Lionel Abrahams
(South Africa, 1928–2004)
Lionel Abrahams was born in Johannesburg in 1928 of Jewish immigrants from Lithuania. …
Tatamkhulu Afrika
(Egypt, 1920–2002)
Novelist and prize-winning poet, Tatamkhulu Afrika was born in Egypt in 1920 and came …
Gabeba Baderoon
(South Africa, 1969)
Gabeba Baderoon (Cape Town, 1969) is an internationally published poet. Her work has …
Robert Berold
(South Africa, 1948)
Robert Berold was born in Johannesburg in 1948, the oldest of three brothers. He …
Vonani Bila
(South Africa, 1972)
The fifth in a family of eight children, Vonani Bila was born and grew up in …
Nadine Botha
(South Africa, 1979)
Nadine Botha was born in 1979 in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, and holds an Honours …
Yvette Christiansë
(South Africa, 1954)
Yvette Christiansë is a South African-born poet and novelist whose writing explores the …
Michael Cope
(South Africa, 1952)
Michael Cope was born in Cape Town in 1952. His father was the distinguished novelist …
Patrick Cullinan
(South Africa, 1932–2011)
Patrick Cullinan spent most of his life writing verse. Born in Pretoria in 1932, he …
Isobel Dixon
(South Africa, 1969)
Isobel Dixon was born in Umtata, South Africa, and grew up in the Karoo. She studied in …
Angifi Proctor Dladla
(South Africa, 1950)
Angifi Proctor Dladla was born on 24 November 1950 in Thaka township in Gauteng, …
Finuala Dowling
(South Africa, 1962)
Born in Cape Town in 1962, Finuala was the seventh of eight children of radio …
Dawn Garisch
(Zimbabwe, 1958)
Dawn Garisch has had five novels, a collection of poetry, Difficult …
Stephen Gray
(South Africa, 1941)
Stephen Gray is a giant of the South African literary landscape. One of the country’s …
Mafika Pascal Gwala
(South Africa, 1946)
Mafika Pascal Gwala was born on 5 October 1946 in Verulam, outside Durban. The second …
Dorian Haarhoff
(South Africa, 1944)
Dorian Haarhoff, a South African/Namibian poet, facilitates creative writing and …
Megan Hall
(South Africa, 1972)
Megan Hall was born and grew up in Cape Town, and studied English and Latin at the …
Ingrid Jonker
(South Africa, 1933–1965)
Ingrid Jonker was born on a farm in Douglas, near Kimberley in the northern Cape on 19 …
Ronelda Kamfer
(South Africa, 1981)
Ronelda S Kamfer has entered Afrikaans literature like a Guy Fawkes’ rocket at …
Keorapetse Kgositsile
(South Africa, 1938)
Born in 1938, Keorapetse ‘Willie’ Kgositsile left South Africa in 1961 as one of the …
Ingrid de Kok
(South Africa, 1951)

Rustum Kozain
(South Africa, 1966)
Rustum Kozain was born, raised and schooled in Paarl, Western Cape and studied English …
Antjie Krog
(South Africa, 1952)
Antjie Krog was born in 1952 and grew up on a farm in the Kroonstad District of the …
Mazisi Kunene
(South Africa, 1930–2006)
The heritage of Kunene, this great spokesman,is without a doubt indispensable to …
Mzi Mahola
(South Africa, 1949)
“Mahola’s tone is intensely private, usually meditated and somber; and his style has a …
Lucas Malan
(South Africa, 1946–2010)
Born in Nylstroom on the 19th July 1946 in the Northern Transvaal, now known as …
Chris Mann
(South Africa, 1948)
Chris Mann, a South African of English, Dutch and Irish descent, was born in Port …
Danie Marais
(South Africa, 1971)
Danie Marais was born in Kimberley in 1971, went to school in Pretoria and studied at …
Loftus Marais
(South Africa, 1982)
Loftus Marais was born in 1982 in Paarl, a small town just a forty-minute drive from …
Bongekile Joyce Mbanjwa
(South Africa, 1962)
Bongekile Joyce Mbanjwa was born in Pietermarizburg in 1962. She attended Zwartkop …
Joan Metelerkamp
(South Africa, 1956)
Joan Metelerkamp was born in 1956, and grew up with her three brothers in the …
Nontsizi Mgqwetho
(South Africa, Unknown)
Nontsizi Mgqwetho lived on the Witwatersrand goldfields in South Africa, but looked …
Gcina Mhlophe
(South Africa, 1959)
Nokugcina Elsie Mhlophe was born on 24 October 1958 in Hammarsdale to a Xhosa mother …
Zolani Mkiva
(South Africa, 1974)
Zolani Mkiva was born into a poor Xhosa family in Idutywa, South Africa. The family …
Kobus Moolman
(South Africa, 1964)
Kobus Moolman was born in 1964, and currently lives in Pietermaritzburg. He has …
Isabella Motadinyane
(South Africa, 1963–2003)
Isabella Motadinyane was born in 1963 in Mofolo Central, Soweto. She completed classes …
Seitlhamo Motsapi
(South Africa, 1966)
Seitlhamo Motsapi’s poetry has been widely published both on-line and in print. It has …
S.E.K. Mqhayi
(South Africa, 1875–1945)
Samuel Edward Krune Loliwe Ngxekengxeke Mqhayi was born in Gqumashe in Alice, Transkei, …
Mbuyiseni Oswald Mtshali
(South Africa, 1940)
Mbuyiseni Oswald Mtshali was born in Kwabhanya (Vryheid), KwaZulu-Natal in 1940. After …
Petra Müller
(South Africa, 1935)
Petra Müller was born in 1935 in the small enclave of Botrivier, where her father was …
Charl-Pierre Naudé
(South Africa, 1958)
Charl-Pierre Naudé (1958) is one of the most interesting living South African …
Gert Vlok Nel
(South Africa, 1963)
The South African poet/singer Gert Vlok Nel (Beaufort-Wes, 1963) is an odd man out in …
Mxolisi Nyezwa
(South Africa, 1967)
Mxolisi Nyezwa is the editor of Kotaz, a truly multilingual South African …
H.J. Pieterse
(South Africa, 1960)
H.J. Pieterse was born in Wageningen, the Netherlands. At an early age he emigrated to …
Karen Press
(South Africa, 1956)
Karen Press was born in Cape Town, South Africa. She has worked as a teacher of …
Lesego Rampolokeng
(South Africa, 1965)
Lesego Rampolokeng was born in Orlando West, Soweto, Johannesburg. He studied law at …
Mongane Wally Serote
(South Africa, 1944)
Mongane Wally Serote was born in Sophiatown on 8 May 1944, just four years before the …
Adam Small
(South Africa, 1936)
Adam Small was born on the 21st of December 1936 in Wellington in the Boland region of …
Kelwyn Sole
(South Africa, 1951)
In 1951, Kelwyn Sole was born into a lower-middle-class Johannesburg family. In a 1994 …
Wilma Stockenström
(South Africa, 1933)
For the past four decades Wilma Johanna Stockenström has been enriching Afrikaans …
Marlene van Niekerk
(South Africa, 1954)
Marlene van Niekerk is a poet, critic, novelist, dramatist and professor of writing who …
Stephen Watson
(South Africa, 1954–2011)
Stephen Watson was born in Cape Town in 1954. He studied at the University of Cape …
 
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