In their second week of residency at the Jakes Gerwel Foundation’s Paulet House in Somerset East as part of the Dialogue Programme for Writers from the Low Countries and South Africa, a collaboration between the JGF and Passa Porta – the international house of literature in Brussels Belgium, the writers Neske Beks, Tom Naegels, Paul Kammies. Danie Marais and Lisa-Anne Julien continue to not only bond with each other and their environment but gladly accepted invitations from the community.
On Day 6, wrote Lisa-Anne Julien. author of the award-winning novel If you save me (Kwela), “Beautiful 5km parkrun today in Somerset East. Passing dams with abandoned bridges, crossing streams, hearing new bird songs, dodging intricate spider webs -zoom in to see it suspended in the air – and chatting to locals. What a way to begin the day. In pure gratitude.”
On Day 9, “On Tuesday, our chef extraordinaire, Gilbert Van Zyl, took the night off and treated us to dinner at Somerset on Main Pub and Grill. Earlier in the day, Frisian language and literature specialist Jelle Krol, along with Bonne Doller and Sjoerd Wymenga, came by Paulet House for a tour and to hear more about our writing projects. The dinner was fab and along with promises to visit the unique province of Friesland in the north of the Netherlands, we wished them a wonderful time on their SA adventures,” Lisa-Anne reports.
On Day 10: “Following our visit to the community library last week, we were invited to the municipality’s celebration of South African Library Week.
We went for a little over an hour. They were very happy to have us there and introduced each of us by name :).
“On Wednesday,” wrote Lisa-Anne, “we celebrated South African Library Week, and its apt theme “Libraries Telling Powerful Stories” at the Jakes Gerwel Multi-purpose Centre in Somerset East. After two days of rain and night-time gale force winds, we relished spending a beautiful summer’s morning in the community of Aeroville, with its friendly stray dogs and free-roaming Angora goats (reared for mohair).
As lovers of the written word, it was great to see librarians, district officials and most importantly learners across the Blue Crane Route Municipality, championing the importance of reading. Books and libraries, as District Director, Nolulama Wakaba reminded the gathering, must be cherished as community resources and spaces of social cohesion and learning.
Dances, a Maths 24 quiz that challenged even the best of us, and book reviews in three languages were part of the packed programme. At one point, librarians even donned fancy skirts and had the room in stitches.
Ms Wakaba met with the writing fellows personally and expressed her interest in learning more about the Jakes Gerwel Foundation, a clear signal that the literary ties that bind the district and the foundation are set to strengthen.”
Vlaams – ZA 2023 Bios
Neske Beks (1972) is a writer and artist who skilfully combines a multitude of art forms. Her debut film Eigen Volk (2011) weaves together elements of theatre, the spoken word, singing, fiction and non-fiction into a striking and successful whole. In 2014 she made her debut with De Kleenex Kronieken, a humorous chronicle of events within a family and also within a town. Since then she has published texts in various collections, among which Zwart (2018). Her children’s book Sala en Monk – Ons Samen was published by Querido in 2020 and, in 2021, her collection of essays with the title Echo. She sits on various literary, film and theatre juries and has already won prizes internationally for her theatre and film work. She is the founder and director of Alphabet Street, a guild for black writers, as well of Tank, an editorial and think tank of colour. In 2022 she was inaugurated as lifetime member of the Academy of Art of the Netherlands. She is currently working on various projects in which she combines her art with healing.
During her residency in Paulet House she will work on her newest novel and a multidisciplinary project about cultural appropriation.
Tom Naegels (1975) is a writer and journalist whose journalistic contributions, columns and opinion pieces regularly appear in De Standaard. Between 2011 and 2016 he was also the news ombudsman. He was first noticed on the literary scene in 1997 when his short story collection Het heelal in! Vijf stukjes van de kosmos appeared. In 2005 he published his first novel Los, which is both a love story and a portrait of the city of Antwerp’s social woes. The novel has been awarded the Seghers Literature Prize and was on the longlist for the Libris Literature Prize in 2006. Jan Verheyen adapted the book into a film in 2008. Six years’ research has resulted in his publication in 2021 of Nieuw België, een migratiegeschiedenis about the Belgian migration policies after the Second World War. For this he was awarded the very first ‘Most important book of the year’ prize for non-fiction in Belgium.
During his residency in Paulet House he will be working on his next historical book.
Lisa-Anne Julien is originally fromTrinidad and Tobago, but now lives in Johannesburg. After studying dance in New York in her early twenties, she completed her master’s degree in social policy at the London School of Economics before moving to South Africa to work as a development consultant. As a features and travel writer, Lisa-Anne’s work has been published in a wide range of commercial publications, including O, The Oprah Magazine, Elle, Psychologies, House & Garden, New African and Sawubona.
Lisa-Anne received a Highly Commended award in the 2009 Commonwealth Short Story Competition. Her writing residencies include residencies at Femrite – Uganda Women Writers’ Association and the Yale Writers’ Conference. Her manuscript of If You Save Me was long-listed for the UK Mslexia First Novel Competition before being published by Kwela Books in 2021.
If You Save Me was long-listed for the 2022 Sunday Times Fiction Prize and was the joint winner of the 2022 UJ Debut Prize.
Danie Marais is a poet, freelance journalist, radio presenter, rock writer and the press officer for the SU Toyota Woordfees in Stellenbosch. For his first volume of poems, In die buitenste ruimte (2006), he received the Ingrid Jonker Prize, the Eugène Marais Prize and the UJ Debut Prize. His second volume, Al is die maan ’n misverstand, won the South African Literary Award (SALA) for Afrikaans poetry in 2010. A third volume of poetry, Solank verlange die sweep swaai, was published in 2014. Pruimtwak & skaduboksers,a collection of prose published in various publications, including a series on marginal South African figures, was shortlisted for SALA’s 2016 Nadine Gordimer Short Story Award. In 2017, he received the kykNET-Rapport Book Reviewer of the Year Award.
Paul Kammies is a writer and interdisciplinary artist from Cape Town. He completed a BA (Humanities) degree at Stellenbosch University. With his writing and making of art, he hopes to cultivate capacity in people for empathy. “Grapefruit” is his debut poetry collection, dealing with exploitation, interpersonal relationships, and identity.
Lisa-Anne Julien is originally from Trinidad and Tobago, but now lives in Johannesburg. After studying dance in New York in her early twenties, she completed her master’s degree in social policy at the London School of Economics before moving to South Africa to work as a development consultant. As a features and travel writer, Lisa-Anne’s work has been published in a wide range of commercial publications, including O, The Oprah Magazine, Elle, Psychologies, House & Garden, New African and Sawubona.
Lisa-Anne received a Highly Commended award in the 2009 Commonwealth Short Story Competition. Her writing residencies include residencies at Femrite – Uganda Women Writers’ Association and the Yale Writers’ Conference. Her manuscript of If You Save Me was long-listed for the UK Mslexia First Novel Competition before being published by Kwela Books in 2021.
If You Save Me was long-listed for the 2022 Sunday Times Fiction Prize and was the joint winner of the 2022 UJ Debut Prize.
