The ICA WRITER’S SEMINAR
The Writers’ Seminar is a literary seminar series which is hosted by the ICA and UCT’s Department of English Literary Studies which runs from May - October 2023. The seminar was conceived as a space to host and engage celebrated South African writers about their soon-to-be, or recently-published work.
These seminars were created to facilitate and deepen students’ connection with our national writing landscape. And while the seminars were originally conceived with students in mind, they remain open to the public. This commitment to open access has been an important aspect of the series and has enabled a broader and richer engagement across all of the events.
UCT has a long history of reading, researching and teaching South African literature and we see this as a natural trajectory of that commitment. It is also a chance to expound the relationship that students have with the intimate space of reading that becomes discursive in the seminar room or lecture hall. The seminars offer the opportunity to engage directly with these writers. It is our way of supporting the ecology of South African literature.
Peter Anderson and Sindiswa Busuku. (4 May)
Peter Anderson has published three volumes, Litany Bird, Foundling’s Island and In a Free State: A Music (“Destined to be a landmark in South African poetry” – J.M. Coetzee). He teaches English at the University of Cape Town. His work has appeared in The London Magazine, Denver Quarterly, TEXT, The Rialto, New Contrast, New Coin, and other magazines.
Sindiswa Busku is a creative writer and a lecturer in the Department of English Literary Studies at The University of Cape Town. Having been awarded a doctoral scholarship by the National Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, Busuku is currently reading for a Creative Writing PhD at the University of Witwatersrand. Her research focuses on ideas concerned with black fugitivity, black wandering, migration, black histories and futurities, and the speculative imagination.
The session on 17 August was a dialogue between Wisani Mushwana and Trish Coetzee
Wisani Mushwana was born in Nkowankowa, Tzaneen in the Limpopo Province. He is currently a PhD candidate in English Literary Studies at UCT. A Soft Landing is his debut novel which formed part of his MA degree in Creative Writing and was awarded with distinction.
~ 30 May 2023 ~