Angela Makholwa

Angela Makholwa lives and works in Johannesburg. Her debut novel, Red Ink (2007), is a gripping psychological thriller. This was followed by the entertaining escapades and sexual misadventures of modern women in The 30th Candle (2009). Black Widow Society (2013) marked a return to a thrilling, crime-ridden world.

 Asanda Benya

Asanda Benya’s research looks at the construction of gendered subjectivities of women mineworkers in a Platinum mine in the North West province. Her broad research interests are: Labour studies, gender, labour and social movements, labour geographies, workplace identities, the extractives industry, human rights, social justice in mining communities and ethnography.

 Athambile Masola

Athambile Masola is the nGAP (New Generation of Academics Programme) lecturer at the University of Pretoria's Education Faculty. She is currently doing her PhD on Noni Jabavu's memoirs and life story as a way of questioning the erasure of black women in South Africa's literary historiography. Her writing is largely concerned with centering women's lives and stories. She is a writer and blogger and her work has appeared in Prufrock, Sable Literary Magazine, Mail and Guardian, Daily Dispatch, The Sunday Independent, Huffington Post (in isiXhosa) and The Journalist. After her Masters in Education at Rhodes University (as a Mandela-Rhodes Scholar) Athambile was an English teacher in Cape Town and Johannesburg. She spoke at a TEDxWomen conference in Cape Town about her experiences as a high school teacher. Athambile is a board member of Thope Foundation (an after school programme exposing primary school girls based in Khayelitsha to STEAM opportunities).

 Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ

Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ holds BA and MA degrees in Literature in English from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife and has worked as an editor for Saraba magazine since 2009. She also has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia where she was awarded an international bursary for creative writing. Ayobami has been awarded fellowships and residencies by Ledig House, Sinthian Cultural Centre, Hedgebrook, Ox-bow School of Arts, Ebedi Hills and Siena Art Institute. Her debut novel, Stay With Me, was shortlisted for the Kwani? Manuscript Prize and the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction.

 Busi Dlamini

Busi Dlamini is a multinational resident fellow at the Kettering Foundation in Dayton, Ohio. Her work as a dialogue practitioner focuses on issues of race, social justice and transformation. She was part of a national rollout of a transformation process through the Wits Centre for Diversity Studies (WiCDS), at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. She is a co-founding member of Democracy Works, a South African organisation working on citizen participation in deepening democracy. Her area of focus is around sustainability models for social justice work and cross sector collaboration. She is the former director of Dignity International, a rights based development organisation.

The greater part of her work before consulting was with a group of social innovators working on complex social issues using systems thinking methodology and scenario planning. She has been involved in supporting leadership, innovation and collaboration in the children sector and other projects included work in Food Security, Mining Safety, being part of a team facilitating health sector scenarios, Rural Poverty and social entrepreneurship. Her introduction to systems work was with Generon Consulting on a multi-sectoral project around Orphaned and Vulnerable Children.

Her professional networks include being an alumna of the British Council Trust the Difference, Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) Catalyst & Nexus, Common Purpose Navigator program and the Duke Leadership Program. She is a founding member of the South African chapter for Pioneers of Change, a learning community of young social change agents in five continents. During her tenure she led learning journeys including a social entrepreneurship exchange between South Africa and Sweden in partnership with the Social Entrepreneurship Forum.

 Busi Seabe

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 Danai Mupotsa

Danai Mupotsa is Lecturer in African Literature. Her research is oriented towards reading everyday intimacies. Her undisciplined intellectual training has at its messy foundations a commitment to feminist, queer and antiracist political and pedagogical praxis. Danai undutifully attends to theories of affect, psychoanalysis, materialisms, space/temporalities and difference.

 Florence Masebe

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 Gabeba Baderoon

Gabeba Baderoon is the author of three poetry collections, The Dream in the Next Body, The Museum of Ordinary Life and A Hundred Silences, and is at work on a fourth, Axis and Revolution. She is the recipient of the Daimler Award for South African Poetry and is on the editorial board of the African Poetry Book Fund. Baderoon is an Extraordinary Professor of English at Stellenbosch University and a Fellow of the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study. She co-directs the African Feminist Initiative at Pennsylvania State University.

 Gcina Mhlophe

Gcina Mhlophe is a well-known South African freedom fighter, activist, actor, storyteller, poet, playwright, director and author. Storytelling is a deeply traditional activity in Africa and Mhlophe is one of the few woman storytellers in a country dominated by males. She does her most important work through charismatic performances, working to preserve storytelling as a means of keeping history alive and encouraging South African children to read. She tells her stories in four of South Africa’s languages: English, Afrikaans, Zulu and Xhosa.

 Grace Musila

Grace Musila is an associate professor in the English Department, Stellenbosch University. She is the author A Death Retold in Truth and Rumour: Kenya, Britain and the Julie Ward Murder (James Currey/Boydell & Brewer, 2015); which explores British and Kenyan interpretations of the 1988 murder of British tourist Julie Ann Ward in Maasai Mara Game Reserve, Kenya. She also co-edited Rethinking Eastern African Intellectual Landscapes (Africa World Press, 2012) with James Ogude and Dina Ligaga. She has also published articles on Eastern and Southern African literatures and popular culture.

 Hleze Kunju

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 Kays Mnguni

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 Keorapetse Kgositsile

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 Khehla Chepape Makgato

Khehla Chepape Makgato was born in Kensington, Johannesburg and raised in Makotopong village, outside Polokwane in Limpopo. Chepape has a diploma equivalence for Fine Arts majoring in Printmaking from Artist Proof Studio. He is currently studying for his 3-year Diploma in Media Practice majoring in Journalism through Boston Media House, Sandton Campus, and will complete the course in 2014. Chepape was one of two South African delegates and one of three SADC regional youth delegates to the 2012 Africa Utopia Youth Arts, Cultural and Olympia Festivals of the World at the Southbank Centre in London, UK. He has participated in numerous art exhibitions both locally and internationally (Johannesburg, Polokwane, Cape Town, Washington DC and London). He has collaborated with William Kentridge on a project in January 2015. He has had two solo shows in 2013 and 2014. He has won a studio art bursary from the African Arts Trust to be a resident artist at Assemblage Studios from June 2014 to May 2015.

He worked at David Krut Art Resources from early 2010 till mid-2011, assisting in the printmaking workshop and in the bookstore / gallery. This led to participation in special printmaking projects with visiting artists. He has also worked part time at Sharon Sampson Studio as a collaborative printer, curator and studio technician from 2011 to 2013. He was a facilitator of the rural schools holiday arts programme at the Lefika La Phodiso Art Therapy Centre in 2014.

Chepape has a Media Diploma in Journalism from Boston Media House. Chepape initiated a community art organisation called Samanthole Creative Projects in 2010 which aims to provide general mentorship, art skills, encourage reading of poetry and literature, and motivate the youth in rural of Polokwane and Limpopo as a whole. From 2010 to 2014, he prepared grant proposals, developed budgets and obtained funding from private donors for arts workshops in Ga-Mothiba near Polokwane (2010), Thohoyandou in Venda (2011), Kromhoek Ga-Makgato near Bochum (2012) and Lenyenye in Tzaneen (2014). He recruited young people from the respective communities to attend, got support from the local community halls where the workshops were held, and led successful workshops including exhibitions of the resulting paintings, drawings, tie-dyed textiles and handmade books. His long-term goal is to develop a sustainable arts education centre to cater to rural youth. He has established the Rhodes Park Library Kids Book Club to encourage reading and writing in his community of Kensington. He meets with the kids twice a month were they do poetry, literature arts, debating activities he helps them with homeworks. He is a Media Digital Intern at The MediaShop. He is a contributing arts writer at ARTsouthAFRICA magazine and Mogalakwena Today newspaper.

 Kojo Baffoe

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 Kopano Matlwa

Kopano Matlwa’s novels include Coconut, Spilt Milk, and Period Pain. Coconut was awarded the European Union Literary Award and won the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa in 2010. Period Pain was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Fiction Prize. Matlwa is also a physician, and a PhD candidate at Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship.

 Lebo Mashile

An award-winning writer, presenter, actress and activist, Lebo Mashile is a South African household name who is most recognizable for her lyrical and gutsy poetry which has captivated audiences in 24 countries worldwide. Mashile is a much sought after social commentator, speaker, performer and master of ceremonies whose infectious enthusiasm is infused into every platform she has touched over the last 16 years. For the past 12 years, Mashile has graced South African television screens as a presenter of shows such as L’atitude (SABC1), Drawing The Line (SABC2), and Great Expectations (Etv). She is also a stage and screen actress who appeared in the Academy Award nominated film, Hotel Rwanda. To date, the poet has authored two books. Her poetry collection In A Ribbon of Rhythm (2005) won the 2006 NOMA Award for Publishing in Africa. In 2008, Mashile published her second collection Flying Above the Sky. Moya, in collaboration with Majola, is her second studio album.

 Lorato Trok

Lorato Trok has 20 years’ experience in publishing, writing and story development in children’s literature. Lorato is a qualified teacher and librarian who worked at a children’s library in her home town of Kuruman, Northern Cape for 4 years. Lorato was also a Project Coordinator at the Centre for the Book in Cape Town, a project of the National Library of South Africa for the award winning (IBBY 2004) First Words in Print project for 4 years, a project where children’ stories were created with input from publishers in all 11 official South African languages and distributed across the country in homes and schools. Lorato worked as a Publishing Programme Manager for 6 years at Room to Read South Africa. One of the books she produced for Room to Read won a prestigious UNICEF Best ECD publication in 2011//2012. She was also an editor and Project Manager, Schools Publishing at Oxford University Press. For 4 years she was a South Africa Country Co-ordinator for the African Storybook Initiative, a digital publishing platform for children’s stories across Africa. She has contributed a number of stories in English and Setswana on the website and translated more than a 100 stories in Setswana and Afrikaans. She is also a published author and recently (2017) published a children’s story book, “Mogau’s Gift” through Book Dash. She has also published 2 children ‘story books through Room to Read South Africa. She also holds qualifications in Languages and Literature (Majoring in Creative Writing) and Advanced Editing. She has presented papers locally and internationally on children’s literature. Lorato is a creative writing facilitator and has facilitated writing workshops across the continent for teachers and librarians. In 2013 at the Pan African Literacy Association held in Nairobi, Kenya she facilitated a creative writing workshop for teachers and school librarians from across Africa. She has also facilitated creative writing workshops in partnership with Zambia’s Ministry of Education and the University of Zambia to teachers and librarians in early 2017. She was a creative writing facilitator at the 8th annual Northern Cape Writers Festival in Kimberley in 2016.

 Malebo Sephodi

Malebo Sephodi is a South African activist and writer. Her research interests include: Gender, Africa’s Economy and Development Discourse, and The Hegemony of Science. Her non-fiction titled Miss Behave, published by BlackBird Books, was released in May 2017. In her book, Malebo Sephodi tracks her journey as a Black Woman in South Africa challenging societal expectations. She addresses issues of Patriarchy, Sexism, Intersectionality, Economic liberation and many more rooted in African Feminism and Social Constructivism. She likes to be called “Lioness” and runs a space called Lady Leader where women can come and JUST BE.

 Mandla Langa

Mandla Langa was born in Durban, grew up in KwaMashu township, and studied for a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Fort Hare. In 1980 he won the Drum story contest for ‘The Dead Men Who Lost Their Bones’ and in 1991 he was awarded the Arts Council of Great Britain Bursary for creative writing, the first for a South African. Langa’s published works include Tenderness of Blood (1987), A Rainbow on a Paper Sky (1989), The Naked Song and Other Stories (1997), The Memory of Stones (2000) and the award-winning The Lost Colours of the Chameleon (2008). Dare Not Linger is his latest book, a remarkable story of Nelson Mandela’s presidency told in his own words and those of Mandla Langa.

 Marah Louw

With a career spanning over 40 years, Marah Louw is counted among South Africa’s musical and entertainment industry royalty and has a powerful and memorable story to tell. This book is the reader’s front-row ticket to the joys, sadness, triumphs and setbacks that have been part of this legend’s life. Even though she is a celebrity, her story aims to show that stars, no matter how bright, are human too. It also delves into her family secrets and her search for truth. As one of South Africa’s most iconic entertainers, Marah has had an illustrious career. She performed at the Mandela Concert at London’s Wembley Stadium and she sang at the Newsmaker of the Year Awards, presented to Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk, and in honour of the late Chris Hani. She appeared with Nelson Mandela during his visit to Glasgow in 1993 and sang at George Square and The Royal Concert Hall. In 1994, she sang at the inauguration of President Nelson Mandela and the Freedom Day Celebrations at the Union Buildings in Pretoria. In 2001, Marah produced the successful musical concert Surf, which featured top South African artists including Hugh Masekela. Marah translated the music of The Lion King into Zulu for the Walt Disney Corporation and performed the theme song Circle of Life in Zulu. She was also an Idols judge from 2003 until 2010. She had a lead role on the SABC2 television soap opera Muvhango and has acted in numerous musicals, stage plays and feature films. She is currently acting in the Mzansi Magic telenovela The Queen.

 Masechaba Mtolo

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 Mmatshilo Motsei

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 Mohale Mashigo

Mohale Mashigo, is the pen name of Carol Mashigo, also known by her stage name, Black Porcelain. She is a radio moderator, storyteller, award-winning singer and songwriter. With her music now play-listed in over 36 countries, Black Porcelain’s debut album, Invincible Summer, won Best Creative album at the Wawela Music Awards in 2013. The Yearning was is her debut novel. She has since adapted Beyond the River from the original film version for the youth market.

 Mpho Molikeng

Mpho Molikeng, a Lesotho born multi facet artist (curator, actor, musician, painter, storyteller & cultural activist) who continues to share with the world the indigenous music, stories and poetry of Afrika.

 Mthunzikazi Mbungwana

Mthunzikazi A. Mbungwana is a poet and storyteller from a small village in the former Transkei, Eastern Cape. Mbungwana self-published her debut isiXhosa poetry collection, Umnikelo (2015) and has contributed to a number of literary journals such as: LitNet (2011), Baobab (2014) Prufrock, (2015), Poetry Potion (2015), Consciousness (2015) and the forthcoming Atlanta Review (an issue celebrating the poetry of South African Women, coming in 2018). She has been published in anthologies: Home is Where the Mic Is (2015, Botsotso) and To Breathe into Another Voice: An Anthology of South African Jazz Poetry (2017, STE Publishers). She has performed at: The South African Literary Awards (2011), The Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute International Women’s Day Celebration (2012), The State Theatre’s Night of the Poets –headliner (2013), the 19th Poetry Africa Festival (2015), Split This Rock Poetry Festival in Washington DC (2016), and South African Social Network Toastmasters (2017).Currently, she runs workshops focusing on writing in indigenous languages in Johannesburg and Pretoria.

 Nadia Davids

Nadia Davids is a writer and theatre-maker. Her award-winning plays include At Her Feet, Cissie, Night Light and What Remains. Her debut novel, An Imperfect Blessing, was long-listed for the Sunday Times Fiction Award and shortlisted for the UJ Prize and the Pan-African Etisalat Prize for Literature. She holds a PhD from the University of Cape Town and has been awarded writing residences at Ledig House and Hedgebrook, academic fellowships from Philip Leverhulme and W.A.Mellon, and is a New York Women's Project Playwright’s Lab alum. In July 2017 she was elected President of PEN South Africa.

 Neo Maditla

Neo Maditla is a journalist, editor and book critic from Mabopane in Pretoria, who is currently based in Cape Town. She’s written for a number of local and international publications including the Cape Argus, Weekend Argus, City Press, Marie Claire, The Con Mag, The Africa Report and True Africa. She currently works as the editor-in-chief of creativity platform: www.designindaba.com

 Nokuthula Helepi

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 Nokuthula Msimang

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 Nomsa Mdlalose

Nomsa Mdlalose is a folklorist focussing on oral traditions of Africa and specializing in storytelling. Has lectured part-time in the departments of African language at Wits and UJ; published academic papers. She is currently full-time employed at Freedom Park museum, as a storyteller, designing storytelling programs and contributing in other areas of the organisation, e.g. a member of Freedom Park Interfaith committee. Mdlalose however drew her initial cultural knowledge from her mother, S’bongile Dlamini who has a gift in African healing and spirituality. Outside academia, she is a professional storyteller, storytelling consultant and a social entrepreneur, has a company of story, called Zintsomi Story Company, and a storytelling NGO called Kwesukela Storytelling Academy. She has self-published 5 children’s’ books and contributed chapters in non-academic books, such as in the Freedom Park Book titled: Freedom Park: a Place of Emancipation she works mostly with youth attending to social issues using storytelling as a tool. She also published in academic journals, titles: “Storytelling as a Method for Acquiring Mathematic Understanding and Skill; Synthesization of Storytelling and Technology; Storytelling at Freedom Park: //Hapo Interactive Space Case Study. Mdlalose is married and practises Nichiren Daishonin’s Buddhism.

 Nova Masango

Nova Masango is a writer, poet, activist, feminist and speaker – living her best life, in love and service to girls and women. She writes for Essays of Africa magazine and the acclaimed website for teen girls, Rookie Mag. She is currently featured on musician, Reason’s song “Endurance” alongside Hip Hop Pantsula. She is the ambassador of the ‘Zazi’ campaign, the official sexual health programme for girls and young women across all higher education institutions in South Africa. She has also collaborated with Zonke Dikana on the ‘Zazi’ theme song. She was the youth representative at the UNAIDS’ November 2014 meetings in Geneva, Switzerland to address sexual health programming concerns with global stakeholders. Nova has been invited as a speaker at the 7th Annual South African AIDS Conference in Durban. She has been published in the July/ August 2015 edition of the renowned Poetry Foundation’s publication, Poetry Magazine.

Nova is regularly called upon to provide social commentary on varying topics including Feminism, identity politics and youth culture. She has been featured on Kaya FM, Radio 702, Y FM, Power FM and on television shows such as SABC 1’s Shift, eNCA’s live debate with Trudi Makhaya and performed on the country’s most popular music programme, Live Amp. She was a panellist on Global Shapers Johannesburg’s #AreOurGirlsback? panel with Yvonne Chaka Chaka and Steve Letsike and Live Mag’s #VIPDebateclub with Panashe Chigumadzi. She has been published in Mike Alfred’s “Twelve Plus One” – an anthology containing the works and interviews of several South African poets and in 2014, she wrote the Nelson Mandela tribute that was performed at the Metro FM Music Awards. Nova is currently a member of recently founded organisation of South African feminists, the Feminist Stokvel and is studying towards her Honours degree in Social Anthropology.

 Nthikeng Mohlele

Nthikeng Mohlele was born in 1977 and grew up in Limpopo and Tembisa township, South Africa. He attended the University of the Witwatersrand, where he studied BA Dramatic Art and African Literature. Small Things (2013) has been translated into Swedish as Joburg Blues (Weyler förlag, 2014). He was listed by Bloomsbury Publishing, Hay Festival and Rainbow Book Club among the 39 most promising authors under the age of 40 from sub-Saharan Africa and the diaspora. His latest novel, Pleasure, won the University of Johannesburg Prizes for South African Writing.

 Nyiko Lebogang Shikwambane

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 Phemelo Motene

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 Pumla Dineo Gqola

Pumla Dineo Gqola is the author of What is Slavery to Me? Postcolonial/Slave memory in Post-apartheid South Africa (2010) and A Renegade Called Simphiwe (2013) and editor of Regarding Winnie: Feminism, race and nation in global representations of Winnie Madikizela Mandela. She has written non-fiction and opinion pieces for Pambazuka, Mail & Guardian, The Weekender and City Press as well as the British publications BBC Focus on Africa, SABLE and Drum (UK) and short stories in literary journals and books published in South Africa, USA and UK. Her book, Rape: A South African Nightmare was published in 2015 and won the Alan Paton Award 2016. Reflecting Rogue is her latest book.

 Redi Tlhabi

Redi Tlhabi is a Johannesburg talk show radio host, broadcast journalist, and author. Tlhabi was born in 1978. She graduated from college with degrees in Political Economy and English Literature. When she’s not studying, presenting radio or TV shows, she reads extensively and runs marathons. Tlhabi won the prestigious Sunday Times Alan Paton Award in 2013. Khwezi: the remarkable story of Fezekile Ntsukela Kuzwayo is her latest book.

 Shubnum Khan

Shubnum Khan is a South African author and artist. Her first novel, Onion Tears, about three generations of South African Indian Muslim women was shortlisted for the Penguin Prize for African Writing. In 2012 she was selected as the Mail & Guardian's 200 young South Africans. She is a writing fellow at Art Omi's Ledig House in New York and the Swatch Art Peace Hotel in Shanghai. She has written for the Sunday Times, Marie Claire and O the Oprah magazine amongst others. She is currently working on her second novel.

 Sifiso Mzobe

Sifiso Mzobe was born in Umlazi Township, Durban, where he also went to school. After attending St Francis College, he studied Journalism at Damelin Business Campus in Durban. He currently works as a freelance journalist and is busy writing a new novel. He debut novel, Young Blood, won the Herman Charles Bosman Award, Sunday Times Literary Awards’ Fiction Prize, South African Literary Award for a First-Time Published Author, and the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa.

 Sihle Khumalo

Sihle Khumalo is the author of Almost Sleeping My Way to Timbuktu, Heart of Africa and the best-selling Dark Continent, My Black Arse. Shorter pieces by him appeared in uMama and Cheesecutters and Gymslips, and he has contributed to a number of travel magazines. In 2011, Sihle was selected as one of Destiny magazine’s Top 40 South Africans under the age of 40 who are destined for greatness. Born in Nqutu in rural KwaZulu-Natal, he was educated at Natal Technikon (now Durban University of Technology) and the Wits Business School. He is married and has two children. He currently lives in Johannesburg.

 Sihle Mthembu

Sihle Mthembu is an award-winning journalist and filmmaker born in Mooi River in the Natal Midlands. In 2009 Mthembu enrolled into the Durban University of Technology where he graduated with a B-tech in journalism. He has worked as an art critic, a business journalist and a churner of various types on online banter. His work has appeared in publications such as Rolling Stone SA, Vice magazine, The Mail and Guardian, The City Press, The Sunday Independent, The independent on Saturday, Mahala, OkayAfrica and many others.

Currently he works for East Coast Radio and is a scriptwriter for the hit TV show The Queen on Mzansi magic. He is also the resident film critic for the Sunday Tribune in addition to being the host of two podcasts that deal with art, film and TV culture. In 2015 he received a Silver BASA award for arts journalism. He has directed Made in Durban, a documentary about young inner city artists as well as F is for father a documentary about paternal relationships in communities of colour.

He is also the screenwriter of What comes next a sci-fi short film which has just finished production. And for his next trick he is directing a documentary called Calling down fire about the life, work and meaning of Busi Mhlongo. Mthembu has also signed a book deal with Jacana publishers and his first work of non-fiction will be published in 2018 under Jacana’s Blackbird imprint.

 Simamkele Dlakavu

Simamkele Dlakavu is a Fallist and Masters graduate in African Literature at Wits. She has been an active participant in student movements calling for an intersectional decolonial reality in South Africa. She is the former Media and Communications Manager for Oxfam South Africa. She has also worked as a human rights television producer on one of South Africa’s most popular current affairs show: The Big Debate. In 2013, she was one of the producers for BBC’s Question Time for a special episode on Nelson Mandela. She has co-created and participated in organizations that centre Black rural and township youth like Sakha Ulutsha Lwethu. Simamkele shares her views on current affairs and politics on platforms such as: City Press, The Daily Maverick and Independent Newspapers. In 2015, she was a part of the 22 young women selected to attend the African Women's Development Fund's Writing for Social Change Workshop in Uganda. In 2014 the Mail and Guardian recognized Simamkele as one of South Africa’s Top 200 Young South Africans.

 Sindiwe Magona

Recognised internationally for her activism in women’s issues, the plight of children and the fight against segregation and racism, Sindiwe Magona is also an award-winning novelist, poet, playwright, actress and motivational speaker who uses her creative talents to inform, challenge and inspire. Sindiwe’s literary career began with small articles for Raven Press in the late 1970s and blossomed into her first autobiography for David Philips Publishers, titled To My Children’s Children (1990), followed by the sequel Forced to Grow (1992). In 1991 she published the highly acclaimed short story collection Living, Loving, and Lying Awake at Night which was voted one of the 20th Century’s 100 Best Books from the African Continent. Push-Push and Other Stories, a second collection of short stories, was published in 1996. Mother to Mother , a fictionalised account of the murder of Fulbright scholar Amy Biehl as narrated by the murderer’s mother, appeared in 1998. She also adapted this novel into a play, which was performed at the Baxter Theatre in late 2009. Sindiwe is the author of Teach yourself Xhosa and several other educational children’s books, including The Best Meal Ever! and Life Is a Hard but Beautiful Thing , which have been translated into several languages. Other works include the internationally acclaimed novel Beauty’s Gift (2008), which was shortlisted for the 2009 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (Africa) as well as the Sunday Times Literary Award.

 Siphokazi Jonas

Siphokazi Jonas holds a Masters degree in English Literature as well as an undergraduate degree in Drama and English. As a writer, performer, and poet, she has written, produced, and performed in three one-woman poetry shows: “Poetry Under the Stars,” “Conspiracy Theory,” and “Wrestling with Dawn.” The latter was recorded live on DVD. In 2016, she produced and performed in a multi-genre theatre production, “Around the Fire,” which was staged at the Artscape Spiritual Festival. The original production was written and composed with the collective, 12 Years A Band and Siphokazi was nominated for a 2016 Broadwayworld.com South African Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for the production.

Jonas has been a featured act at numerous poetry sessions in Cape Town and Johannesburg. She was crowned as the first Cape Town Ultimate Slam Champion in 2015. She has also been a featured performer at the Open Book Festival and the Word and Sound International Youth Festival. In her capacity as a speaker, she has been a contributor to two national conferences, namely, Music Exchange and The Justice Conference South Africa, presenting on issues ranging from writing, arts business, art and activism, and social justice. Siphokazi’s engagement with writing and performance extends to the academic field and she works currently as a Teaching Assistant at the University of Cape Town. She teaches on the history of isiXhosa praise poetry, performance poetry, and South African literature. She runs short-term poetry workshops with schools in Cape Town and Johannesburg and teaches an online spoken word class to a middle school in Gainesville, Florida. She recently launched a workshop series, “Page to Podium,” which focuses on writing and performance for and is open to the public.

Siphokazi is a storyteller at heart and stories of ordinary lives fuel her work in poetry and in theatre. Her experience of growing up in Komani, in the Eastern Cape, during the transition years of South Africa’s democracy, has an on-going influence on the kinds of stories which she tells. Her work engages questions of faith, identity, gender-based violence, cultural and linguistic alienation, black women in rural spaces, and the politics of the everyday. She is hopeless in her belief about the transformative power of hope and cannot be convinced otherwise.

 Sisonke Msimang

Sisonke Msimang currently lives in Perth, Australia, where she is Programme Director for the Centre for Stories. She is regularly in Johannesburg where she continues to speak and comment on current affairs. Sisonke has degrees from Macalester College, Minnesota and the University of Cape Town, is a Yale World Fellow, an Aspen New Voices Fellow, and was a Ruth First Fellow at the University of the Witwatersrand. She regularly contributes to The Guardian, The Daily Maverick and The New York Times and has given a popular TED Talk which touches on events which appear in her upcoming memoir. Msimang started writing Always Another Country in 2013 as political events in South Africa worsened in the aftermath of the Marikana massacre. She will be in South Africa to launch the book later in the year.

 Stacey Fru

Stacey Fru is a 10-year old Multiple Award Winning Author of 2 Chapters Books. She wrote her first book titled "Smelly Cats" at the age of 7 without her parents' knowledge. Stacey is a motivational and keynote speaker, storyteller, TV talk-show host, guitarist, ballerina, occasional poet, MC and a Philanthropist who is now mentoring many others. Her debut talk was to 877 Matric Learners at a Career Expo when she was 8. Since then, Stacey has spoken at Creches, Schools, Learning Centres, Colleges, Universities, Fairs, Festivals, Conferences, and the media. The Independent Educator’s Board named her example of a 21st Century Learner at the PSI Conference 2017. Mail and Guardian had her as 200 Most Influential Young South African 2017. She is Save the Children’s Youngest Ambassador 2017. Honorable Pravin Gordan calls her the future of SA, Deputy Minister of Arts and Culture named her Honorary Ambassador for the Department in March 2017. Gauteng Legislature has her as Runner up, Young Dignitary Award at the Vita Basedi Award 2017, Eastwave Radio named her Young Leader 2016 and Academic Achiever and Initiatives 2016, Expresso Show named her as Young Achiever for November 2016, LeadSA named her Leading Young South African in November 2016, Beautiful news says that she is rewriting SA’s History. Wits University has her as the Youngest Founder of the Multilingual Institute in August 2016, National Development Agency (NDA) named her book the Best ECD Publication 2015. The list can be long.

 Tebogo Radebe

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 TO Molefe

TO Molefe is a freelancer writer and the managing editor of Collective Media, a cooperative that runs a newsroom that provides content to publications and organisations, on demand. He is a former contributing writer to the New York Times and City Press, and the author of Black Anger, White Obliviousness, a short ebook on the effects of race and racism on political and societal discourse in South Africa.

 Tsitsi Dangarembga

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 Victoria Collis-Buthelezi

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 Xolisa Guzula

Xolisa Guzula is an early literacy specialist with interest in biliteracy development, emergent literacy, bi/multilingual education, language and literacy as social practice, multiliteracies; multimodality, third spaces and bilingual children’s literature. She has experience in early literacy and biliteracy teacher training and community literacy training. She is a storyteller, author and translator of children's literature and develops bilingual teacher professional materials. She is one of the founders of a network of community reading and writing clubs emerging across South Africa and currently is a full time doctoral student researching bilingual children's translanguaging and multiliteracies practices.

 Zakes Mda

Zakes Mda is a writer, painter and music composer. He has published 22 books, 10 of which are novels. The rest are collections of plays and poetry, and a monograph on the theory and practice of theatre for development. His works have been translated into 20 languages. They have won a number of awards in South Africa, the US and Italy, including the Amstel Playwright of the Year Award, the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Africa, the M-Net Prize, the Sanlam Prize (twice), The Pringle Award, the Sunday Times Literary Prize, the Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Legacy Award, the Premio Narrativa Sud del Mondo, the University of Johannesburg Literary Prize, the American Library Association Notable Book Prize and the Sunday Times Barry Ronge Fiction Prize. Zakes Mda is a recipient of the Ikhamanga Order in Silver from the South African government. His novel Cion, set in south-east Ohio, was nominated for the NAACP Image Award. His memoir titled Sometimes There Is a Void: Memoirs of an Outsider was published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux and was the New York Times‘ Notable Book for 2012. His latest works are a novel set in rural Ohio, titled Rachel’s Blue (Seagull, 2016) which examines what happens when a rapist fights for paternity rights over the rape-conceived child, and Little Suns (Penguin Random House/Umuzi 2016), a historical novel set in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, between 1879 and 1912. Zakes Mda has published a number of articles in refereed academic journals, and has participated in literary festivals, conferences and book tours in North America, Europe, South America and Australia. His plays are performed quite often at theatre festivals in various parts of the world. He commutes between the US and South Africa, working as a (retired) professor of creative writing at Ohio University, a beekeeper in the Eastern Cape (running a project he established in 2000 with rural women), a director of NeoZane, a publishing house and animation-film production company based in Johannesburg, and an Extraordinary Professor of English at the University of the Western Cape.

 Zamandlovu Ndlovu

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 Zanele Ndlovu

Zanele Ndlovu is a storyteller, author, script writer, teacher, publisher, IsiZulu quality assurer, curriculum developer, translator, workshop facilitator, researcher and indigenous music instrument teacher. She has written two children books called Umakhweyana and Simunye that were published through her publishing enterprise called Izilimi Zase Afrika; the books are also available as audio books. Umakhweyana has since been translated into five other South African languages (Isixhosa, Sepedi, Sesotho, English and Afrikaans) through collaboration with Nal’ibali and has recently been commissioned by the Gauteng Department of Education. Zanele is a script writer for a children’s television programme called Inside the Baobab Tree on SABC 2 and was commissioned to be the IsiZulu quality assurer for Takalani Sesame road safety project. She has developed a music curriculum for grade R pupils at the Cape Gate Centre for Music and taught music theory and indigenous music instruments at the Curtis Nkondo School of Specialisation. She has developed materials for a module on Home Language teaching and learning for the University of Free State’s advance certificate in teaching at level 6 and was commissioned to translate teaching modules by the South African Institute for Distance Education. She facilitates workshops on early childhood development, literacy development, creative writing, and indigenous music instrument playing to name a few. Zanele is a born storyteller who is passionate about her craft.

 Zethu Matebeni

Zethu Matebeni is the convenor of the Queer in Africa series and lectures in the Sociology Department. In 2011 Zethu received a PhD at WISER, Wits University and has been furthering research interests and publishing on queer issues, sexuality, gender, race, HIV and AIDS, African film, cinema and photography. Zethu has been a Visiting Assistant Researcher at Yale University and has received numerous research fellowships. Zethu is an activist and a documentary film-maker and has curated exhibitions, including Jo’burg TRACKS: Sexuality in the City, and a book project Reclaiming Afrikan: queer perspectives on sexual and gender identities. Zethu’s first co-production Breaking Out of the Box: Stories of black lesbians, (40mins, 2011) has screened locally and internationally and has written the short film Rise.

 Zintsomi Storytellers

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 Zubeida Jaffer

Zubeida Jaffer is an award-winning South African journalist and author. She is based at the University of the Free State as Writer-in-Residence, tasked with reshaping the journalism curriculum. Her work has earned her numerous local and international awards. These include the Muslim Views Achiever Award as well as the Honor Medal for Distinguished Service to Journalism from the University of Missouri in the USA. She is also the first woman in Africa to have won the coveted foreign journalist award from the National Association of Black Journalists in the USA. Her memoir, Our Generation, eloquently tells the story of her emotional journey through the years of South Africa’s turbulence into a new democracy. It has been translated into Arabic and published in Egypt. Her second book Love in the Time of Treason has been described as a “tour de force”. Africa The Untold Story is the second in a series of pocket-sized books that she is self-publishing. Her most recent book is Beauty of the Heart: The life and times of Charlotte Mannya Maxeke. Ms Jaffer is a graduate of both UCT and Rhodes University. She also holds a masters degree from Columbia University where she earned the award for best foreign student.

 Zukiswa Wanner

Zukiswa Wanner is the 2015 winner of South African Literary Award’s K.Sello Duiker Award for her fourth novel, London Cape Town Joburg. Her other novels have been shortlisted for Commonwealth Best Book (Africa region) and the Herman Charles Bosman Awards. She has judged the 2015 Etisalat Prize for Fiction and is the Africa judge for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2015. A founding member of the ReadSA initiative, until recently Wanner was on the board of the pan-African literary initiative Writivism and is on the Advisory Board of the Ake Literary Festival. She has facilitated writing workshops in Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Germany. She is a columnist for the continental publication New African, and Saturday Nation in Kenya and has been a guest-host for the monthly BBC Africa Book Club with Audrey Brown. Wanner was the 2016 Danish International Visiting Artist (DIVA).

 Zukolwenkosi Zikalala

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