| Onlangs is daar ’n beroering op kantoor oor die kortverhale wat die afgelope maand in ons tydskrif verskyn het. Die fiksie is ’n fees, was die konsensus. Dié verhale was die vrugte van vier aspirantskrywers se arbeid by die Jakes Gerwel-stigting se Kommadagga-kortverhaalslypskool wat verlede jaar in Paulet-huis op Somerset-Oos aangebied is. Hier kon kandidate met die hulp van ’n mentor drie weke lank hul stories neerpen en aan hul skryfwerk skaaf. Die opgewondenheid onder die redaksie het Huisgenoot Boekklub geïnspireer om die kandidate se verhale in vandeesmaand se nuusbrief te vier. Ons wou ’n leeshoek skep waar jy op een plek toegang tot elkeen het, ingeval jy van die stories in die tydskrif misgeloop het, lus het vir ’n kortverhaalmarathon of graag wil sien watter ontluikende skryftalent om dop te hou. Ons Boekbesoek-gas is die aanbieder van die skryfskool, die skrywer en dramaturg Rachelle Greeff, en sy gesels met ons oor haar gunstelingboeke en die skrywers wat haar inspireer. Soos Rachelle in ’n onderhoud met Huisgenoot gesê het: Elke Kommadagga-storie wat ontpop, het ’n “eie hartklop en naam” – van ’n jong meisie se inwydingsreis en ’n liefdesverhaal oor ’n sakeman, sy kat en ’n vrou wat dink sy huis is ’n dieretuin tot ’n storie oor ’n tiener wat ’n angswekkende gerug hoor wat haar toekomsdrome kan steel en ’n kragtige verhaal oor ’n valse profeet en haar ma wat met hoop smous. Of jy almal sommer in een sitting wil kafdraf of af en toe weer by ons brief wil kom inloer en lees – moenie dit misloop nie. |
Esmé Cupido is in 1972 op Clanwilliam gebore, en sy is een van vyf kinders. In haar ouers se slaapkamer was ’n houtboekrak waarin Westerns, Heinz Konsalik-romans en liefdesromans gepryk het. Esmé het haar liefde vir lees by haar pa geërf, en as laerskoolkind het sy dié boeke verslind. In standerd vyf, toe sy die eerste keer toegang tot ’n biblioteek gekry het, het Esmé jeugreekse soos Saartjie en Die uile ontdek. Esmé het op Malmesbury gematrikuleer en ’n BA en HOD aan die Universiteit van Wes-Kaapland behaal, waarna sy op verskeie dorpe skoolgehou het. Vandag is sy ’n onderwyser in Mitchells Plain, getroud met Malcolm en die ma van ’n 20-jarige dogter. Kortverhale en rubrieke uit haar pen het al in Kuier en Son verskyn.
Liziwe Ndalana is a freelance writer and blogger, and she has worked as a radio presenter and a content writer for Fin24. In 2007 she graduated with a Diploma in Public Relations Management from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. Liziwe is active on social media with her own YouTube channel and a blog documenting her hiking and coffee shop-hunting adventures in and around Cape Town. She founded Dream Factor, a club focussing on the advancement of literacy amongst children and adults in Nyanga. As a literacy champion, Liziwe has associations with Nal’ibali and the Fundza Literacy Trust. She also runs her own laundry business in Nyanga.
Gaasitwe Setshedi was born in Mabopane, Tshwane. She studied acting at Tshwane University of Technology, specialising in educational theatre, physical theatre, acting and script writing. Gaasitwe started her professional career as a field worker serving community groups, and later joined StageFright Edutainment, which saw her travelling all over South Africa with educational productions for children and corporate institutions. In 2014 she started a literacy programme at Marula Primary school, developing learners’ reading and comprehension skills. Gaasitwe’s dream is to help improve education in South Africa through her acting and writing.
Yuwinn A. Kraukamp is a bilingual writer from the coastal corner of Cape Agulhas, South-Africa. He’s a natural born creative, a former English— and Communications major at the university of the Western Cape, and a patron (saint) of everything that’s artistically unique and beautifully weird in this world. Yuwinn has worked as a freelance columnist for Network 24, and a freelance journalist for The Southern Post Newspaper since 2022. In 2024 he was the third-place winner of the Diana Ferrus poetry prize; and in April 2026 he was the first-place prize winner of the Njabulo S. Ndebele-themed ‘Rediscovering the Ordinary’ poetry competition. His poem Raw/Rou won the third-place prize at the Bridgette James international contest in May 2026. Both his English and Afrikaans poetry has appeared on various platforms such as Litnet, PEN Afrikaans and Versindaba; and has been published within poetry anthologies such as Ons Kom Van Hier and The Avbob Poetry Project.
He became a member of the Jakes Gerwel Foundation’s network of authors and artists, after participating in a writing fellowship in the Eastern Cape in October 2022. In that same year, he was shortlisted for the Nigerian short story contest—Toyin Falola—and became one of two South-Africans whose writing was honorably mentioned at The Future Feminist Awards in California. Yuwinn’s writing focuses on language identity, political transitions, moral complexity, loss, trauma and rebirth. A variety of his short stories have been published in magazines such as Huisgenoot and Kuier, and within collections such as the Short-Sharp-Stories anthology and FicSci. In 2024, Yuwinn was part of a science-meets-creativity workshop hosted by the University of Stellenbosch and the South-African Research Chair; where he produced climate-change fiction that was published in an oceanic-research anthology in June 2025. In September and October 2025, he participated in a writing residency alongside six African writers at the Johannesburg Institute of Advanced Study (J.I.A.S), where they explored the political roles and responsibilities of poetry and short stories.
You can contact Yuwinn at yuwinnkraukamp@gmail.com regarding potential writing opportunities or projects.
