OFF THE WALL POETRY

Julia Smuts Louw is a screenwriter, working primarily in animation. Recent projects include the Annie-Award winning Star Wars short film AAU’S SONG and the Emmy-winning BBC One Christmas Day special THE SMEDS AND THE SMOOS, which also won the Prix Jeunesse and The Japan Prize. Her animated feature, SPIKE, is soon to go into production in The Netherlands and was the recipient of the Creative Europe and Thuthuka development grants.  Her prose fiction has been published by Rando

Gail Dendy was first published in the UK by Harold Pinter. Her eight collections of poetry have appeared in South Africa, the UK and the USA. She has written plays, short stories, a novel, radio poetry programmes and news bulletins, academic papers and journal articles. Her creative work has won numerous accolades both locally and overseas.   Having been raised in Durban, Gail maintains a strong emotional connection to the sea with rhythm informing every aspect of her creativ

Teamhw SbonguJesu was born in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal. He is a publisher, editor and writer at TNG Publishing Company (‘TNG’ – The New Generation) based in Pietermaritzburg. He has an LLB degree from the University of KwaZulu-Natal and an MA in Creative Writing with distinction from Rhodes University. His has three poetry collections Bury Me Naked, Slave, and Hunger. Hunger was published this year (November, 2025). Besides writing and publishing, Teamhw has a strong z

Sizakele Nkosi is a South African poet, educator and cultural activist whose work bridges spirituality, language and township life. Raised in Soweto and based in Kimberley, she writes in isiZulu, English and Isicamtho to explore memory, sound and survival. Her poetry collection  U-Grand Malume?  was shortlisted for the Ingrid Jonker Poetry Prize and longlisted for the NIHSS Award. She is a lecturer in Creative Writing at Sol Plaatje University and the founder of  Kabomedi , a

Stuart Payne's second collection, The Sun, the Moon & Ripe Cucumbers, will be published this year by Crane River  (distributed by uHlanga). His first book, Voices From Another Room, was published in 2018. His subjects include memory and loss, and the distance between minds, both human and animal. Conversely, other poems concern the pleasures of the moment and imagination. In 2019 he had two poems commissioned by AVBOB and in 2022 was the winner of the National Poetry Prize, p

Please join us on Monday 20 Oct for a reading by Zoë Boshoff. Zoë Boshoff is a poet and lover of poetry. She has had poems published in Stanzas  and New Contrast . Zoë will be sharing poems from her draft debut collection  Wild Swimming , an exploration of the relationship between her own emerging nature, and her surroundings. Time: 19.30 Host: Julia Smuts Louw Zoom Room:  https://us05web.zoom.us/j/89955065083 ... Meeting ID: 899 5506 5083 Passcode: 4ucS3b

Deborah Seddon was born and raised in Harare, Zimbabwe. She is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Literary Studies in...

Keith Gottschalk serves the National Writers' Association of South Africa, New Contrast, Off the Wall, and convenes the Lansdowne Local...

Marcelle Olivier is a writer and academic from Cambridge. She is a Commonwealth Scholar and holds a doctorate from Oxford University; her...

Host: Julia Smuts Louw Zoom Room: https://us05web.zoom.us/j/89955065083... Meeting ID: 899 5506 5083 Passcode: 4ucS3b