree (Rhodes) and a post-graduate diploma (UCT). She taught English, Sound Perception and Communication Skills. She also used to dance and mastering the Tango is on her wish list.

Gail is the author of Under the African Sun and Cat Therapy.

Shehan Karunatilaka

Shehan Karunatilaka (born 1975) is a Sri Lankan writer. He grew up in Colombo, studied in New Zealand and has lived and worked in London, Amsterdam and Singapore. His 2010 debut novel Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew won the Commonwealth Book Prize, the DSC Prize, the Gratiaen Prize and was adjudged the second greatest cricket book of all time by Wisden. His third novel The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida (Sort of Books, 2022) was announced as the winner of the 2022 Booker Prize on 17 October 2022.

Anton Krueger

In the last few years, Anton has been experimenting with improvised spoken word collaborations with a variety of musicians and DJ’s, including Tony Bental, Warrick Sony, Geoffrey Tracey, Zanethemba Mdyogolo and Francois le Roux (the HA! man). He’s performed readings of Everybody is a Bridge with jazz piano improvisations by the legendary Paul Hanmer in Durban for Poetry Africa (2023) and as part of the curated programme of the 2024 National Arts Festival in Makhanda.

Anton has also published plays, memoirs, short stories, criticism and arts journalism. He lives in Makhanda where he heads up the Department of Literary Studies in English at Rhodes University. Still, Anton considers himself an amateur, inspired by love rather than profit.

George Lockyer

George Lockyer was born and raised in London, England and has been travelling the world and riding motorcycles for well over 40 years. Since leaving school in 1976 George has been a bricklayer and stonemason, a useful trade for travelling and this combined with writing provides a perfect life balance.

Since 2003 George has been a regular contributor of travel articles, columns and book reviews for New Zealand Bike Rider Magazine, where he continues to have a considerable following.

George’s numerous books include Living the Dream Kiwi Bikers (2015), The Long and Winding Aotearoa (2017), Kiwi Garages (2021), Kiwis on Harleys (2023) and Iconic Kiwi Pubs (2023). Tales and Tails Down Under (2020) was published by Kahuku Publishing. George is currently working on a new book entitled Fire Stations of Aotearoa due out in 2025.

Lainy Malkani

Lainy Malkani is a London-born journalist with Indo-Caribbean roots. Her critically acclaimed two-part series for BBC Radio 4 ‘Sugar, Saris and Green Bananas’ inspired her to create a collection of short stories called ‘Sugar, Sugar Bitter Sweet Tales of Indian Migrant Workers.’ She has written for the British Library, the Commonwealth and the BBC and is currently a Senior Lecturer at the University of Arts London. She recently researched and developed a three-part podcast series called Aromatic Tales. The series explored themes around aroma, memory and ancestry with a focus on the Indian diaspora and in particular descendants of Indian indenture.

Susanna van der Merwe

Susanna van der Merwe is ’n storieverteller met `n voorliefde vir verhale waarby kinders of diere betrokke is. Dit is omdat dit “eerlike” stories is, sê sy. Haar liefde vir Afrikaans en dié letterkunde het begin toe sy aan die Hoër Meisieskool Bloemhof uitstekende Afrikaans-onderwysers gehad het . Daarna het sy `n B. Primêr aan die Universiteit van Stellenbosch behaal, met Hennie Aucamp as haar Afrikaans-dosent.
Sy het ná haar troue in 1979 na die Karoo verhuis waar sy en haar man, Izak, op hul familieplaas, Badsfontein, boer. Kinders bly haar passie. Om elke kind volgens haar of sy persoonlikheid te hanteer en daardeur die beste in elke kind na vore te bring , bly vir haar `n groot vreugde.

Oliver Lewis

After a career in financial services, Oliver Lewis is pursuing a DPhil in Economic and Social History at Oxford University. His focus is on UK Government policy ‘failure,’ examining the privatization of British Rail and its impact on users, employees, and taxpayers. Outside academia, Oliver delves into the lives and literature of George Orwell and John Steinbeck, his favourite authors. He’s explored all the places Orwell lived, blending biography with Orwell’s works.

Splitting time between London, Montgomery, and Oxford, Oliver enjoys travel, reading, and staying active, often accompanied by his Springer Spaniel, George. He authored “The Orwell Tour: Travels through the Life and Work of George Orwell” (Icon Books, 2023).

Image credit: Sarah Ainslie

Susie Orbach

Susie Orbach psychotherapist, psychoanalyst, writer and co-founder with Luise Eichenbaum of The Women’s Therapy Centre in London (1976) and The WTCI in New York (1981).

She is the author of many books. Her first book Fat is a Feminist Issue has been continuously in print since 1978. Bodies (which won the APA Psychology of Women’s Book Prize in 2009) was updated in 2019. Her most recent In Therapy: The Unfolding Story is an expanded edition of In Therapy (an annotated version of the BBC series listened to live by 2 million people).

For ten years, she was Visiting Professor of Psychoanalysis and Social Policy at London School of Economics. She was Academic Visitor at Hertford College, Oxford. She is the recipient of many honorary doctorates from the Universities of Roehampton, Westminster, East London, London Metropolitan and Essex and has lectured and supervised worldwide.

She is the recipient of the Inaugural British Psychoanalytic Council’s Lifetime Achievement Award. She was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL) in 2019.

She continues to help individuals and couples from her practice in London.

Clinton V du Plessis

Clinton V du Plessis is ‘n Afrikaanse digter woonagtig in Cradock in die Oos-Kaap. Hy het tot op datum 14 Afrikaanse, 1 Engelse en ‘n Nederlandse vertaling gedigte gepubliseer. Hy is werksaam as ‘n rekenmeester.

Image credit: Lucy Kane

Dr Beverley Roos-Muller

Dr Beverley Roos-Muller is a former academic lecturing in Humanities at the University of Cape Town. In her early years, she was a journalist for the Cape Argus, and she remains a broadcaster and writer/columnist on social, political and literary matters. She was an anti-apartheid activist in the 1980s, including as spokesperson for the multi-organisational Open City campaign opposing the Group Areas Act, and was a delegate to Lusaka with the Five Freedoms Forum in 1989 during pre-negotiation discussions.

Hunting the Seven: how the Gugulethu Seven Assassins were exposed, was published in June 2024, also by Jonathan Ball, and endorsed by Judge Albie Sachs: (you have his quote which is on the cover). The book describes state murders (falsely asserted to be an anti-terrorist operation) in 1986 in the Cape, during which seven young innocent black men were brutally killed by security forces; and she exposes the formerly unknown reason why this happened.

“Armed with beautiful writing skills, great respect for sources, a generous heart and a profound sense of justice, the author hunts for and shares with the reader the unutterably banal and brutal answer to the story of the assassinations”. Albie Sachs

Image credit: Lucy Kane

Jini Reddy

Jini Reddy is an award-winning author and journalist. Her most recent book, Wanderland was shortlisted for the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year and for the Wainwright Prize for UK Nature Writing. A blend of travel memoir, nature writing and spirituality, it also touched on themes of identity and belonging. In 2017 the British Guild of Travel Writers awarded her the Adele Evans Award for Wild Times. She has contributed to anthologies, including the landmark Women on Nature (Unbound, 2021). Her texts and poems have been displayed in London, including at the Royal Festival Hall, where she was commissioned to write six poems for a Winter Light exhibition – the sole writer among twenty visual artists.

As a seasoned journalist, Jini’s work has appeared in numerous publications, among them the Guardian, The Times, Sunday Times Style, Financial Times, The Sunday Telegraph, the Independent, National Geographic Traveller and TIME. In 2019, she was named one of National Geographic’s Women of Impact.

When not writing she coaches aspiring writers, leads workshops and is an Advisory Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund.

Jonathan Slaght

Jonathan Slaght is a wildlife biologist and author, currently serving as the Regional Director of the WCS Temperate Asia Program at the Wildlife Conservation Society. His responsibilities span China, Mongolia, and Afghanistan, overseeing projects extending into Russia and Central Asia. Notably, he is recognized as a leading authority on Blakiston’s fish owl.

His work has been showcased in various esteemed publications, including Scientific American’s blog “East of Siberia” and WCS WildView. Additionally, his writings, scientific endeavours, and photography have been highlighted by prominent outlets such as the BBC World Service, New York Times, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Smithsonian Magazine, The New Yorker, and Audubon Magazine.

Excitingly, he is currently penning a book on tigers under contract with Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux.

Rob Starr

Rob Starr starts his day each morning around 6.30 am with a swim at the Brighton Palace Pier in Sussex, UK, be it winter or summer. In the winter it is all about the cold water and how long he can stay in! His many escapades include 52 Olympic Triathlons in 52 consecutive weeks, a swim across the English Channel and cycling up Mont Ventoux. He is the founder of the charity Starrtrust. Entrepreneur and businessman, the avid reader has turned author and his third book The First Widowis making a splash with reviews “A book you can’t put down – I read it in one sitting. Pacy, is thrilling, and with brilliant female characters at the centre of it all. A must-read!”

Nicole Strauss

Nicole Strauss, a Cape Town native, earned a BCom and LLB degree from the University of Stellenbosch in the Nineties. In 2009, she achieved an MA in Creative Writing (cum laude) at UCT under Etienne van Heerden’s mentorship.

Her debut collection, “Maal,” published by Queillerie in 2010, won both the Eugène Marais and UJ prizes for debut works in 2011 and was shortlisted for the Jan Rabie/Rapport prize. Her second collection, “As in die mond,” also from Queillerie (2017), clinched the Jan Rabie/Rapport award and was shortlisted for the UJ prize for fiction and the WA Hofmeyr prize.

Karina M. Szczurek

Karina M. Szczurek is the author and (co)editor of a dozen works of fiction and non-fiction, most recently a memoir, The Fifth Mrs Brink, and an anthology of stories, Fluid: The Freedom to Be, which won the HSS Award for Best Fiction Edited Volume in 2024. She also received the Thomas Pringle Award for a portfolio of ad hoc reviews from the English Academy of Southern Africa in 2018 and won the MML Literature Award in the Category English Drama in 2012. She is a board member of Short Story Day Africa. In 2019, she founded Karavan Press, an independent publishing house, and a year later, established the Philida Literary Award. She lives in Cape Town.

Louisa Treger

Louisa Treger is the acclaimed author of four novels, The Lodger (2014), The Dragon Lady (2019), Madwoman (2022), which was a Book of the Month in the Independent and The Sunday Times, and The Paris Muse (2024). She has written for The Times, The Telegraph, Tatler, BBC History Magazine and English Heritage. Treger has a First Class degree and a PhD in English Literature from UCL, and currently lives in London.

Anthony Nolan Venter

Anthony Nolan Venter is op 28 Desember 1959 in die klein plattelandse dorpie Cofimvaba in die voormalige Transkei gebore.  Hy onvang sy laerskoolopleiding aan die St. James (R.K.) Primêre Skool op sy geboortedorp.  Sy hoërskoolopleiding ontvang hy aan die Sen. Sek. Skool Arcadia in Port- Elizabeth waar hy in 1978 matrikuleer.

Hy verwerf sy onderwysersdiploma in 1983 aan die Opleidingskollege Dower in P.E. en betree die onderwysberoep.  Hy was 8 jaar lank onderwyser by die St. Josephs (R.K.) Primêre skool op Fort Beaufort in die Oos Kaap.  In September 1991 word hy tot prinsipaal van Hertzog Primêre Skool in die Katriviervallei bevorder waar hy in Desember 2014 aftree.

Venter het reeds van kindsbeen ‘n groot liefde vir die Afrikaanse taal.  Hy was vir bykans ‘n halfeeu korrespondent van verskeie streeks koerante en is reeds sedert 2008 ‘n gevestigde vryskut- en rubriekskrywer vir die Burger.

Nà die tragiese verdrinking van sy twee seuns, onderskeidelik 9 en 11 jaar oud in 1997 stel hy ‘n digbundel “Dood van ‘n engel” asook ‘n kort roman “Om ‘n kind te verloor” vry.  Venter is ‘n selfpubliseerder en sy nuutste boek “Klippies in my kinderskoene” is ‘n keur van rubrieke wat sedert 2008 in “die Burger” verskyn het.  Venter is getroud en woon Tans op Fort Beaufort.  Hy het onder meer ‘n Gevorderde diploma in onderwys sowel as ‘n B. Opvoedkunde Honeursgraad van die Universiteit van Pretoria.  As gesalfde is hy sedert 2003 voltyds in die bediening van die Rooms Katolieke Kerk.

Neil Viljoen

Neil Viljoen has since 1990 been the resident custodian of the Herbert Baker designed Parktown mansion Northwards, built in 1904 for John and Jose Dale Lace. The larger-than-life portrait of Jose by Hal Hurst, which hangs above the main fireplace is what first piqued his interest in the flamboyant, impressible Jose. Neil is a retired academic who holds a PhD in English with a thesis on eight Shakespeare plays. 

Rebecca Willis

Rebecca Willis is a features journalist and writer. She worked at Vogue for 15 years and also at The Independent on Sunday. She was Associate Editor of Intelligent Life, the former sister magazine of The Economist, where she wrote the “Applied Fashion” column.

Thobeka Yose

Hailing from Bizana, Eastern Cape, Thobeka Yose cultivated a love for storytelling in the fertile soil of primary school. Initially drawn to the corporate world, she pursued studies in marketing and business. However, the allure of narrative proved irresistible, prompting Thobeka to embark on a writer’s journey. She has edited and contributed to publications locally and internationally. Prior to the pandemic, Thobeka’s repertoire expanded into the realm of audio storytelling. As producer of ‘Touch Down With Top Women’ for Top Radio, she captivated audiences across Africa and beyond with her year-long programme. The ink in her veins continues to flow. As Content Manager at Batazia, Thobeka empowers aspiring writers and publishers by facilitating the dissemination of their works on a global platform, encompassing diverse African languages. This role fuels her passion for language and the profound fulfilment it brings. Beyond the written word, Thobeka is a vocal advocate for women’s rights and a staunch opponent of gender-based violence. Her unwavering commitment has led her to address audiences at various women’s events. From the sun-drenched fields of Bizana to the global stage of storytelling and social activism, Thobeka’s journey continues to inspire and uplift.