Allan Kolski Horwitz

ALLAN KOLSKI HORWITZ grew up in Cape Town. Between 1974 and

1985 he lived in the Middle East, Europe and North America, returning to

South Africa in 1986. A member of the Botsotso Jesters performance poetry

group, he is the co-ordinator of Botsotso Publishing and the Botsotso

Ensemble. He has previously worked in the trade union and social housing

movements as an organizer and educator. He lives in Johannesburg.

His solo books of poetry are entitled Saving Water, There are Two

Birds at My Window and The Colours of Our Flag. His short fiction is

contained in three collections – Un/common Ground, Out of the Wreckage

and Meditations of a Non-White White He has also written a children’s

parable, Blue Wings and a novel, The Chronicles of Shalom Court.

Host: Stuart Payne

Zoom Room: https://us05web.zoom.us/j/89955065083...

Meeting ID: 899 5506 5083

Passcode: 4ucS3b

Nkateko Masinga

Nkateko Masinga is a South African writer, performance poet and scholar whose interests traverse the intersections between narrative medicine, life writing and social justice. She is intrigued by the stories of individuals who exist at the margins of society, while her current work explores the complex and often tumultuous relationships that daughters have with their mothers. Nkateko's latest book, Daughter Wound, was published by UK publisher Hazel Press in 2024, and she was shortlisted for the Evaristo Prize for African Poetry in the same year. She has received translations of her work in French, Bengali, Tamil, Kannada and Romanian.

Host: Stuart Payne

Zoom Room: https://us05web.zoom.us/j/89955065083...

Meeting ID: 899 5506 5083

Passcode: 4ucS3b

Stephen Symons

Stephen Symons was born in Cape Town in 1966. He has published poetry and short fiction in local and international journals, magazines and anthologies. Symons’s debut collection, Questions for the Sea (uHlanga, 2016), received an honourable mention for the 2017 Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry and was shortlisted for the 2017 Ingrid Jonker Prize.

His unpublished collection Spioenkop was a semi-finalist for the Hudson Prize for Poetry (USA) in 2015. His second collection, Landscapes of Light and Loss (Dryad Press), was published in 2018, and his third collection, For Everything that is Pointless and Perfect (Karavan Press), in 2020. Small Souls: New & Collected Poems (Karavan Press) was published in 2022 and includes the winning poem of the 2021 The Red Wheelbarrow Poetry Competition, “Small souls”. The collection was also longlisted for

the 2024 National Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences Awards and shortlisted for a 2024 South African Literary Award. AFTERBURN: War Stories, a collection of short stories related to war and the effects of human conflict, was published by Tattoo Press in 2023. His fifth collection, The Algebra of Insignificance, was published by Karavan Press in 2024, and longlisted for a 2025 National Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences Award.

His new collection of short stories, of salt, dust & love, was published by Karavan Press in 2025, to be followed by his debut novel, later in the year.

Symons holds a PhD in History (University of Pretoria) and an MA in Creative Writing (University of Cape Town). He lives with his family in Oranjezicht, Cape Town, where he runs a graphic design studio.

Host: Stuart Payne

Zoom Room: https://us05web.zoom.us/j/89955065083...

Meeting ID: 899 5506 5083

Passcode: 4ucS3b