Mike van Graan

Mike van Graan was born in 1959 in Cape Town. He graduated from UCT with a BA Honours in Drama, and is currently registered for a Masters degree focusing on the (relative absence of the) theme of HIV/AIDS in professional, mainstream theatre since 1994. He has served in leadership capacity in various cultural NGOs and lobby groups, and was recently appointed Executive Director of the Africa Centre, a vehicle to promote and celebrate African arts and creativity funded by Spier. As a playwright, Van Graan’s work has featured in the nominations lists of both Gauteng’s Naledi Theatre Awards nominations and the Western Cape’s Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards for three consecutive years with plays such as Green Man Flashing, Mixed Metaphors and Bafana Republic. The sequel, Bafana Republic: International Season, will be launched at this year’s Festival.

For more information, visit www.mikevangraan.co.za

Etienne van Heerden

Internationally successful author Etienne van Heerden lives in Stellenbosch with his wife Kaia and their two daughters. His current activities at the University of Cape Town include the supervision of Creative Writing, where he has led a generation of young Afrikaans authors to published status, and the lecturing of courses in Literary Theory, Media Studies, and South African and Dutch Literature. He has been awarded the Hertzog Prize, CNA Prize (twice), ATKV Prize (5 times), W.A. Hofmeyr Prize (3 times) and the Eugène Marais Prize. In Stede van die Liefde (2005), which was awarded the ATKV Prose Prize and the W.A. Hofmeyr Prize, and Asbesmiddag (2007) are his two most recent novels.

For more information, visit www.etiennevanheerden.co.za

Zukiswa Wanner

Zukiswa Wanner was born in Zambia to a South African father and a Zimbabwean mother at the height of the Soweto Uprisings. Her primary and high school education was undertaken in Zimbabwe. Wanner also stayed in England for a time but now claims to be permanently tied to the cultural capital of the world, Johannesburg, where she lives with her son, her computer and her fridge. Her debut novel, The Madams, was published in November 2006. She has also contributed essays to Oprah, Elle and Juice magazines; and has guest edited the current Dec/Jan issue of online journal African Writing. Her second novel, Behind a Successful Man will appear in June 2008.

For more information about Zukiswa Wanner, click here

Ingrid Winterbach

Ingrid Winterbach has written eight novels in Afrikaans, five under the pseudonymn Lettie Viljoen and since 1999 three under the name Ingrid Winterbach (the name she intends to stick with.) She has been awarded all the major Afrikaans literary prizes, amongst others the prestigious Hertzog Prize, the M-Net Book Prize (twice), the Hofmeyr Prize (twice) and the University of Johannesburg Prize for Creative Writing (Afrikaans). Two of her novels have been translated into English (The Elusive Moth and To Hell With Cronjé). The third, The Book of Happenstance (a translation of her most recent novel, Die Boek van Toeval en Toeverlaat) is due for publication in September. She lives in Durban, is married to painter Andries Gouws, and they have two daughters.

For more information about Ingrid Winterbach, click here.

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