Adré Marshall has taught English at various universities. Her poetry has been published in numerous journals, including Carapace, New Contrast, English Academy Review and Stanzas, and the anthologies Absolute Africa!, Earth Africa!, and Coming Home: Poems of the Grahamstown Diaspora. She has appeared as guest poet at the McGregor Poetry Festival and other events and is the author of a book on Henry James.

Alamien Gaidien is ‘n boorling van Paarl en leer die kuns van Alterations’ aan klere van sy pa wat die talent ook by sy pa erf. Hy spesialiseer in pakke – die sny en maak van dit en voer sy besigheid wat hy ook van sy pa geerf het, van sy tuiste. Hy skryf poësie in Toelies-Afrikaans en toelies sy digvorm soos dit in sy egte vorm destyds deur sy voorvaarders geskryf was. Hy leer ook in sy vrye tyd studente in die Islamitiese onderrig lees en artikuleer die Quraan opreg.

Alice Inggs is a non-fiction editor at Penguin Random House and co-editor of Ons Klyntji zine. She has contributed to a number of publications, including the Sol Plaatje EU Poetry Anthology, Asymptote, The Arkansas International, Critical Arts, VICE, and Rolling Stone.

Amanda Botha is the literary executor of Sheila Cussons heritage and was a close friend and confidante of the poet. She is an art journalist and a writer. She is the editor and presenter of Boekkeuse on FMR (Fine Music Radio).

Amanda Botha is die literêre eksekuteur van Sheila Cussons se nalatenskap. Sy was ‘n naby vriendin en vertroueling van die digter. She is ’n kunsjoernalis en skrywer. Sy is ook die redakteur en aanbieder van die program, Boekkeuse op FMR.

Amanda Foster is a soprano and loves to sing. It is the way she can be transported away, caught up in the music that makes her feel like nothing else matters. Her singing has offered her some amazing opportunities, including singing Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius in Worcester Cathedral, Britten’s War Requiem in the Linder Auditorium, The Armed Man by Karl Jenkins at the Cape Town City Hall and, her ultimate, Handel’s Messiah at Carnegie Hall in New York.

After testing out retirement for a week, Andrew Renard returned to teaching at the PE Montessori School. He was previously Head of English at St Andrew’s College and the DSG in Makhanda, and a frequent contributor to Redditt’s Poetry evenings. His poems and articles have been included in anthologies edited by Marguerite Poland and Harry Owen, as well as in overseas publications and some of his poems are studied as part of the grade 10 and 11 syllabus in IEB schools.

Annette Snyckers is a visual artist and poet living in Cape Town. Her poems have been selected for local and overseas anthologies and appear in a variety of literary magazines. She writes in English, Afrikaans and German. Her tri-lingual collection Reste Restante Reste  was published by Modjaji Books in 2018.

Angela Hough is a qualified psychologist, working in private practice, consulting to NGO’s and teaching at South African College of Applied psychology (SACAP). She is a visual artist and mother. She values holding space for deep authentic dialogue, for people to engage with self, other and the context we are living in – using art, wilderness, embodiment and written word.

Antjie Krog is an Afrikaans poet, writer and Professor at the University of the Western Cape. She published twelve volumes of poetry in Afrikaans of which four volumes were compiled with English translations: Down to my Last Skin (2000), Body Bereft (2006), Synapse (2014) and Plunder/Pillage (2022) has been awarded most of the prestigious awards for poetry, non-fiction, journalism and translation available in Afrikaans and English in South Africa. Internationally she was awarded the Stockholm prize from the Hiroshima Foundation for Peace and Culture for the year 2000, the Open Society Prize from the Central European University (previous winners were Jürgen Habermas and Vaclav Havel) and the Dutch Gouden Ganzenveer 2018.

Anton Krueger was a long-standing member of the Pretoria-based BekGeveg poetry outfit that performed regularly in Gauteng and at many festivals. He was subsequently invited to perform at Poetry Africa and was the runner up for the New Coin prize. Besides his collection Everyday Anomalies, he’s also published a novel, a memoir, a manifesto, short stories and plays for stage and radio. Anton is an Associate Professor in the Department of Drama, Rhodes University, where he teaches Performance Studies and Creative Writing.

Archie Swanson has published three collections — the stretching of my sky (2018), the shores of years (2019) and beyond a distant edge (2021). His fourth collection, of clay, will be published in November. He is widely anthologised and published in Africa and further afield and in 2019 was runner-up in the English category of the AVBOB Poetry Competition. Archie is Chair of the South African Literary Journal which publishes New Contrast and oversees the SA National Poetry Prize.

Ashleigh de Villiers is a photographer, artist, poet and aspiring student of Naturology. She believes beauty is a language of the universe and delights in its abundance in nature. Her motto is “observe light, always”. She recharges with movement, sunshine and wild water swims.

Beatrice Willoughby is an award-winning copywriter and aspiring poet based in Cape Town. She has worked for numerous local advertising agencies and collaborated with many prominent brands, such as Jameson Whiskey, Coca-Cola, and Woolworths.

Brian Walter holds a doctorate from Rhodes University and taught literature at the University of Fort Hare for 19 years. He later worked in educational and community development projects in the Eastern Cape and currently mentors the Helenvale Poets and is an active member of the Ecca Poets group. He has published several collections of poetry, including Baakens (Lovedale Press, 2000) and Otherwise and Other Poems (Echoing Green Press, 2014). His debut collection, Tracks (Lovedale Press, 1999), was the recipient of the 2000 Ingrid Jonker Prize. He was also awarded the 1999 Thomas Pringle Award for poetry published in journals. His other books include Groundwork: An Introduction to Reading and Writing about Poetry (Macmillan, 1997).

Carri Kuhn writes poetry as a way of making sense of her world. She lives in Stellenbosch and loves the outdoors, spending as much time as she can in the mountains, at the ocean, and with her horse. Words have always been an anchor, and she enjoys being part of both a writer’s circle and a group of poets.

Chantal Stewart is a medical doctor, author and poet. She works fulltime in a government hospital and in her spare time facilitates creative writing workshops and writes poetry. She has recently published her first novel and lives with her husband and three dogs.

Cheryl Traub Adler is an interdisciplinary artist and cryptic poet.  There is a space where the materiality of art making and the concepts of writing merge for her.  Words and language are interspersed in the creative practice of paper-making. How do these forms fit together and communicate something that is a type of visual poetry.

Christa Kleynhans is known for her in depth look into slice of life matters in her poetry. This explorer of life and widely travelled lady have a knack to put paper to pen and write poetry from her own life experiences.

Christine Coates holds an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Cape Town. She has three collections of poetry. Her debut collection Homegrown, 2014, Modjaji Books, received an honourable mention from the Glenna Luschei Prize. FIRE DROUGHT WATER was published by Damselfly Books, 2018 and The Summer We didn’t Die by Modjaji Books, 2020. Two poems are short-listed for the South African National Poetry Prize.

Churchil Naude published a collection of poetry ‘Drol innie drinkwater’ (Naledi) in 2020 and with his hip hop albums ‘Kroeskop vol geraas’ and ‘Kroesifaaid’ he has established himself in the spoken word scene as one of the most creative purveyors of Afrikaans. He has collaborated with artists like Anton Goosen, David Kramer and Jannie Hanepoot, and has facilitated workshops for youths in correctional facilities like Pollsmoor, Hawequa and Brandvlei prisons. He lives in Mitchell’s Plain with his wife and three kids.

Crystal Warren is a South African poet. Her poems have been published in numerous journals and anthologies and in two collections: Bodies of Glass (Aerial Publishing) and Predictive Text (Modjaji Books). She edited New Coin Poetry for four years, teaches creative writing workshops, and is one of the coordinators and hosts of Makhanda monthly open mic Reddit’s Poetry. She is the manager of the Curatorial Division at Amazwi South African Museum of Literature in Makhanda.

Curtley Jones (aka Pikkie Jones) is a Paarl based hip hop artist and poet who writes about his reality, his truth, and the common ground between people. “Art makes everything possible,” he says. “I believe I can change at least one ghetto laaitie’s life by doing what I do. Art knows no limits.”

Diana Ferrus is a writer, poet, performance poet and storyteller. Her work has been published in various collections and some serve as prescribed texts for high school learners. She worked for 25 years at the University of the Western Cape. She retired in 2016. She has completed a postgraduate degree in Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of The Western Cape and received an honouree doctorate at the University of Stellenbosch.

Dr Don Pinnock is an investigative journalist, photographer and travel writer who, some time back, realised h knew little about the natural world. So he set out to discover it. This took him to five continents – including Antarctica – and resulted in six books on natural history and hundreds of articles. His focus is human impact on the natural world and the fabric which connects it: essentially biodiversity. What very often drives him is anger at the damage we do to the planet and its species … and compassion for those who do not have a voice. Where he can be, he becomes that voice.

Doreen Gowens is a retired Organisational Psychologist who, after many consulting years is finding delight in writing, painting and continuing the outreach work she started in the 1970’s. Moving back to the Cape she started Moya we Khaya, an organic farm in Khayaleitsha, and wrote Seed to Table on the project. She is one of the prize winners of the Rupert Museum’s Social Impact Arts Prize (SIAP). Pollinator Pathways – the Earth my canvas, Her plants my pigments, an exhibition of all the prize winners proposals will be launched soon  at the Rupert Museum in Stellenbosch.

Dorian Haarhoff  -story-teller, poet, speaker and writing mentor. A former Prof of English (Namibia) he now facilitates writing and story-telling retreats/ wordshops (including Temenos.) His wordshops are based on his workbook, The Writer’s Voice. His 8^th poetry collection ZenPenYen was published in 2022.  Dorian is an enthusiastic returnee to the Poetry Festival.

Douglas Reid Skinner was born in Upington. He has published eight collections, most recently A Short Treatise on Mortality (uHlanga, 2022), and ten books of translation, most recently Gaius Valerius Catullus: Selected Lyric Poems, from the Latin, with Richard Whitaker (Crane River, 2020) and Poesie Scelte: Selected Poems, from the Italian of Marco Fazzini (Edizioni Fili d’Aquilone, Rome, 2020). He is editor of Stanzas and English editor and translator for the AVBOB Poetry Project.

Eduard Burle is a member of the Ecca poets group. His poems have appeared in various local literary journals and anthologies. He is joint winner of the 2018 Patricia Schonstein Poetry in McGregor Award.

Elisa Galgut teaches in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Cape Town. Her main research interests are in the philosophy of literature, and the philosophy of psychoanalysis. Her poetry appears in various literary journals and anthologies, and her first collection of poetry, The Attribute of Poetry (Modjaji), received judges’ commendation and was shortlisted for the 2016 Ingrid Jonker Prize.

Elizabeth Trew, a former librarian and English language teacher in England and Johannesburg, has poems published in various poetry journals and anthologies, and selections in IsisX (Botsotso) and Prodigal Daughters: stories of South African women in exile (UKZN). She was short-listed for the Sol Plaatje EU Poetry award, Vol. III.

Emily Buchanan is a poet, editor, feminist, business person, conservationist, parent and grandparent. She has a degree in creative writing from UCT, and studied English literature and African Studies at Princeton University. Her poems have been published in New Contrast, Stanzas, Damselfly and Life Writing Collective. She is also a volunteer member of the Off the Wall Poetry committee.

Erica Bartholomae is a wife, creative and a mother to two rumbunctious boys, a rehabilitating people pleaser, prone to big feelings and at times excessive daydreaming, she turns to poetry to help her cope, change habits, reflect, reframe and perhaps reinvent her life. She loves slow roasted parsnips, short stories, the smell of lemon verbena and a child’s curious questions.

Finuala Dowling began her writing career 20 years ago with the poetry collection I Flying. It went on to win the Ingrid Jonker prize. Since then, she has published five more collections of poetry and six novels, including The Man Who Loved Crocodile Tamers. She currently designs and teaches her own creative writing courses including Six Ways to Think about a Poem.

Fiona Meijer-Innes was born in Zimbabwe, graduated from UCT, and left Africa for Europe to return 25 years later after many years in the international corporate world. After returning to Cape Town 15 years ago, in 2018 she decided to leave the business world and start focussing on the things she has always been passionate about. So her photography project was born, which evolved onto a book project with poetry and imagery.

Fiona Zerbst is the author of four poetry collections: Oleander (Modjaji Books, 2009); Time and Again (UCT Younger Poets Series No 1, Snailpress, 2002); the small zone (Snailpress, 1995); and Parting Shots (Carrefour Press, 1991). She received an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Cape Town, studying under the late Stephen Watson, and a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Pretoria. Her poems have been published in various journals, both locally and abroad, as well as in several anthologies – most recently The New Century of South African Poetry (Jonathan Ball Publishers, 2019). She has run her own writing and editing business for a decade, and lives and works in Cape Town.

Gaireyah Fredericks is ‘n boorling van Paarl. Haar gedigte is in talle bundels gepubliseer en sy het op ‘n aantal feeste haar werk voorgelees. Sy het 8 publikasies, waarvan twee gelyktydig vir die Eugene Marais-literere prys benoem is. Sy is die wenner van die 2016 Patricia Schonstein Poetry in McGregor Award. Sy wen die Neville Alexander prestige Award vir enkel persoon wat Afrikaans as medium gebruik om samehorigheid en nasiebou te bevorder. Sy verower haar Honeurs in Afrikaans aan die Universiteit van Weskaapland en haar Meestersgraad te Rhodes Universiteit.

Geoff Haresnape has an MA and PhD and taught English Literature at Rhodes University, Wits and UCT. He has published creative writing and literary criticism throughout his career. He has five collections of poetry to date: Drive of the Tide , New-Born Images , Mulberries in Autumn, The Living and the Dead and Where the Wind Wills, as well as his Selected Poems publishedin 1996. His novel Testimony received a Heinemann/Weekly Mail award, and parts of African Tales from Shakespeare were anthologized. He has published numerous literary essays in journals and collections. In 2017 he received a Thomas Pringle Award from the English Academy of Southern Africa for Ad Hoc Reviews and Review Articles.

Gertrude Fester-Wicomb is a descendent of Indigenous and Slave communities, a seasoned political activist focusing on women’s liberation. She established Women’s Education and Artistic Voice and Expressions (WEAVE) a black women’s writing collective. She composed a play, The Spirit shall not be caged, in her head while in solitary confinement in 1988. Another play, Lookalike Terrorist, was one of 4 best new plays for 2019 as nominated by ArtsCape. She publishes fiction and nonfiction.

Gigi Gosnell was born and raised in the Philippines and migrated to South Africa in 1994. She worked in a number of NGOs both in the Philippines and South Africa in the fields of women empowerment and land reform. She recently retired from the South African Public Service as a senior manager. Post-retirement, she discovered a new passion in poetry writing. Some of her poems have been featured in the New Contrast, Borderless Journal and Kalahari Review. Her poem, the ‘The Blesser’, published by New Contrast.

Giles is a gay white male who likes food, wine and books. He was brought up mostly in the Midlands of England and has spent the past 30 years in Cape Town. He is moved by “nature, mothers, unspoken emotion, unjust oppression, a finely turned bicep and creativity”. His poem “Four not out (yet)” appears on the Life Righting Collective website, while his nature-themed poem, “Flight Path”, surprised him by winning a spot prize at the 2021 McGregor Festival. Giles is a contributing author to the Life Righting Collective’s This is how it is anthology.

As a Muslim woman, Hani du Toit is inspired by the possibility of breaking invisible barriers and increasing human to human connection. Depending on the day or season, you could find her cooking up a storm, facilitating team cohesion, painting in water colour or nursing her tiny vegetable garden… if she’s not writing a poem of course!

Hannes Visser is a poet and writer of short stories. His poems have been entered for various national competitions and have received 1^st and 3^rd places for Die Bloemfontein Skrywersvereninging Competition as well as a 3^rd place in the AVBOB-poetry project for Afrikaans. His book of poetry, die jaar toe pa… (Naledi) was published in 2019. A new and extended edition will be published at the end of October 2022.

Harry Owen is the author of nine poetry collections, the latest of which, ‘Thicket: shades from the Eastern Cape’, is to launch at this McGregor Festival. Passionate about the natural environment, especially that of his adopted South Africa, his poetry finds much inspiration in nature, both in its wonders and the numerous threats it faces. Having lived for many years in Grahamstown, Harry now resides in the village of Kylemore, near Stellenbosch.

Heidi van Rooyen is a research professor, qualified psychologist and certified life coach who balances the demands of leadership, with mindfulness, poetry and walking. Heidi has been writing poetry for more than a decade and is particularly excited about the use of poetry in research. Her poems explore issues of gender, sexuality, race and identity. Her poems have been published in national and international publications, and she has read at several local poetry festivals.

Hermien de Vos is a performance activist for the wild. Also operating in this regard as bamboesina vd fynbos sea.

Ian McCallum is a psychiatrist, analytical psychologist, writer and a passionate naturalist. He is the author of two anthologies of wilderness poems: Wild Gifts (1999),Untamed (2012) and a novel Thorns to Kilimanjaro (2000). His award winning book Ecological Intelligence – Rediscovering Ourselves in Nature – won the Wild Literary Award at the World Wilderness Congress in Mexico 2009.In collaboration with renowned sculptor, Dylan Lewis, he was the writer/poet for the Mail and Guardian award winning ‘UNTAMED’ exhibition at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens (2010-2012).

Jacques Coetzee is a poet, a freelance translator and the singer in the band Red Earth & Rust. In 2017 he and Barbara Fairhead published their joint anthology of poems, The Love Sheet (Hands On Books). His debut solo collection, An Illuminated Darkness (uHlanga Press, 2020) was the winner of the Ingrid Jonker Prize for 2022. His poem, Doepa vir Allenigheid, was the winner of the 2021 AVBOB Poetry Prize in the Afrikaans category.

Jade Gibson is of mixed heritage (half-Filipino), a visual artist, academic, poet, and author of Glowfly Dance (2015), a literary and lyrical memoir of the resilience of a young girl of mixed descent trying to make sense of womanhood and the world while growing up amidst chaos and violence, shortlisted in the international (UK) Dundee Literary Prize and (UK) Virginia Prize as a manuscript, and long-listed in the South Africa Sunday Times Barry Ronge Prize. She has a PhD in anthropology from the University of Cape Town and uses this to inform her work, which combines aspects of history, identity, culture and nature, as well as combining poems with visual artworks. Jade is currently based at the African Studies and Linguistics Department at UCT.

Jadrick Pedro is ‘n selfpubliserende digter van Ceres met reeds twee gepubliseerde digbundels. Van sy gedigte is ook in gesamentlike bundels opgeneem onder andere in die McGregor Anthology van 2019. ‘n African Honours Authors award  vir sy bundel On-getiteld 2 was een van die vele prestasies wat hy in sy skryf reis kon vermag. Jadrick gebruik digkuns om die stories van sy mense en kwessies uit sy gemeenskap aan te spreek.

Jan Glazewski was born of Polish refugee parents in Paarl, South Africa in 1953 and has retired to McGregor.  He is Emeritus Professor in the Institute of Marine and Environmental Law at the University of Cape Town where worked mainly in the areas of Environmental Law and Marine Law.

Jane De Sousa is the Executive Director of the Butterfly Art Project, encouraging healing in children through creativity. Her poetry is a way of processing her memories, her life experience and her sense of the future.

Jim Pascual Agustin was born in the Philippines and grew up under the shadow of the Marcos dictatorship. Since 1994, he has been living in Cape Town. He writes in Filipino and English, and has published ten books of poetry and a collection of stories. Bloodred Dragonflies is Agustin’s first book to be published in South Africa (Deep South, Makhanda, 2022).

John Ellis is a singer-songwriter from Durban, South Africa.  John lead his band Tree63 to international acclaim as that band’s singer, guitar player and award-winning songwriter. As a solo artist, he has been nominated for a SAMA award, and has released five solo albums. He has lectured English literature at various South African universities, and recently completed his MA in Creative Writing. John’s latest album “Native”, a collaboration with many traditional South African musicians, has just been released.

John Maytham loves poetry. He is exceptionally bad at writing it, but enjoys reading aloud the words of those who can, and do, write soaring verse.

Joseph Koetsier, a Dutch national born in Nijmegen, The Netherlands in 1946, retired in September 2011 from the UWC, Division for Lifelong Learning. Since his retirement in 2011 he concentrates on creative writing, ancient and contemporary Egyptian culture and dedicates poetry to contemporary composers like those at the 8th Sterkfontein Composers Meeting in 2021. He currently explores the contribution of Egyptology, Music and Poetry to the peaceful solution of the war in Ukraine.

Juhléne Möller (née Wagner) grew up on farms and Bospoort small holdings in the Waterberg. A young life of tending the family’s wilderness farm and herd of cattle, of being deeply immersed in nature–both wild and rural– instilled in her ecological intelligence, social awareness, and love of poetry. She now lives a creative life in the Overberg, making art, writing, and growing a small forest.

Juli Jalna is a poet and artist living In Cape Town where she has read and exhibited. She has a MA Creative Research degree obtained from Rhoehampton University, London. She was the co-presenter of More Poetry in London for over 10 years and held a number of workshops in London.

Julia Norrish is passionate about the power of reading to open the mind and heart. She understands poetry to be a tool to investigate and bring clarity to our individual and collective lived experiences: to send our call into the world and see what responds. She believes strongly in equality, curiosity and the pure potential of all children.

Of Nsenga and Venda descent, Kambani Ramano is the logical conclusion of the colonial project. As many a wise soul has wisely observed many a time, his English is impeccable. (By common standards, at least.) And, hopefully, when he grows up, he will be a real artist whose poetry follows suit.

Karin Andersen was born in Marondera, Zimbabwe. She has lived in France, England, Tunisia and Cape Town but now calls the small village of Suurbraak home, and hopes to grow a food forest there. In her writing she attempts to capture and make sense of the joy and pain of living in this world, and sometimes wishes that her poems would make people laugh rather than sigh.

Kath Higgens is an ardent poet, especially of the mystical and contemplative. She presently lives in McGregor. She would like to open discussion with other poets, which could become an on-going forum, especially for poetry as soul-work.

Space enthusiast, aficionado of Russian history and political commentator, Keith Gottschalk, has published two poetry collections: Emergency Poems (1992), and Cosmonauts do it in Heaven (2021). He serves on the board of the South African Literary Journal, and the steering committee of the National Writers Association of SA, chairs the Off the Wall Poetry volunteers, and hosts the Lansdowne Local Writers.

Kerry Hammerton has an MA in Creative Writing. She has published poetry and prose in various South African and international literary journals and anthologies and has three poetry collections, These are the lies I told you (Modjaji 2010), The Weather Report (2014) and Secret Keeper (Modjaji 2018). Her fourth collection will be published in 2023. Kerry is a freelance tutor and supervisor at the Rhodes Masters Creative Writing programme.

Klara du Plessis is an award-winning Canadian South African writer, scholar, and literary curator. Her debut multilingual poetry collection Ekke, recipient of the 2019 Pat Lowther Memorial Award, was published by Palimpsest Press. She is also the author of poetry and essay collections, Hell Light Flesh, Unfurl, and most recently, Skin and Meat Sky. She is a PhD candidate in English Literature at Concordia University and lives in Montreal, Canada.

Kobus Moolman is currently Professor of Creative Writing at the University of the Western Cape. He has published seven collections of poetry and two plays, and edited a collection of poetry, prose and art by South African writers living with disabilities. He has won numerous local and international awards for his work, including, most recently, for his collection, A Book of Rooms, The Glenna Luschei Award for African Poetry. He was guest editor of the first special issue of Current Writing, a South African journal dedicated entirely to the teaching of creative writing. His first collection of short fiction, the swimming lesson, was published in 2017.

Lara Kirsten is a concert pianist, piano teacher and performance poet. Her poetry has been published in New Contrast, Ons Klyntji, the Sol Plaatje European Union Poetry Anthology, the Ecca poets’ yearly publications and on her blog. She has compiled and edited three poetry books Poetry @Steampunk Coffee (2017) and Poetry next to the railway (2018 & 2019). In 2019 Lara received the Patricia Schonstein Acclaim award.

Lauren Bates has a Master’s Degree in Shakespeare and Creativity from the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon. She teaches and lectures in English Literature and Drama and runs a Theatre in Education Company called Educasions, reaching schools across Cape Town. She has read her own poetry at many Open Mic events, including Off the Wall and the McGregor Poetry Festival 2019. Lauren writes across a range of styles, from sonnets and villanelles, to free verse and rap.

Layla Staegemann is an Ecological designer and facilitator, she writes to process her everyday world. Her poetry explores what she sees around her, how humans, ecology and food are inextricably entwined. Through her poetry, Layla would like to bring acknowledgement to the farmers who, through working the land, have an innate connection to the wild. She also writes about the extreme challenges faced by foreign migrant farm workers, under-resourced farmers of South Africa and the absence of nature in commercial farmin.  Most of her poetry is performed as spoken word.

Lesley Miles is a psychotherapist, feminist, poet, memoirist, and (sometimes impulsive) traveller. She studied English Literature and as a mature student did an MA on Alice Walker about the female quest in her novels. She lives with one dog, one cat and some frogs. The impulses that drive her are always to do with opening into further meanings, connectedness, and the body.  She loves the sea and recently started free-diving—a further delight.

Linda Ann Strang has a Master’s degree in English Literature and a Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education from Nelson Mandela University where she works in the field of Learning and Teaching Development. She is the editor-in-chief of Hotazel Review. Her poetry and short stories have been published in over 50 journals and anthologies worldwide, most recently in [PANK], Poetry Kanto, Orbis, Hollins Critic, Gone Lawn, The Malahat Review, Hunger Mountain and New Contrast. Her poetry has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize (2007), longlisted for the Bridport Prize (2012), and longlisted for the University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor’s International Poetry Prize (2018). Linda’s first collection, Wedding Underwear for Mermaids, was published in 2011. Star Reverse is her second collection.

Lisa Julie is a writer, performer and literary scholar. She is a Mellon Mays fellow, has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of the Western Cape, and is currently completing a PhD on South African short fiction. She is one of the organizers of The Red Wheelbarrow Poetry Society. She is also the organizer of Poetry at The Commons, based in Cape Town.

Lise Day has retired to Hout Bay after forty years of teaching English, most recently at the Nelson Mandela University. She assists students with English at the Scalabrini Foundation. She is a member of the ‘Pleached Poetry’ writing circle. Her short stories have been published in the English National Curriculum text books and in periodicals and books. She has had poems published in many journals and anthologies and is an enthusiastic participant in the Mc Gregor poetry festivals.

Lucy Argent lives in Muizenberg, Cape Town, with her cat, Harry. Nearby, are many of my favourite things – friends, family, partner, the mountain and the sea. She work for the Five Hundred Year Archive Project at UCT, and volunteers as a counsellor at LifeLine. Her mother inspired her to start reading and writing poetry in 2019.

Marella Santa Croce is a writer of The Ashes of Pemberley and an academic (BEd; MA; BA; MPhil, two of which in Literature).  She has spent twenty years in and out of McGregor and feels that the heart community there is her heart’s home.  She is passionate about love and life.

Margaret Clough is a retired Soil Chemist and Physical Science teacher. She started writing after retiring to Cape Town.  She has written several short stories and children’s plays and has published four books of poetry, At Least the Duck Survived, and The Last to leave,( published by Modjadji Books) and Portrait in Thread and A Pious Pachyderm(self- published) and Living Locked Down with Robyn Jordaan and Shirley Renwick.  Her poems have been published in Carapace, New Contrast, Stanzas, Aerodrome, Type/cast and the anthology, and Absolute Africa.

Marike Beyers works as a curator at Amazwi South African Museum of Literature. Her poems have appeared in several journals and anthologies and Aerial published a collection of her poetry On Another Page  in 2011. Thereafter she became involved as editor (and everything else) in this small local publisher. She reworked her MA thesis in poetry at Rhodes University as a collection published by Modjaji as How to Open the Door in 2016. She is the editor of The Only Magic We Know: Selected Modjaji Poems 2004-2020 and has put together an online exhibition celebrating the life and work of the poet Tatamkhulu Afrika, ‘Old Man Africa, Shouting at the World’.

Marguerite (Osler) van der Merwe is an iInternationally qualified, professional teacher of The Alexander Technique and Tai Chi Chuan; widely studied in the fields of body, mind and spirit. She is the author of The Art of Walking – Path to Health and the Richness of Well-Being; EVE_OLUTION; Poise, Presence, Posture, Power, Praise-Poem for The Land, In Praise of T’ai Ch’I Chu’an. She runs workshops, sessions, and classes nationally and internationally. In 2016 she was awarded The Chancellor’s Medal, U.F.S. “for exceptional service in South Africa and in the world beyond our borders”.

Matt Vend is a songwriter/poet/writer and photographer who tells his own story through the eyes of the people who inspire him. He was born in a harbour and surf town on the East Coast of South Africa named Durban or Etekweni. Humanity, heartache, humour and sadness drive his narrative. He has released 7 albums of music and also has 1 book of poetry out through Artscribes Global a brand new publishing house based in Durban.

Melissa Sussens is a queer veterinarian and poet. Her work has appeared in many publications, both locally and internationally and she hosts poetry readings at The Red Wheelbarrow. She placed 2^nd in the 2020 New Contrast National Poetry Prize and was selected for the Poetry for Human Rights anthology, Between the Silence, in 2021. Her debut collection, Slaughterhouse, will be published by Karavan Press in 2022.

Mercy Dhliwayo is a Zimbabwean creative writer and spoken word artist based in Polokwane. Her debut collection of short stories, Bringing Us Back, won a Zimbabwean National Arts Merit Award (NAMA) for Outstanding First Creative Published Work, 2022. She was further nominated for the NAMA outstanding poet award in 2018 and 2019.  She has performed on various stages in Zimbabwe and South Africa, including the Intwasa Festival and the Polokwane Literary Fair.

Albernita Francis

Hy is ‘n student van die Moedertaalprojek, onder die mentorskap van Gaireyah Fredericks. Sy het haar Baccalaureus Onderwys Intermediêre & Senior Fase voorgraadse kwalifikasie aan die Universiteit van Suid-Afrika verwerf.

Bridgette Muller

Sy is ‘n student van die Moedertaalprojek, onder die mentorskap van Gaireyah Fredericks. Sy is al sewe-en-dertig jaar lank ‘n verpleegster en het haar tyd in die voorste linie gegee om teen Covid te veg en lewens te red. Bridgette is ‘n geestelike skrywer en skryf in haar vrye tyd.

JamieLee Booysen

Sy is ‘n tienjarige leerder by Magnolia Primêr in die Paarl wat lief is om te smul aan alles wat kultuur en kuns is. Sy is ‘n student van die MCM Kuns- en Kultuurskool, onder die mentorskap van Gaireyah Fredericks.

Lizandré Davey

Sy is ‘n tienjarige leerder van Paarlzicht-laerskool in die Paarl wat daarvan hou om netbal te speel en elke jaar aan die atletiek deel te neem. Sy is ‘n student van die MCM Kuns- en Kultuurskool, onder die mentorskap van Gaireyah Fredericks.

Rachel Davids

Sy skryf gedigte en kinderstories op haar braille-toestel en lees dit in braile vir die jong kinders by haar plaaslike biblioteke in die Paarl. Sy word dikwels genooi om jong vrou te motiveer. Sy werk tans aan haar debuutbloemlesing. Sy is ‘n student van die MCM Kuns- en Kultuurskool, onder die mentorskap van Gaireyah Fredericks.

Bridgette Muller

Sy is ‘n student van die Moedertaalprojek, onder die mentorskap van Gaireyah Fredericks. Sy is al sewe-en-dertig jaar lank ‘n verpleegster en het haar tyd in die voorste linie gegee om teen Covid te veg en lewens te red. Bridgette is ‘n geestelike skrywer en skryf in haar vrye tyd.

Laverné Davey

Sy is ‘n multi-talentvolle vyftienjarige leerder in die Paarl wat onlangs ook poësie by haar talentbewind gevoeg het. Sy floreer akademies, naaldwerk, knip EP’s en skryf nou. Sy is ‘n student van die MCM Kuns- en Kultuurskool, onder die mentorskap van Gaireyah Fredericks

Duane Miller

Hy is ‘n graad elf student van Paulus Joubert Sekondêre skool, asook student aan die MCM Drama en Skryfskool in die Paarl wat vir leerders gratis aangebied word. Sedert hy onder die mentorskap van Gaireyah Fredericks leersaam is, het hy al met poppekas by laerskole gespeel, ‘n drama produksie geskryf, geregiseur en self daarin gespeel as akteur en in skryfkompetisies deelgeneem. Sy debuutproduksie “Omstandighede” wat hy plaaslik en by skole opgevoer her, was met ‘n staande ovasie ontvang. Hy het GOUD in die Eistedfodd ontvang met sy vertolking van “Dronk verdriet”, ‘n Patricia Schonstein Poetry in Mcgregor Award -gedig, geskryf deur Gaireyah Fredericks. Hy geniet ook die geleentheid om saam sy mentor, Gaireyah Fredericks om saam in die bundel Mettie maan gepla te publiseer.

Shu-aib Isaacs

Hy groei op in Wellington. Begin sy loopbaan in Kuns en Kuktuur by Breytenbachsentrum in 2011. In 2015 doen hy drama by Bergrivier hoërskool en toer hy saam produkisie, Krismis van Map Jacobs na Port Elizabeth, waar hulle die streeksfinaal in tienertoneel wen, asook ‘Beste teks’ aangewys was. Hy kry ook die ‘Beste akteur’ toekenning vir sy rol Tommy Sebotker. In 2016 doen hy die produkisie, Dis ek, Anna, waar hulle 2de plek verower in Artcafe tienertoneel nasionale finale in Potchefstroom. Daar word die toekenning, ‘Beste teks’ ook aan hulle produksie gegee. 2018 vorder hy sy kunsloopbaan by MCM waar hy die hoofrol, Rooiland vertolk in die produkisie, Hanne innie lig, voete oppie grond wat tot die finale rondte in DKAS dramakompetisie haal en ook ‘Best ensemble’ wen, asook die “Best script Nasionaal verower. Daarna vertolk hy ‘n byspeler rol vir die produksie Staan styf wat vir Boland College spesiaal geproduseer was. Hy publiseer ook van sy gedigte in die gesamentlike bundel, ook dieselfde as drama, Hanne innie lig, voete oppie grond, getiteld. In 2021 skryf hy sy eerste toneelstuk, Vasgevang wat by die DKAS dramafees kompeteer. Die kompetisie duur nog voort.

Kurt Vlok

Hy rap, skryf gedigte en tree op in plaaslike produksies as ‘n student van die MCM Kuns- en kultuurskool, onder die mentorskap van Gaireyah Fredericks. Hy help deeltyds met bedrywighede by die plaaslike DBV en doen tekenflip vir plaaslike besighede.

Dylan Prins

Hy is ‘n plaaslike rapper van die Paarl. Hy is ‘n begaafde akteur en het in vorige MCM Kuns- en Kultuurskoolproduksie, ‘Hanne innie lig, voete oppie grond’ opgetree en saam met al sy ander MCM-groep ‘n klein gedeelte van sy lewensverhaal gepubliseer. Hy is steeds ‘n student van die MCM Kuns- en Kultuurskool, onder die mentorskap van Gaireyah Fredericks, ten spyte van sy uitdagings.

Deniro Isaacs

Hy is geen vreemdeling vir volslae armoede en die ganster-lewe waarin hy ‘n paar jaar gelede vasgevang is nie. Met die hulp van kreatiewe skryfwerk en dramaklasse by die MCM Kuns- en Kultuurskool, onder die mentorskap van Gaireyah Fredericks, het hy egter rigting en doel begin vind. Hy is in die drama ‘Hanne innie lig, voete oppie grond’ vertolk en het ook ‘n klein gedeelte van sy lewensverhaal in hul boek gepubliseer.

Keith Oliver Lewis

Hyis ’n digter en kreatiewe skrywer. Die 28 jaar oue bekroonde skrywer is 2020 gepubliseer in Yesterdays and Imagining Realities, ’n bloemlesing van Suid-Afrikaanse gedigte. In 2021 wen Lewis die National Library of South Africa se poetry slam. Hy het al sy gedigte gedeel op verskeie televisie programme en radiostasies. As ’n queer bruin man gebruik Lewis sy pen om ’n stem te gee aan die narratiewe van queer bruin mense en hoe hulle navigeer deur die wêreld – dit is veral te sien in sy kortverhaal Pienk Springtou in die opkomende Woordfeeskortverhaalboek. Hy skryf om te sin te maak

en te genees vanaf letsels agtergelaat deur geloof, geestesongesteldheid, familie trauma en verlies.

Merle Danhouse has a great interest in families, how they connect with one another and the impact that societal problems have on these families. Her first poetry collection; “ Die Broodjie’’ was published in 2019.  Most of her work has been published in Anthologies and collaborative initiatives with other poets.

Michèle Betty is the founder of Dryad Press (Pty) Ltd, an independent publishing press dedicated to the promotion and publication of poetry in South Africa.  She has a BA LLB from Wits University and a Master of Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Cape Town (cum laude).  Her poems have appeared in journals, both in South Africa and abroad, and have been widely anthologised.  Her debut collection, Metaphysical Balm, was published in 2017.

Mike Alfred has been writing and publishing poetry since his midlife crisis 40 years ago.

Mufeeda Suleman, ‘n graad agt leerder aan ‘n Engelse skool, ontdek haar liefde vir skryf en voordrag in die Engelse klaskamer en skryf poësie in uitsluitlik Engels.

Naidene Lottering was born  in Elsies River,  Cape Town , in 1991.  She graduated from CPUT in 2013 with B.Ed degree and immediately started working as an educator. She writes poetry in Afrikaans and English, but mainly in Afrikaaps as it is an inextricable reflection of her Cape Flats roots. Writing has been her mainstay and refuge since her teenage years.

Nazlee Jeppie is ‘n engelse onderwyseres, gegradueer van die Universiteit Weskaapland en beoefen haar kwalifikasie in Kuwait in die United Arab Emirates. Sy skryf in Afrikaans, alhoewel sy haar met Engels as moedertong vereenselwig -dit as gevolg van haar ouerhuis, waar Kaaps en Engels altwee op gelyke vlak waardeering ontvang het.

Nicolette Fyvie, or Nikki, as she is more widely known, started her love of music in the Eastern Cape playing piano and violin. She is a much-loved teacher of music to many young, aspiring musicians from the Eastern Cape to UK and now in Cape Town. She is also an active accompanist for UCT music students, as well as voice students of the acclaimed opera singer, Hanna van Schalkwyk.

Nina Geraghty is an independent writer, Time To Think Coach and business owner living in Cape Town. When not working, making pots or playing guitar and singing jazz, she’s working on a memoir about finding her unknown Japanese father who never knew she existed. It’s a voyage of discovery that has taken her from Cape Town to the enigma of politely closed doors in Kyoto, back to her mother’s shocking childhood experiences in Nazi Germany, and to London of the 60’s.

Nondwe Mpuma is from Lubaleko EmaXesibeni. She is a lecturer and PhD candidate in the English department at the University of the Western Cape. Her debut collection Peach Country was published in 2022 by uHlanga Press. Her poetry has been published in South Africa and in the United States. Her poem “Home” won the 2017 Patricia Schonstein Poetry in McGregor Award. She is currently based in Cape Town where she co-hosts the weekly readings for The Red Wheelbarrow Poetry.

Oksana Kutsenko is a Ukrainian poet, author of poetry and children’s books.  Her recent book, Lerato Means Love. Stories from Africa was published in 2020. She is a member of PEN Ukraine and a Ukrainian diplomat in Pretoria. Her poems have been translated into English, Polish, and Afrikaans.

Pamela Newham worked as an English teacher and a journalist. She has two collections of poetry and her poems have appeared in several anthologies and literary magazines. She has published four books for teenagers and her latest, The Boy and the Poacher’s Moon, was a winner in the South African Literary Awards Youth Section. She lives in Cape Town.

Patricia Lucas grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. She began living in South Africa in 1986 and is now a citizen. She has written for other people and organisations most of her working life, most recently for the University of Cape Town. She is a relative newcomer to creative writing and poetry.

Patricia Schonstein is a novelist, poet and curator of anthologies. She holds and MA in creative writing and has just completed a Memoir.

Peter Merrington taught literary studies for thirty years, resigning his university career in 2007 due to a season of ill health and has worked variously since then. Two books of fiction were published by Jacana Media. He has motorcycled across the USA, Southern Africa and Europe and had fellowships abroad researching the SA writer Dorothea Fairbridge and Alfred Milner and twice received the Thomas Pringle Prize. He lives in Hout Bay and work on texts, canvases and ceramics.

Phelelani Makhanya is a poet born Kwa-Maphumulo KZN Province. His works have been published in literary journals like, New Contrast, New coin, Botsotso, Brittle Paper and Avbob Poetry Project. He has two published collections: This Time I shall not cry and My Father’s Blazer.

South African born Robin Winckel-Mellish has lived in the Netherlands for many years. She has published 3 poetry collections – Modjaji books and Hands on Books. She set up a poetry critique group in Amsterdam and visits South Africa as much as possible.

Ryan Cyster is a self-taught artist from Wellington, who has nurtured a passion for drawing since childhood. As a teenager he passed on this passion through assisting the children in his community with their art projects. He then obtained a Diploma in Graphic Design at CPUT in Cape Town. He has since worked as an Assistant to Anne-Ghrett Erasmus, curator at the Breytenbach Gallery in Wellington. Ryan uses neo traditional tattoo style techniques, combining pen and pencil in his artworks.

Sally Argent is a former geographer and environmental planner. She is a published non-fiction writer, illustrator and poet. Her poems have appeared in various publications. She is a member of Finuala Dowling’s poetry group and The Grail Writers.

Sello Huma is a South African poet, originally from Limpopo based in Johannesburg, who was featured in Ons Klyntji, New Coin, Afritando and the Sol Plaatjie European Union Poetry Anthology.

Shireen Nordien grew up on the Cape Flats. She knows the hustle and bustle in die streets of the Flats. She is a great example of a poet that knows her community and writes about their fears, frustrations, and ambitions. Although she is but at the beginning of her journey, those are great values to have.

Simon van Schalkwyk is a lecturer in the Department of English Studies at Wits University and is the academic editor for The Johannesburg Review of Books. He is a recipient of The Philip Stein Award for Poetry and also of the Mamphela Ramphele scholarship. He has BA Hons and PhD degrees in English literature from the University of Cape Town and went on to obtain a Masters of Art in Modern and Contemporary Poetry from the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom. His poetry has appeared in New Contrast: The South African Literary Journal, The Johannesburg Review of Books and Imago. Transcontinental Delay is his debut poetry collection.

Sindiswa Busuku is a creative writer and a lecturer in the Department of English Literary Studies at the University of Cape Town. She grew up in Durban. She has published various poems in local and international poetry journals. Her cross-genre debut collection, Loud and Yellow Laughter (Botsotso), won the 2018 Ingrid Jonker prize for poetry.

Sithembele Isaac Xhegwana has a BSocSc Sociology and a Master of Arts Creative Writing and is completing a PhD degree in sociology . He is a curator for Amazwi South African Museum of Literature. His debut novel, The Faint-Hearted Man (1991) was longlisted for the Noma Award for publishing in Africa. His entry, Loneliness was shortlisted for the1991 Maskew Miller Longman Young Africa Award. He has also contributed to anthologies like the Sol Plaatjie European Union Poetry Anthology , the Best “New” African Poets Anthology and Fixing Earth: Africa, UK and Ireland Writers Anthology, Vol.2. He is published in New Coin and New Contrast. He is about to publish a collection of essays in English and his work is due to appear in English Studies in Africa, a journal published by Wits.

Sophia Oliphant is `n onderwyser woonagtig in Saron en is al sedert 2014 deel van die Mengelmoes digters. Sy was gepubliseer in die: 100 Echoes of Mandela en die gesamentlike bundel van die Mengel moes digters, `n Versameling gedigte. Sy het reeds van haar werk voorgelees by verskillende feesste en is ook `n aktiewe deelnemer an gesprekke oor die toekoms van Afrikaans.

Sipho Banda was born in Himeville and grew up in Impendle, KwaZulu Natal. He is the author of Vusi’s Visit to Drakensberg Mountain, a children’s book published by Msinsi Press. His first collection of poetry, Ngigabe Ngezakithi, and a drama book, Umoya Wamagagasi, were published in isiZulu by Pelmo Publishers. Most of his poems in A Lonely Crowded Walk, his debut collection in English, reflect his own lonely and crowded walk.

Stephen Devereux is a professor of development studies at the University of Sussex and at the University of the Western Cape. Last year he completed a MA in Creative Writing at UWC, at the ripe young age of 61. His poems have appeared in poetry magazines in the UK and South Africa, and he was awarded 3rd prize in the 2020 National Poetry Competition.

Stephanie Saunders writes mostly humorous poems. These have appeared in various publications. She has been writing poetry since her schooldays, but became immersed in it through a course with Finuala Dowling at UCT’s Summer School, her academic pursuits until then having been mainly in fine art, which she studied at Michaelis. She is also interested in hiking and other outdoor pursuits.

Stephen Symons has published poetry and short-fiction, locally and abroad. His debut collection, Questions for the Sea, received an honourable mention for the 2017 Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry, and was also shortlisted for the 2017 Ingrid Jonker Prize. He is also the author of Spioenkop, Landscapes of Light and Loss and FOR EVERYTHING THAT IS POINTLESS AND PERFECT. Small Souls is a collection of new and collected poems.

Stuart Payne‘s first book of poetry, Voices from Another Room, was published in 2018 by Crane River. He is working on a manuscript for a second book, provisionally called Oceans of the Moon. His poems have been published in magazines such as New Contrast, Carapace, and Stanzas, and in 2019 he had two poems commissioned by The AVBOB Poetry Project. He is an editorial assistant of Stanzas magazine and a member of the volunteer team at the Off the Wall poetry group, meeting weekly on Zoom and in Cape Town.

Sue Woodward was born and educated in Johannesburg but has lived in Cape Town for most of her life. She has been a teacher and a writer and editor of educational materials and now spends much of her time reading and writing, mainly poetry. This year her debut collection of poems ‘between the apple and the bite’ was published by Modjaji.

Taryn James is a counselling therapist. Her therapeutic space functions also as her art studio. Negotiating life’s hard places (often without a map) is a brave and creative act which is reflected in both her art and practice. Each is a process of sense-making, story-telling, experiment and possibility. Words have always mattered as a way of finding connection and authenticity – shaping them into poetry is a new delight.

Theresa Carstens is residing in Wellington in the Boland district, married for 27 years and have two sons. She is also a founding member of  Di Mengelmoesdigters led by Diana Ferrus. Currently, she is writing about life experiences about family, community and other people that she meets in her daily interactions. She has been published in collaborative publications with other writers for example : ‘’7 Die Reënboog, ‘’ ’n Versameling Gedigte  and “ Hiers my hart pa”.  Her work has been read in several poetry festivals.

Toast Coetzer is the lyricist and frontman of spoken word band The Buckever Underground with whom he has performed for over 20 years and released several albums, the most recent of which is ‘Voortvlugtend’. As co-editor of Ons Klyntji zine he has a finger on the pulse of the local poetry and underground literary scene.

Tom Dreyer is a novelist and poet writing in both Afrikaans and English. His novels have won or been shortlisted for numerous South African literary awards. He was the winner of the Afrikaans category of the 2019 AVBOB Poetry Prize. His first individual collection of poems will be published by Kwela in early 2023.

Vuyokazi Ngemntu is a writer-performer whose writing interrogates history, celebrates culture and advocates for socio-spiritual reclamation.  Recently her poetry was published as part of an anthology commissioned by the Stand Foundation and the Foundation of Human Rights through the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Her short story After Dark has been published as part of an anthology for African Speculative Fiction for Social Justice – Our Move Next. She has been selected to participate in the University of Stellenbosch’s Fic Sci Writing Retreat. Her short story, Binnegoed has been longlisted by the Ghanaian publishing company, Ibua Publishing for their Bold contest for food-themed stories, and selected for the Safe Sisters Digital Safety Fellowship in Uganda.

Wendy Woodward is Professor Emerita at UWC where she taught in the flourishing Creative Writing Programme. She has published The Animal Gaze: Animal Subjectivities in Southern African Narratives (2008) and three poetry collections: Séance for the Body (1994), Love, Hades and Other Animals (2008), A Saving Bannister (2015). She facilitates monthly Poetry Groups where poets air their work, mentors single poets and runs a monthly Poetry Salon, which focuses on contemporary poetry.

Willem Fransman Jr. In his previous life, Fransman earned an income in the world of science. Nowadays he entertains audiences as a performance poet, radio script writer and actor. He also explores graphic art and work now as a freelance reporter.

Yvonne Sliep is an academic and researcher who uses poetry as part of her research. She is known for her narrative work which takes many forms and has been published widely.

Zongezile Matshoba writes in isiXhosa and English, and has published two books, Izinto Zehlabathi and Intlambo Yokufel’amahashe. He also produced a short wildlife film titled “2nd Life Thoughts” with the Wildlife Film Academy. His works has appeared in several journals and anthologies such as the Avbob Poetry Project, Poetry Potion, Tyhini, Coinage Book Two, Sol Plaatje EU Anthology, et cetera. Matshoba works at Amazwi South African Museum of Literature. You will find him in your township or village or school or town or hall or open ground, and wherever there is a literary event for the young and old.  His writings narrate the humour and hardships of township and rural life, and interrogates whether it is yet uhuru in people’s livelihood.