2014 poets
Speakers
Dominique Botha
Festival Curator, Dominique Botha, co-founded and has co-curated the dancing in other words Spier Poetry Festival with Breyten Breytenbach since 2013. Read More
Neo Muyanga
Festival Musical Director Neo Muyanga’s contributions to South African cultural life as a composer, librettist, musician and cultural commentator are legion. His is an amazingly energetic creative life. Read More
Breyten Breytenbach
Festival founder and curator, poet, writer and activist, Breyten Breytenbach, was born (1939) on the banks of the Breërivier in the Little Karoo and studied at the University of Cape Town's Michaelis School of Fine Arts. Read More
Nimrod
Born in 1959 in the south of Chad, Nimrod is a poet, novelist, essayist and philosopher living in France. Read More
Hans van de Waarsenburg
Hans van de Waarsenburg is a political poet, founder of The Maastricht International Poetry Nights and an author at Azul Press. Read More
Homero Aridjis
Mexican poet, novelist, environmental activist, journalist and diplomat Aridijis is one of Latin America’s foremost literary figures. Read More
Ilya Kaminsky
Ilya Kaminsky is a Ukrainian-American poet, critic and translator who lost most of his hearing at the age of four. Read More
Duo Duo
As contemporary Chinese writer, poet Duo Duo is considered the most famous frontrunner and promoter of the celebrated Misty poets. He started writing during the Cultural Revolution of the early 1970s. Read More
Vendredi Slam
Senegalese culture includes rapping traditions and the modern genre became a big musical trend in the 90s. Dakar-based Jabir and Diamil are members of the popular group, Vendredi Slam. Read More
Georges Lory
Former Head of Alliance Francaise in Southern Africa, Georges Lory has translated to French South African authors including Gordimer, Breytenbach, Krog and Njabulo Ndebele. Read More
Ingrid de Kok
Ingrid de Kok’s poetry is currently taught at more than 30 universities in South Africa and abroad. Her work, spanning four decades, offers a unique and profound engagement with being South African. Read More
Henning Pieterse
Pieterse’s debut volume of poetry received two most prestigious South African literature prizes, the Eugène Marais and the Ingrid Jonker Prize. His second volume received the Herzog Prize, the highest accolade for Afrikaans writing. Read More
Mxolisi Nyezwa
Mxolisi Nyezwa is founder and editor of the Enghlish Xhosa cultural magazine, Kotaz, now in its 15th year. He teaches at Rhodes University. Read More
Andrea Nomasebe Dondolo
Andrea’s inspiration and artistic creativity is as deeply rooted as the Acasia trees that thrive in her home province “the friendly province” Eastern Cape, South Africa. Read More
