Lethube Phaladi

Lethube Hellen Phaladi was born in Ga-Seroka in Sekhukhune. A poet and aspiring novelist, her poem ‘Shai, Isaac Shai’ was awarded first prize in the AVBOB Poetry Competition in 2022 in the English Category. She has been published in Stanzas and New Coin poetry magazines. Lethube has recorded six videos in both Sepedi and English, performing some of her poems on Facebook under the name Hellen L Idiory, and is currently working on a project called ‘Makete’, a short story about GBV and young women. 

Host: Julia Smuts Louw

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

Meeting ID: 899 5506 5083

Passcode: 4ucS3b

Simon van Schalkwyk

Simon Van Schalkwyk, author of Transcontinental Delay, is Senior Lecturer of English Studies at University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, and formerly Visiting Researcher at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WiSER). He is co-editor for Safundi: The Journal of South African and American Studies and academic editor for the Johannesburg Review of Books.

Host: Stuart Payne

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

Meeting ID: 899 5506 5083

Passcode: 4ucS3b

Teamhw SbonguJesu

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 two poetry collections Bury Me Naked and Slave.

Besides writing and publishing, Teamhw has a strong zeal for politics.

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Bury Me Naked, published in 2022, by TNG Publishing Company

Slave, published in 2023, by TNG Publishing Company

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Social media handles:

Teamhw SbonguJesu

(same for Instagram, Facebook and Twitter)

Host: Julia Smuts Louw

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

Meeting ID: 899 5506 5083

Passcode: 4ucS3b

Painkillers are expensive

I deal with my problems

by ignoring them.

I wait for the next stress

to replace the current stress.

I make diseases sick,

pills take themselves.

A prayer prays,

tears dry themselves.

I make bread eat itself,

starvation starve itself.

I also make old rags

wear themselves out.

Shoes walk barefoot.

I make debts pay themselves,

the interest is always interesting,

no matter how much time has lapsed.

I make silence scream,

and often the scream retaliates.

The result is always dead silence.

For that I make a sentence

write and serve itself.

Though I never judge.

by Teamhw SbonguJesu (page 22 of the collection Slave)