Antjie Krog is an Afrikaans poet, writer, journalist and Extraordinary Professor at the University of the Western Cape. She is well known for her reporting on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. She published thirteen volumes of Afrikaans poetry with four volumes in English translation: Down to my Last Skin, Body Bereft, Synapse and Pillage. She also published three non-fiction books: Country of my Skull, on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission; A Change of Tongue about the transformation in South Africa after ten years and Begging to be Black about learning to live within a black majority. She has been awarded most of the prestigious awards for poetry, non-fiction, journalism and translation in South Africa and various international awards.

Photo by Brenda Veldtman

André Odendaal is the vice-chancellor’s writer-in-residence and honorary professor in history and heritage studies at the University of the Western Cape. He has written numerous books on the history of the liberation struggle and the social history of sport in South Africa. His most recent book is Dear Comrade President: Oliver Tambo and the Foundations of South Africa’s Constitution. For this he drew on the personal archives of participants in the think tank set up by Oliver Tambo to formulate principles and draft outlines for a constitution that could unite South Africa when the time came to talk. André started and directed the Mayibuye Centre for History and Culture in South Africa and was the founding director of the Robben Island Museum.

Fred de Vries is a Dutch writer/journalist who moved to South Africa in 2003. He has nine non-fiction books to his name. His first major work was Club Risiko, a look into the underground music of the 1980s. Next came The Fred de Vries Interviews; From Abdullah to Zille, an overview of conversations with South African cultural movers and shakers. In 2012 he wrote about the post-1994 fate of the Afrikaners, a work which was translated into Afrikaans as Rigtingbedonnerd. He subsequently published books about Oscar Pistorius and Rotterdam. In May 2021 Penguin Random House launched his latest work, Blues for the White Man, a journey into the roots of music and racism in America’s Deep South and South Africa.

Xavier Nagel began his long career in the book industry working for Exclusive Books while studying at Cape Peninsula University of Technology. Hereafter he started an independent book sales and distribution company. In 2009 he launched XLIBRIS Publishers with the publication of Love Green Food – Cooking with Consciousness. Since then he’s published over a dozen books ranging from poetry to children’s books and comics. Xavier opened Bibliophilia, a niche shop specialising in books on art and culture, in 2010 in Woodstock. In 2015 he partnered with Stefan Blank to open Obz Books in Observatory, Cape Town. He divides his time between Obz Books and working as an independent sales representative for WITS and UKZN Press.

Justin Fox is a travel writer, novelist and photographer, and was until recently editor of Getaway magazine. His World War II novels, The Cape Raider and The Wolf Hunt, are set in Simon’s Town. Justin has a long history with Simon’s Town. He spent his childhood holidays here, getting to know and love the area and did his national service in the Navy. He is the author of more than 20 books. Some of the recent titles include The Marginal Safari, Whoever Fears the Sea, The Impossible Five and Beat Routes. His articles and photographs have appeared internationally in a number of publications (he is a two-time Mondi journalism award winner), while his short stories and poems have appeared in various anthologies.

Herman Lategan’s life is not for the faint-hearted. Before becoming an award winning journalist and writing his memoir, Hoerkind, a gripping and shocking tale of a child born out of wedlock in the sixties and called the child of a whore and a bastard, he studied drama, worked as a grape harvester, a bouncer, for the post office, an art gallery, and a waiter and radio actor. He used to walk the streets of Sea Point, his heimat, as a moffie flâneur, but now prefers pubs with miserable people. Dangerous alleys, men with knives and the potential of his own death excite him. Herman has written several short stories and published English and Afrikaans poetry. His next project is a novel.

Wahbie Long is the author of Nation on the Couch: Inside South Africa’s Mind. It was longlisted for both the NIHSS and Sunday Times non-fiction awards. This book draws on psychoanalytic theory in order to understand South Africa. Wahbie is Professor in the Department of Psychology, and Deputy Dean in the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Cape Town. He has held fellowships at Harvard and Durham Universities, and received the Early Career Achievement Award in 2016 from the Society for the History of Psychology. Wahbie has published in numerous journals. His previous book, A History of ‘Relevance’ in Psychology traces the emergence of questions about ‘relevance’ in the discipline since the 1960s.

Gabeba Baderoon is a poet and scholar and the author of the poetry collections, The Dream in the Next Body, A hundred silences, and The History of Intimacy.  She is the recipient of the Daimler Award for South African Poetry, the Elisabeth Eybers Poetry Prize, the University of Johannesburg Award for South African Writing and three best book awards from the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences. Gabeba has been awarded numerous writing fellowships. She is on the editorial board of the African Poetry Book Fund, and co-directs the African Feminist Initiative at Pennsylvania State University. She is the 2023 Sarah Baartman Senior Fellow at the University of Cape Town, where she is at work on a new book, “The Concussion Diaries.”

Photo by Victor Dlamini

Darryl David, maverick extraordinaire. 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. BookBedonnerd, the book festival there 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 and Hermanus to a Unesco City of Gastronomy. Both Unesco projects were firsts on the African continent. David is 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.

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 are 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

Investigative journalist, Jacques Pauw is well known for exposing the underworld that allegedly kept Zuma in power in The President’s Keepers. His most recent book, Our Poisoned Land, delves into top police officers who allegedly had a hand in state capture and are still in the Hawks and police’s Crime Intelligence. Jacques was an executive producer of the current affairs programme Special Assignment. His documentary films investigated criminal activities in southern Africa’s underworld, including the police death squads in South Africa. He is the author of In the Heart of the Whore, Into the Heart of Darkness, Dances with Devils, Rat Roads and Little Ice Cream Boy. He has won numerous international awards, including, twice, CNN’s African Journalist of the Year.

Anastasia Maw, Ph.D (UCT), is an esteemed psychologist with a wealth of experience in trauma counseling and primary health care settings – specializing in the effects of race, class, and gender on mental health. She currently convenes the M.A Clinical Psychology programme at UCT as well as teaching at their renowned Child Guidance Clinic; her expertise further demonstrated through several monumental studies which she has published or co-authored over the years.

Tracy Going is a respected former news anchor, acclaimed author and lecturer. She has enjoyed success in many areas of the media industry – from anchoring SABC 2’s Morning Live to presenting prime-time radio broadcasts on Radio Metro and Kaya FM. Her renowned children’s cookbooks have both been honored with Best in South Africa Gourmand Cookbook Award accolades. Tracy now concentrates her efforts on writing her memoir Brutal Legacy following four years at AFDA film school where she lectured in Cape Town

Bongani Kona is a multi-talented academic whose expertise spans writing, editing, and lecturing in the Department of History at the University of the Western Cape. His work has been published across an impressive selection of platforms including Chimurenga, Safe House: Explorations in Creative Nonfiction as well The Daily Assortment of Astonishing Things amongst many others; further reinforcing his standing within African literature circles. In 2019 he was awarded with Ruth First Fellowship whilst also being shortlisted for Caine Prize for African Writing 2016. Most recently contributed to Our Ghosts were Once People – highlighting Bongani’s determinant spirit when it comes to cultivating meaningful dialogue through powerful stories that represent both Africa and its people.

Zeid Baker has a BSc and a B.Ed from the University of Cape Town and is Principal of South Peninsula High School, with thirty-five years experience in education and public service. The Baker family has deep roots in Simon’s Town. Zeid’s father, M.A. Baker, was Imam at Noorul Islam Masjied, the Thomas Street Mosque, from 1952 to 1968, during which time he translated the Holy Quran into Afrikaans. Zeid’s talk will explore the personal, religious and intellectual dimensions of this remarkable achievement. He will share the talk with his nephew  Ihsaan Adams, who has written a book on the Baker family. The session will honour those who have helped to shape a proud history, including Adnaan Davids, who followed Imam Baker as Principal of the Madrasa and wrote the book Simon’s Town – Our Heritage.

Sonwabiso Ngcowa writes for teens and adults. He is a versatile writer who has written short stories, a novel and a work of non fiction. He challenges cultural and traditional norms. His novel, In Search of Happiness  was inspired by the murder of a young woman because she was a lesbian. He has also written about forced marriages of young girls to older men. 21 at 21: The Coming of Age of a Nation is a collaboration with Melanie Verwoerd. It is a collection of the life stories of people born in 1994. The brutally honest voices of these 21-year-olds, challenging and disturbing, as well as funny and hopeful, give an invaluable insight into modern day South Africa. 

Denis Hirson is a South African author who has lived in France since 1975. He has written both poetry and prose, and lately a memoir, My Thirty-Minute Bar Mitzvah. It is a beautifully written account of family and of his thirteenth birthday, set against the menacing backdrop of 1960s Johannesburg. His work explores the memory of the apartheid years while delving into wider ancestral and political themes. His books include the bestsellers The House Next Door to Africa and I Remember King Kong (The Boxer). He translates Breyten Breytenbach’s poetry into English and is the editor of anthologies of short stories and poetry. Footnotes for a Panther is a collection of conversations between William Kentridge and Denis that explores issues arising from Kentridge’s work.

José Eduardo Agualusa is an Angolan writer and journalist and one of the leading literary voices in Angola and the Portuguese-speaking world. His novel A General Theory of Oblivion scooped the International Dublin Literary Award and with the substantial prize money he realised his dream to build a library in his adopted home on the Island of Mozambique. His novel, Creole was awarded the Portuguese Grand Prize for Literature and The Book of Chameleons won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. His work reimagines colonial and contemporary histories in Angola, Brazil, Mozambique, Portugal and Goa. His is a world of ‘lost orders’, where unfamiliar figures give their passing testimony and are intersected by echoes of past and future times, distant places and writers. José lives between Portugal, Angola and Brazil.