2026 Programme

Born in Durban, Elleke Boehmer is the author, most recently, of the ARB-commended short-story collection To the Volcano, and of the prize-winning fiction The Shouting in the Dark (EASA Olive Schreiner Prize for Prose, 2018). She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, UK, and a member of the Dutch Academy of Letters. Elleke Boehmer is a founding figure in the field of postcolonial studies in English, and Professor of World Literature at Oxford, where she is also Co-Director of the Oxford Centre for Life-Writing. Recent work includes Postcolonial Poetics and Indian Arrivals 1880-1915, which won the biennial ESSE prize. Her biography of Nelson Mandela has been widely translated. Forthcoming work includes Southern Imagining, a history, and a new novel, a love-story.

Karen Jennings is a South African author whose novel An Island was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2021, leading to the novel being translated into 17 different languages and being published around the world. Her most recent novel, Crooked Seeds, came out to high acclaim, and is currently longlisted for the Women’s Prize and the Republic of Consciousness Prize. She is temporarily chair of Creative Writing at North-West University, Potchefstroom. Karen is also co-founder of The Island Prize for Debut African Novels and co-author of the free-to-download Words on the Page: Workbook for African Writers – dedicated to encouraging writers from the continent, and assisting them in honing their skills and gaining recognition both at home and abroad.

Anthony Akerman is a playwright and screenwriter. His recent memoir, Lucky Bastard, focuses on how his life has been shaped by adoption. It is a moving, self-reflexive, witty and poignant work that reflects not only on his adoption and the challenging paths faced by those who adopt and are adopted, but also on the tender struggles and absurdities of being human. He trained at the Old Vic Theatre School in Bristol and has worked as a director in Holland, France, Mexico, Canada and South Africa. His plays have been produced in Holland, Germany and South Africa. He confronts social injustice through powerful storytelling. His award-winning plays include Somewhere on the Border, Dark Outsider and Old Boys. Somewhere on the Border was a huge success and was nominated for the 1987 DALRO Best Play Award. The Argus described it as “the ultimate anti-war statement in white South African theatre”. His play Leading Ladies won the 2021 WGSA Muse Award for Best Stage Play.

Diane Awerbuck is a Commonwealth Prize-winning author known for her haunting and psychologically rich narratives. Her notable works include the award-winning debut novel Gardening at Night, the story collection Cabin Fever, and a horror novel about motherhood and set in Fish Hoek, Home Remedies. All her works explore memory, mystery, and human connection. Awerbuck taught at Rustenburg Girls’ High School, Cedar House and Imhoff Waldorf High School. She has also taught Narrative and Aesthetics at AFDA in Cape Town, and creative writing at the University of Cape Town. Her reviews, essays and short stories have appeared in national and international publications such as the Mail & Guardian and the Sunday Times. Her work has been translated into several languages, and she holds a doctorate focusing on trauma narratives and the Middle East, “The Spirit and the Letter: Warblogs, Trauma and the Public Sphere.” In collaboration with Alex Latimer, she also writes under the pseudonym Frank Owen: together they wrote the prescient cowboys-dictators-and-viral-apocalypse novels South (2016) and North (2018). Her Biblical haiku collection is titled As above, so below. Awerbuck’s most recent short story collection is Inside your body there are flowers. With her two children, she has also written a joke book, Tears Before Bedtime.

When she turned fifty and started losing equilibrium, influence and teeth, journalist Charlotte Bauer fled to a remote farmhouse in France to have her midlife crisis in peace. In between learning to speak French and making a close study of her ungovernable mother and aunt, who still wore thongs and smoked in bed, she turned her keen observer’s eye inward. Her riotous melt-down memoir, How To Get Over Being Young, is published by Atlantic Books in the UK and is widely available to order in bookstores and online. Bauer’s journey as a journalist reads like a story worthy of its own headlines. A Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, she has worked variously as a profile writer, columnist, and editor at the South African Sunday Times. As one of the founding members of the Mail & Guardian newspaper, she helped shape the voice of South African journalism during crucial years of social change. She currently lives in Cape Town and works at News24.

Feminist scholar and novelist Barbara Boswell challenges and inspires through her groundbreaking work. Her novel The Comrade’s Wife powerfully depicts a contemporary South African political marriage, while her academic research enriches South African feminist literature. Boswell’s authentic voice amplifies historically marginalized perspectives, making her a vital force in contemporary African literature. An Associate Professor of English Literary Studies at the University of Cape Town, Boswell authored Grace – winner of the UJ Debut Prize for South African Writing in English; And Wrote My Story Anyway: Black South African Women’s Novels as Feminism, and Lauretta Ngcobo: Writing as the Practice of Freedom. Boswell is also a visiting scholar at the Centre for Life Writing at Wolfson College, University of Oxford.

David Attwell is Professor Emeritus at the University of York, where he was Head of the Department of English and Related Literature. He is also Extraordinary Professor at the University of the Western Cape. A teacher, literary critic, and historian of South African literature, his books include J. M. Coetzee and the Life of Writing, a finalist for the Alan Paton Prize; The Cambridge History of South African Literature, co-edited with Derek Attridge; Rewriting Modernity: Studies in Black South African Literary History; and Bury Me at the Marketplace, the collected letters of Es’kia Mphahlele, co-edited with Chabani Manganyi.

By day, Andrew Brown serves as an advocate and police reservist, protecting the vulnerable as the SAPS liaison officer for the Child Protection Unit at Red Cross Children’s Hospital. By night, he crafts powerful narratives that have earned him a place among South Africa’s most compelling writers. His seven novels and two works of non-fiction bridge his dual worlds of law enforcement and literature, offering unique insights into justice, humanity, and survival His latest novel, The Bitterness of Olives, transports readers to contemporary Palestine, where ordinary lives intersect amid extraordinary circumstances. Through his characters’ search for friendship and love in a polarized world, Brown masterfully explores how oppression and trauma shape human choices. Brown is one of very few authors who twice won the prestigious Sunday Times Fiction Prize: The Bitterness of Olives, and his Coldsleep Lullaby, part historical thriller, part modern-day detective story, while Refuge reached the shortlist for the Africa Commonwealth Book Prize. Drawing from his experiences in the South African Police Service, Brown’s non-fiction works, including Street Blues, offer raw, unflinching accounts of life on the front lines of law enforcement, completing his remarkable literary portfolio that spans continents and human experiences.

Karin Cronje is known as a fearless writer who exposes the off-limits with a mix of irony, pathos and humour. She won the Jan Rabie/Rapport Prize for her second novel, Alles mooi weer. Her talent for tongue-in-cheek observations of herself and her world is reflected in her memoir, There Goes English Teacher, which narrates Karin’s adventures and misadventures as an English teacher in a small Korean village. It reflects the ‘full catastrophe of being human’. Karin is a former lecturer in the Music Literacy Department at Stellenbosch University. She has dabbled in acting, worked in publishing and as a journalist. She is now working on shuffling to the end of her days with grace. She hasn’t managed yet.

Photo credit: Roz Misselhorn

In the heart of the Karoo lies Richmond, South Africa’s only Book Town and the only Book Town on the African continent – a testament to Darryl David’s visionary commitment to celebrating and preserving literary culture. As a passionate champion of Afrikaans literature and South African literary heritage, David has transformed quiet corners of the country into vibrant hubs of cultural exchange through his creation of the likes of the quirky BookBedonnerd Festival in Richmond, the renowned Midlands Literary Festival in Howick, the Schreiner Festival in Cradock and the Breyten Breytenbach Boekefees in Montagu. Not to mention Books on the Bay in Simons Town! His love for South Africa’s cultural landscape extends beyond literature to architecture and faith, as evidenced in his co-authored works 101 Country Churches of SA, Church Tourism in SA and A Platteland Pilgrimage: 102 Country Churches of SA. Through these ventures, David has become not just a literary figure but a cultural cartographer, mapping the intersection of literature, architecture, and community in South Africa. His recently published Karoozing: An Ode to the Open Road is a photographic memoir and a compilation of his finest photographs, collected over thirty years. It is a hymn to the Karoo and an ode to the open road.

Finuala Dowling won the 2004 Ingrid Jonker prize for her debut poetry collection, I flying. Twenty years later, the poet, novelist and creative writing teacher enters a poetic conversation with her daughter Beatrice Willoughby, an award-winning copywriter whose first collection, So, published by Karavan Press, has been commended by Vanessa Levenstein of Fine Music Radio for its ‘pain, joy, love, exquisite expression, humour and surprising twists and twirls’. The back-and-forth of poems between mother and daughter is scintillating: not quite duelling banjos, not quite a duet, but a witty and moving conversation about shared lives, loves and losses.

Where the corporate world meets the ebb and flow of nature, you’ll find Serai Dowling charting unexpected connections. With over two decades of experience threading between boardrooms and beachfronts, from Africa to Europe, Dowling has mastered the art of bridging diverse worlds. As a mediator, researcher, and strategist, she helps organizations and individuals navigate troubled waters to find their flow. Her fascinating work, A Guide to Tidal Pools of the Western Cape, reveals her unique ability to find wisdom in nature’s patterns, while her professional practice of unsticking the stuck demonstrates how the same principles can transform organizational dynamics. Through her multifaceted career, Dowling proves that the best solutions often come from unexpected intersections.

Gavin Evans lectures in media law and journalism at Birkbeck College, University of London and is the author of ten books. The latest, White Supremacy: A Brief History of Hate, is a powerful exploration of two centuries of white supremacist thinking, from eugenics to the al-right movement. His memoir, Son of a Preacher Man will be published in South Africa in May 2025. During 40 years of journalism he’s written for numerous international newspapers and has broadcast for the BBC and others. He was born in London but raised mainly in South Africa where he was involved in a number of anti-apartheid organisations in the 1980s. He’s a member of the Royal Institution’s ‘Challenging Pseudoscience’ group and in recent years has addressed many academic and other events relating to the alt-right and pseudoscience.

‘White Supremacy is a meticulous and enlightening march through the history of racial pseudoscience and a deep investigation into how and why it continues to have salience to millions today’ Mike Wendling, BBC 

Novelist, travel writer and photographer, Justin Fox is the author of 25 books. His latest novel, Hell Run Tobruk, deals with the desperate struggle of South African forces in North Africa during 1942, especially ships sent from Simon’s Town to fight in the Mediterranean. Justin is a Rhodes Scholar with a doctorate in English from Oxford University and has taught part time at the University of Cape Town for two decades. Until 2020, he was the editor of Getaway magazine. Some of his recent books include The Marginal Safari, Whoever Fears the Sea, The Impossible Five, as well as novels in the Jack Pembroke series of thrillers, including The Cape Raider and The Wolf Hunt. In 2024, Justin’s literary travelogue, Place, was shortlisted for both the Sunday Times Literary Award and the South African Literary Award. Justin is currently an artist in residence at the University of Johannesburg.

Godfrey Mwampembwa—known to many simply as Gado—is one of Africa’s most acclaimed political cartoonists and satirists. Gado has been creating sharp, witty illustrations that have graced the pages of major newspapers across East Africa and Europe for over three decades. Working from Kenya where he has earned the ire of the government, his work fearlessly tackles politics, social issues, and the everyday struggles of ordinary citizens. His razor-sharp wit and bold illustrations have captured the political zeitgeist of a continent. Beyond cartoons, he has ventured into filmmaking and children’s literature, using creativity to spark dialogue and drive positive change. He has a string of accolades to his name: He is a Prince Claus Laureate and a Bellagio Fellow. He was awarded the Visionaries Award by the Ford Foundation and the Chevalier dans l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government. He was named as one of the 100 most influential people in Africa, and won the Cartoon for Peace Prize. He is the genius behind “The XYZ Show,” a groundbreaking satirical puppet series that brings politicians to life in ways they never imagined—often to their chagrin. Admired for his bold style and unwavering commitment to truth, Gado remains a powerful voice for freedom of expression. Through humour and satire, he holds up a mirror to society, and affirms his unwavering commitment to sparking conversations that matter, mentoring the next generation of cartoonists, and ensuring that the flame of artistic activism burns brighter than ever.

Dawn Garisch, a doctor and award-winning author, blends medicine and literature in her work. She recently won the Nadine Gordimer Short Story and the NIHSS Awards for her collection What Remains. She is a founding member of the Life Righting Collective www.liferighting.com and has published seven novels, two poetry collections, short stories and non-fiction. She has produced plays, a short film, written for television, and has received numerous awards, such as the DALRO prize, the EU Sol Plaatje Poetry Award, and the Short.Sharp.Stories competition. Her memoir, Eloquent Body,  explores creativity, science, and healing. Her novel Accident was longlisted for the Barry Ronge Sunday Times Fiction Award, and Breaking Milk was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Fiction Award. Breaking Milk is an evocative exploration of motherhood, intersecting with the South African landscape, environment, and science. It offers a profound meditation on the complexities of motherhood and the destructive relationship humans have with the Earth.

Betty Govinden is a poet and distinguished literary voice in South Africa, known for her groundbreaking research and writing that combines academia, activism, and artistic expression to illuminate the experiences of South African Indian women. Her ground-breaking work, Sister Outsiders, earned her the Hiddingh-Currie Award for its exploration of identity and difference in South African Indian women’s writings. In 2022, her contributions to South African literature were recognized with the English Academy of Southern Africa Gold Medal for distinguished service. Govinden champions diverse voices in literature and academia. Her recent contribution to Durban’s Casbah: Bunny Chows, Bolsheviks and Bioscopes adds to her legacy of examining South African cultural and spatial identies. As a scholar and poet, Govinden brings a unique perspective to discussions on identity, belonging, and social justice. Her writing bridges generations, histories, cultures, and communities, making her one of South Africa’s most important contemporary literary figures. Her work explores the experiences of Indian South Africans, especially women. She has also written on a wide range of South African women, such as Eva Krotoa and Charlotte Maxeke. She is a founder member of the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians, and has published chapters on feminist theology. Dr Govinden is a Senior Research Associate at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s School of Social Sciences.

Anton Harber has been a journalist for 44 years, as a reporter, editor, manager, educator/trainer and columnist. He is executive director of the Henry Nxumalo Foundation (which supports investigative reporting). Harber was founder-editor of the anti-apartheid newspaper The Weekly Mail / Mail & Guardian and Editor-in-Chief of the country’s leading TV news channel, eNCA. For two decades, he held the Caxton Chair of Journalism at Wits University as an adjunct professor. He has written or edited a number of books, including So, for the Record: Behind the headlines in an era of state capture, Diepsloot and Southern African Muckrakers: 300 years of investigative reporting that shaped the region.

Professor. Pundit. Public nuisance. In his columns, books and on social media, Jonathan Jansen is prolific, and he likes to speak his mind about schools and universities, race, politics and our complex South African society. He has brought incisive analysis, compassion and a sense of humour to some of the most controversial issues in our country for many years. And now, in this memoir, Breaking Bread Jansen goes back to his early years: growing up in a loving, fiercely evangelical family on the Cape Flats, being put on the road to purpose by an inspiring school teacher and becoming the first of his generation to go to university. His gift for story-telling and his interactions with people from different walks of life offer moving insights into the intricacies of South African society, insights that are filled with wisdom and leadership lessons. Jansen’s patchwork of memories tells a bigger story than that of his own life. It’s a tale of learning the value of ‘breaking bread’ with others, of finding mutual recognition in our different fears and faiths, our fumbles and fortitude, our hurts and our hopes.

Ingrid de Kok is one of South Africa’s foremost poets. She is the award-winning author of six collections, including Terrestrial Things, Seasonal Fires: New and Selected Poems, and Mappe del corpo, selected poems translated into Italian. Her work has been translated into nine other languages and is taught around the world, she has received many significant awards and residencies and has read at key international literary festivals.  In 2022 she collaborated with poet Antjie Krog and illustrator Fiona Moodie on the children’s book Vetplant Fairies. The Khula Cape Foundation recently awarded her a Molteno Gold Medal for “a sustained body of poems of exceptional integrity and power over many decades, making up an invaluable contribution to the literatures of South Africa.”  She will read from her new collection, Unleaving, (Fourthwall Books, 2024.)

Michele Magwood has been instrumental in shaping the cultural discourse of South African literary journalism for over three decades. Serving as the Sunday Times’ literary voice, she crafted incisive reviews, profiles, interviews, and essays with established and emerging authors that have become synonymous with her articulate aesthetic. Her contributions to anthologies – the most recent being Jonathan Ball: A Tribute, a collection of essays on the publisher that she commissioned and edited – and literary platforms have enriched the literary landscape. Renowned for her critical eye and authentic warmth, Michele has been an advocate for diverse voices, introducing novel perspectives to contemporary literature. Her multifaceted career as an editor, broadcaster, and literary journalist has established her as a vital figure in South Africa’s publishing landscape.

The exquisitely written The Blackridge House, is a daughter’s moving portrait of her mother’s dementia, and her quest to discover the past. The Blackridge House is a meditation on belonging, of the stories we tell of home and family, of the precarious footprint of life. Through her poetry, essays, and scholarly work, Martin explores the relationship between literature, ecology, and memory, examining how personal narratives intersect with environmental consciousness. Martin is an emeritus professor of English at the University of the Western Cape. Her notable publications include Writing Home; A Millimetre of Dust: Visiting Ancestral Site; and Nobody Home: Writing, Buddhism, and Living in Places, which is a collection of conversations and letters with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Gary Snyder. Her latest work, Syntax of the River: The Pattern Which Connects, co-authored with the late Barry Lopez, examines the role of writing in addressing environmental crises. Her forthcoming book concerns sponges and sponge diving in the Aegean.

Since his first book in 2000, Kobus Moolman has been crafting verses that challenge and transform South African poetry. His eleven previous collections of poetry – including the haunting Time like Stone and the masterful The Mountain behind the House – have redefined what’s possible in contemporary African verse. As Professor of Creative Writing at the University of the Western Cape, Moolman wears two hats: master poet and dedicated mentor. His work, which has earned him the coveted Ingrid Jonker Prize among other accolades, bridges the gap between intimate personal expression and universal human experience. His work, recognized also by the South African Literary Award for Poetry and the Glenna Luschei Award for African poetry, demonstrates how poetry can be both deeply personal and universally resonant. Through his unflinching exploration of form and content, Moolman continues to shape the landscape of South African literature, inspiring readers and emerging writers alike.

Poet, novelist and social commentator Charl-Pierre Naudé delves into life’s profound questions with his evocative writing. His novel, The Equality of Shadows, examines the breakdown of apartheid consciousness in the 1970s through the experiences of various residents in a small town in the Karoo. This engaging narrative alternates between moments of uproarious humour and profound pathos, thoroughly examining the complexities of identity, love, and the passage of time. Naudé has participated in literary festivals and residencies in Europe, and his poetry has been translated and published in literary magazines and anthologies in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Norway, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States. He writes in both Afrikaans and English.

A towering figure in South African literature, Professor Njabulo Ndebele transformed the literary landscape with his Noma Award-winning Fools and Other Stories. As both author and former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Town, Ndebele’s voice resonates through his powerful exploration of everyday life under apartheid. Now on at the Baxter Theatre is the theatrical adaptation of his novel, The Cry of Winnie Mandela, in which he connects the personal stories of Winnie Mandela to the Greek myth of Penelope who waited eighteen years for her husband while he was away at war. His highly influential essays on South African literature and culture were published in a collection Rediscovery of the Ordinary. His work continues to shape discussions about memory, race, and social justice. He holds honorary doctorates from universities in the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Japan, South Africa and the United States. Born in Johannesburg in 1948 his early life was significantly shaped by South Africa’s apartheid era. To avoid the limitations of Bantu Education, he pursued his studies in Eswatini (formerly Swaziland). Following Nelson Mandela’s release in 1990, he returned from Lesotho to South Africa, where he held senior positions at several prestigious institutions, including the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of the Western Cape. His distinguished career in higher education reached new heights with his appointment as Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Cape Town in 2000. Currently, he serves as Chancellor of the University of Johannesburg and is chairman of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, continuing to influence South African education.

Yewande Omotoso is an architect, novelist, and storyteller. In her recent book, An Unusual Grief, she crafts a poignant exploration of loss, identity, and the digital footprints we leave behind. As it follows the story of a mother grieving the death of her estranged adult daughter, the story confronts the haunting reality that we may never truly know those closest to us. Her second novel, The Woman Next Door received several accolades, including being shortlisted for the University of Johannesburg Prize in 2016 and the Sunday Times Barry Ronge Fiction Prize in 2017. It was also longlisted for the 2017 Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction and went on to be shortlisted for the 2018 International Dublin Literary Award. She is the author of Bom Boy, which won the South African Literary Award for Best First-Time Published Author and was shortlisted for the South African Sunday Times Fiction Prize. She was also a finalist for the inaugural pan-African Etisalat Fiction Prize. Omotoso’s unique perspective enriches contemporary African literature, providing profound insights into loss, healing, and reconciliation. She is also a storyteller with Greenpeace.

Historian and sports figure André Odendaal has produced important narratives on South African history, focusing on the connections between politics, sports, and culture. He is currently writer-in-residence and honorary professor of history and heritage studies at the University of the Western Cape. The author and co-author of more than twenty titles, his next offering, together with Roger Field, is The Early Writings of Alex La Guma: Reflections on Cultcha, Identity and Freedom in the 1950s and 1960s. The edited collection provides valuable insight into La Guma’s evolution as a pioneering African writer with a distinct District Six voice. Odendaal earned a PhD in History from St John’s College, Cambridge and after heading organisations for twenty years, he started working full-time as an independent researcher, writer and publisher ten years ago. His most recent works are The Blue Book, The Founders, Cricket and Conquest, Divided Country, Pitch Battles, Robben Island Rainbow Dreams, Swallows and Hawke and Dear Comrade President: Oliver Tambo and the Foundations of South Africa’s Constitution. The latter work was shortlisted for the 2023 Sunday Times Literary Award, as well as the academic ASAAf and SAHS/HASA best book awards in the last decade. After apartheid he was the founding director of the Mayibuye Centre for History and Culture in South Africa and the Robben Island Museum, before serving as  CEO of Newlands Cricket Ground and the Cape Cobras and Western Province cricket teams. He chaired the UCBSA’s Transformation Monitoring Committee from 1998 to 2002 and received the President’s Award for Sport (Silver Class) for his contributions to transforming sports in South Africa.

John van de Ruit – actor, playwright and author – is the creator of the beloved Spud series. Van de Ruit’s wit and warmth vividly bring universal teenage experiences to life. Spud captures the heart and humour of South African youth, sharing stories of boarding school life in the 1990s that resonate with readers around the world and have inspired successful film adaptations. Spud: The Reunion, the last and final in the series, published in 2024, pulls us back into a simpler time; the years of Thabo Mbeki and cellular (unsmart) phones. At twenty-eight Spud is stuck in a one-third life crisis. Reflecting on a decade of spectacular non-achievement, at a point where he’s coming to realise that his glittering stage career might have stalled before it’s even begun, casts him into deep gloom. Van de Ruit is also well-known for his collaboration with Ben Voss on the satirical sketch show Green Mamba, which has toured extensively throughout southern Africa since 2002. Spud was a runaway success, winning the 2006 Bookseller’s Choice Award.

In his compelling new book, Sir Herbert Baker: A Biography, John Stewart unravels the remarkable story of how one visionary architect left an indelible mark across two continents. From the majestic Union Buildings in Pretoria to the grand colonial edifices in India, Stewart weaves a masterful narrative that vividly brings Baker’s architectural legacy to life. Through meticulous research and his expertise as an award-winning architect, Stewart illuminates the complex interplay between architecture, imperial power, and cultural identity. Before becoming a full-time writer in 2015, Stewart shaped Britain’s architectural landscape as the head of one of the UK’s largest multi-disciplinary practices. His distinguished career earned him a fellowship in both the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Royal Society of Arts, and he was twice named among Britain’s top 40 Architects under 40. With six books to his credit, Stewart combines scholarly rigour with practical insight. His journey through the prestigious Mackintosh School of Architecture, Oxford School of Architecture, and Henley Management College informs his work as an author and lecturer from his home in Buckinghamshire, where he continues to bridge the worlds of architectural practice and historical scholarship.

Journalist-turned-biographer Richard Steyn explores the intriguing relationship between Cecil John Rhodes and Lewis Michell in his latest book, Rhodes and His Banker: Empire, Wealth and the Coming of Union. Michell, a pivotal figure in the banking sector, was instrumental in the region’s economic expansion following the discoveries of diamonds and gold. His work helped Standard Bank become the largest financial institution in the subcontinent, a status it maintains today. Steyn’s engaging narrative makes complex historical relationships accessible. By weaving together the stories of Rhodes and Michell, the book provides both a biography and insights into the significant commercial and political developments in Southern Africa from 1870 to 1910. At 81, Steyn, an author of six books on influential figures in South Africa’s history, has had a varied career as a sportsman, lawyer, newspaper editor, scholar, and bank executive.

Hedley Twidle is a writer, teacher and researcher based at the University of Cape Town, where he is an Associate Professor and Head of the Department in English Literary Studies. His focus is on twentieth-century, Southern African and world literature, as well as narrative non-fiction and the environmental humanities, which he explores in collections of essays. His most current essay collection, Show Me the Place, investigates the deep human desire to imagine alternatives to what we take as normal or inevitable. His previous publications are Firepool: Experiences in an Abnormal World, and Experiments with Truth, a study of life writing and the South African transition. His work has appeared in a range of international publications, including the New Statesman, Financial Times and Harper’s magazine. Currently, he is collaborating with UCT’s Neuroscience Institute on “Writing Forgetting”, a project exploring the arts and literature of dementia and memory loss. More of his writing can be found at www.hedleytwidle.com.

From the streets of Elsies River where he was born to the highest ranks of the South African Police Service, Jeremy Vearey’s life mirrors South Africa’s own path to transformation. In his warts-and-all police memoir, Into Dark Waters: A Police Memoir, he looks at the thirty-plus years as a police officer and top investigator. His recent publication, Crimson Sands, is an epic, panoramic war novel spanning the years 1904 to 1922 that traverses southern Africa from Tsumeb to Upington, from internment camps in Windhoek to the dry riverbeds of the Fish River Canyon. Thousands of Bondelswarts were shot down by Jan Smuts’s fighter planes. Vearey conjures a mesmerising tale across an arid landscape of sand, shrub and dune, evoking voices and stories long gone.

Adam Welz is an environmental writer, photographer and old-school naturalist based on the South Peninsula. His book The End of Eden: Wild Nature in the Age of Climate Breakdown is a New Yorker Best Book of the Year and a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice. It explores the impacts of climate change on wild species through a collection of stories from around the world, about creatures struggling to survive rapid environmental change. The End of Eden combines science and on-the-ground environmental reporting with compelling storytelling, challenging readers to confront the climate crisis while inspiring action on solutions.

Image: Brian Mann / NPR

In her memoir, In Silence My Heart Speaks, Thobeka Yose examines societal taboos with honesty and empathy. She shares her journey from childhood trauma and profound loss and the hard-earned process of healing. Her experiences reflect universal truths that resonate with anyone who has confronted adversity with courage. Through her storytelling, she weaves together themes of grief, single parenthood, and a child’s path to self-discovery, touching the hearts of readers and reminding us that our most private battles can create bridges for understanding and connection. Yose’s narrative invites readers into the quiet spaces where unspoken thoughts reside, highlighting the transition from heartbreak to hope. This memoir is not just a story of survival; it is a powerful testament to the human spirit’s capacity for resilience, forgiveness, and love.

At the delicate intersection of memory and history stands Joline Young, a social historian, heritage consultant and author whose work illuminates the painful legacy of forced removals, indigenous dispossession and slavery in South Africa. Young has dedicated herself to uncovering neglected histories, thus preserving stories that might otherwise have faded into obscurity. In An Uncomfortable Paradise: A History of Dispossession and Slavery in Simon’s Town, Young peels back layers of history through meticulous archival research, bringing to life the history of indigenous dispossession and slavery in Simon’s Town, thus ensuring that crucial chapters of South Africa’s past remain accessible to future generations. Her powerful children’s book Lucy’s Dream exemplifies her approach, weaving meticulous archival research with human narratives of displacement, identity, and resilience. Young has emerged as a leading voice in documenting forced removals, indigenous dispossession and slavery, and their impact on communities. Her books and essays, celebrated for their emotional depth and historical accuracy, give voice to those affected by systemic injustices.

Zapiro, whose real name is Jonathan Shapiro, is one of South Africa’s most influential political cartoonists. For over thirty years his sharp, and satirical cartoons in leading newspapers like the Mail & Guardian and the Sunday Times have driven political commentary and influenced social change. Zapiro’s satire has consistently challenged authority, addressing issues ranging from apartheid oppression to contemporary corruption. His work, which combines political commentary with social activism, has garnered both acclaim and controversy, including two high-profile defamation lawsuits from former President Jacob Zuma. He is a Fulbright Scholar and studied under renowned comic masters like Art Spiegelman, Will Eisner, and Harvey Kurtzman. He attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, from 2003 to 2006 as part of a select group of cartoonists. He collaborated with Story Circle to create educational comics focused on social issues such as HIV/AIDS and child abuse. He won the International Publishers Association Freedom to Publish Prize. He was awarded two honorary doctorates, one in Laws and one in Literature. He has published numerous books that journey through South Africa’s democracy in cartoons. He is the co-creator of the satirical ZA News puppet show. He has held solo exhibitions in New York, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Dhaka, Sweden, and South Africa. He has been a speaker at cartoon events in various countries, including Cameroon, Botswana, Namibia, Australia, France, the UK, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Taiwan, and the USA. Through his internationally exhibited artwork and public engagements, Zapiro demonstrates how artistic expression can critique power, advocate for human rights, and inspire social progress.

Nancy Richards, journalist, podcaster, former broadcaster and founder of NPO Woman Zone and The Women’s Library, will be remembered by many who listened to her radio shows over twenty odd years on SAfm – most especially SAfm Literature in which she spoke to hundreds of authors of all genres. And during which time she learnt a whole lot about the art of listening and craft of writing – some of which she has put into practice in her own book The Skipper’s Daughter. With her gentle yet incisive style she recounts her mother’s sea-faring voyage at the age of 16 which ended in tragedy. Other books include Beautiful Homes: As featured in Fairlady Magazine; Woman Today: A Celebration, Fifty Years of South African Women; Being a Woman in Cape Town: Telling your Story, and Women of Soil.

Jo-Anne Richards is an internationally published novelist with a PhD in Creative Writing from Wits University. Jo-Anne has published five novels, her latest being The Imagined Child published by Picador. Her first novel, The Innocence of Roast Chicken was originally published by Headline Review in the UK, and has recently been released as one of the prestigious Picador Africa Heritage Collection. Formerly a lecturer at Wits University, Jo-Anne is co-founder of the creative writing training company, All About Writing.

Bongani Kona is a writer, editor and lecturer in the Department of Historical Studies at the University of the Western Cape. His writing has been broadcast by BBC and appeared in a variety of publications including, Chimurenga, New York Times, Safe House: Explorations in Creative Nonfiction, The Daily Assortment of Astonishing Things and Other Stories, and The Baffler. He edited Our Ghosts Were Once People: Stories on Death and Dying, which brings together writers and poets from diverse backgrounds. The topics range from the personal to the political and the philosophical. He was awarded the Ruth First Fellowship in 2019 and shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2016.

Philippa (Pippa) Hudson earned her Honours degree in English from the University of the Witwatersrand.

She began her radio journey with training in news broadcasting at Johannesburg’s ABC Ulwazi school. Her on-air career took off in 1998 as a news reporter at Classic FM. A year later, she relocated to Cape Town to join a commercial radio station, where she climbed the ranks to become News Editor and eventually Station Manager in 2003.

Hudson took a brief hiatus from radio to focus on raising her two young children. During this time, she built a thriving freelance career as a journalist and corporate writer. In 2008, she returned to radio, joining CapeTalk/702 as part of the Eyewitness News team.

Since 2013, she has hosted Lunch with Pippa Hudson, a lifestyle-oriented show airing weekdays from 1–3 pm on CapeTalk.

A contributor to several national and international publications, Mphuthumi (‘Mpush’) Ntabeni is a historical novelist who lives in Cape Town. He has been writing a trilogy of historical novels on the lives of amaXhosa during the frontier history of the Eastern Cape, titled The River People. The Broken River Tent, the first in the trilogy, won the University of Johannesburg Debut Prize 2019 and was longlisted for the Sunday Times Literary Prize. Ntabeni is currently writing the second book in the trilogy, The Conflicted Men, based on the life and times of Tiyo Zisani Soga, the first Xhosa man to receive a formal Western education in the 19th century.

Wamuwi Mbao is a lecturer in English Studies at Stellenbosch University and an accomplished writer of short fiction. His research focuses on South African post-apartheid literature, architecture, and popular culture. A SALA-winning literary critic, he contributes to the Johannesburg Review of Books. His short story, The Bath, is featured in Twenty in 20, an anthology showcasing the twenty most significant short stories written since 1994.

Anwar Mall, Emeritus Professor and former Chair in Surgical Research at the University of Cape Town presented at international conferences and conducted research at institutions such as the University of Oxford and University College London. He has a wide field of interest, from philosophy, literature to medicine, and a keen interest in people.