It’s with great excitement that the Jakes Gerwel Foundation and Passa Porta announce their chosen candidates for the Brussels to Karoo programme.
Bibi Slippers, Naidene Lottering, Keletso Mopai and Alfred Schaffer will join two Flemish writers (Frank Keizer and Frederik De Backer) in spending three weeks at Paulet House in KwaNojoli later this year, where they will have the opportunity to write without distractions.
Congratulations to our candidates! May the time you spend at our house of stories provide you with the space you need to work on your individual projects, and may your unique writing and diverse backgrounds also have a positive impact on your craft.
Dit is met groot opgewondenheid dat die Jakes Gerwel Stigting en Passa Porta hulle gekose kandidate vir die Brussel tot Karoo-program aankondig.
Bibi Slippers, Naidene Lottering, Keletso Mopai en Alfred Schaffer sal twee Vlaamse skrywers (Frank Keizer en Frederik De Backer) vir drie weke vergesel by Paulet Huis in KwaNojoli later hierdie jaar, waar hulle die geleentheid sal hê om sonder afleiding te skryf.
Baie geluk aan ons kandidate! Mag hierdie tyd wat julle in ons huis van stories deurbring julle die nodige spasie bied om aan julle individuele projekte te werk, en mag julle unieke skryfstyl en diverse agtergrond ook ’n positiewe impak op julle kuns maak.
Alfred Schaffer debuted in 2000 with the collection Zijn opkomst in de voorstad. His second book, Dwaalgasten (2002) was nominated for the VSB prize. Among others, he has won the Jo Peters poetry prize, the Jan Campert prize, the Herman de Coninck prize and the prestigious P.C. Hooft prize (2021). Schaffer has been living in South Africa since 2011 and currently works as a lecturer at Stellenbosch University. His work has been translated into various languages, including Afrikaans: Kom in, dit vries daar buite (2013) and Mens dier ding (2014), which revisits Thomas Mofolo’s novel, Chaka (1925).
Bibi Slippers is a poet, writer, journalist and artist who has also made films and worked in the theatre. She started her career at LitNet and has worked as an article editor for various magazines, and as a content editor for various TV programmes. She is currently the coordinator of the Writers’ Festival at the Stellenbosch Woordfees and also does freelance work as a copywriter, manuscript developer, journalist and literary prize judge. Slippers is the author of the poetry collections Fotostaatmasjien (2016) and Soekenjin (2023). Her accolades include the Eugène Marais prize, the UJ Debut prize, the Elisabeth Eybers prize and an ATKV Woordveertjie for poetry.
Naidene Lottering is a poet, teacher and spoken-word artist from Elsies River, based in Kraaifontein in the Western Cape. She completed her teaching degree at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) and is currently working full time on her Master’s degree in Creative Writing at Rhodes University. Lottering’s work has been published in several collaborative poetry collections, including In Woorde Gebaar by the Mengelmoes Digters, a collaborative group of poets who perform at arts festivals. She has performed at the Tuin van Digters, the Open Book Youth Festival, Poetry in McGregor and the Swellendam Arts Festival, among others.
Keletso Mopai is a South African storyteller and author of the acclaimed short story collection If You Keep Digging (2019). She holds an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Cape Town. Her work has been published locally and internationally in many periodicals, including The Kenyon Review, Internazionale, The Johannesburg Review of Books, Catapult and Kaleidoscope. In 2024, she served as a judge for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize and was a writing fellow at the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study.
Frank Keizer was born in Leeuwarden in 1987 and lives in Schaarbeek, Brussels. He is a poet, writer and essayist operating at the intersection of literature, theory, politics and criticism. He was editor of the Flemish literary magazine nY for many years and is the author of, among others, the poetry collections Onder normale omstandigheden (Polis, 2016), Lief slecht ding (Polis, 2019), and De introductie van het plot (Pluim, 2022). Several of his poems have been translated into Spanish, French, German, Turkish and Indonesian. His work has been nominated for, among others, the Ida Gerhardt Poëzieprijs, De Grote Poëzieprijs and the Flemish KANTL prize for poetry.
Frederik Richard Victor De Backer was born in Jette in 1987 and lives in Ghent. He is a prose writer, journalist and columnist for De Morgen, among others. His books include Naarland (fiction, Borgerhoff en Lambrichts, 2020), Het boek is beter (columns, Borgerhoff en Lambrichts, 2022), and Wilmots, tot de laatste minuut (De Bezige Bij, 2014). In 2015, De Backer started interviewing musicians and started the satirical podcast Mij Gedacht, which was named the best Belgian comedy podcast.
