Prof Taberner’s research focuses on contemporary German, literature, thought and society, and he is currently completing a book on contemporary German Jewish literature, including Olga Grjasnowa, Vladimir Vertlib, Benjamin Stein, Maxim Biller, Adriana Altaras, Katja Petrowskaja, Sasha Salzmann, Dmitrij Kapitelman, Barbara Honigmann, and others. In addition, he is involved in impact and public and engagement activities primarily relating to his work on the transnational circulation of the memory of the Holocaust. These include a travelling exhibition, Germany's Confrontation with the Holocaust in a Global Context, with the South African Holocaust and Genocide Foundation. The exhibition was displayed in the South African Holocaust and Genocide centres in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban, the UK National Holocaust Centre, and schools, universities, museums, galleries and public libraries in the UK, South Africa, the USA, and Ireland. He has also written for the press in the UK and South Africa, and given TV and radio interviews in both countries. With Dorothea Heiser, he edited a book of translations of poems written by inmates of the concentration camp at Dachau. This book, My Shadow in Dachau, appeared in late 2014.

Anton Roodt obtained an MA in Creative Writing from the University of the Free State in 2019. He also holds masters’ degrees in architecture, urban planning and environmental management. He has been practising as a professional architect and planner since 1982 and has received several awards for his firm’s work from the regional and national bodies for architects. Some of his work has been published in the Phaidon Atlas of Contemporary World Architecture, amongst others. He specialises in heritage architecture and, owing to his appreciation of history, enjoys historiographic metafiction. He is equally interested in contemporary and visionary architecture, hence his love of science fiction. He is also a visual artist.

He lives in Bloemfontein with his wife, Zarine, a memoire writer. Their son, Leon-Pierre, also practices as an architect in the firm that was established by Anton’s father in 1952.

Weerlose Meganika is Anton’s debut novel (Tafelberg 2020).

Postgraduate qualifications: MA (Musicology), MA (Linguistics, cum laude, with specialisation in translation), HOD, UOLM (Piano) and a Higher Diploma in Library Science.

In the process of completing BA Hons (French).

Full-time freelance language practitioner and accredited member of the SA Translators' Institute, a full member of the Professional Editors Guild, as well as a member of the European Association of Science Editors and the Mediterranean Editors Association.

Reads papers on translation at various national and international conferences, from which articles are published locally and in international scientific journals. Attend various workshops on translation locally and internationally.

Involved in the training of court interpreters for the Department of Justice (2008-2009) as a linguist.

Publications: Music as a Subject, Grades 8-9, Grade 10, Grade 11 and Grade 12 (1985-2005 – Afrikaans and English). In addition to numerous translation and text editing projects for various publishers (including Heineman, Oxford University Press and Future Entrepreneurs), scientific journals and associations, she has been involved in the 2020 Afrikaanse Bible translation project as a language practitioner. Recently translated the Place Names Dictionary for Southern Africa (Protea) into Afrikaans.

Academic Interests: Literary Translation, Literature, French, Music

Qualifications: BA and Higher Education Diploma (University of Stellenbosch); BA Honours, MA and PhD (Dept Afrikaans and Dutch, German and French, University of the Free State).

Fields of interest: Sociolinguistics, Children literature, reading skills, academic literacy. 

Publish in the field of sociolinguistics and reading skills; was involved with the translation of the 2020 Afrikaans Bible; wrote a portrait of Afrikaans for the EuroComGerm project under leadership of Janet Duke (University of Freiburg, Germany) published in 2019: "Germanische Sprachen lesen lernen" (to learn to read Germanic languages).  

Dr Karen Ferreira-Meyers lives and works in Eswatini. Senior Lecturer and Coordinator Linguistics and Modern Languages, she also regularly translates and interprets. Her research areas include autofiction and autobiography, crime and detective fiction, language teaching and learning. She has published extensively (mainly research papers and book reviews, but also a monograph on female Francophone authors Beyala, Nothomb and Bouraoui). Here are a few of her recent articles :

2020 FERREIRA-MEYERS, K. The Other and the Self in Laurent Herrou’s Autofiction Nina Myers, in Caietele Echinox, 37 (2019), pp. 159-167.

2020 FERREIRA-MEYERS, K. Le plurilinguisme en Eswatini : un rêve ou une réalité ?, http://www.biennale-if.org/les-actes-de-la-xxviiie-biennale.html (link to Karen Ferreira-Meyers), 9 pages.

2019 FERREIRA-MEYERS, K. Le lecteur “averti” reste quand même dans l’incertitude face à l’autofiction, in Yahia Khabou, S. (éd.), La lecture des créateurs, Actes du colloque international tenu à Hammamet, les 23-25 mars 2017, Tunisie, ISBN 978-9938-03-081-5, pp. 119-130.

2019 FERREIRA-MEYERS, K. L'autofiction historique: l'exemple de Vamba Sherif, in Grell-Borgomano, I. and Devésa, J.-M., L'écriture du Je dans la langue de l'exil, Collection "Proximités - Littératures", EME Editions : Louvain-la-Neuve ISBN 978-2-8066-3689-8, pp. 149-163.

2019 FERREIRA-MEYERS, K. La migration inter-africaine et sa représentation dans le roman policier sud-africain, in Victoria Ferrety et Martine Renouprez (éds.), Les Migrations entre Méditerranée et terre promise, Vol. 2. Littérature, Philosophie et linguistique, Editorial UCA, Universidade de Cadiz – Université de Liège, ISBN9788498287776, pp. 135-148.

2019 IMPEDOVO, M. and FERREIRA-MEYERS, K. Expanding use of research-based teaching practices after an international Masters course, in Transformative Dialogues: teaching and learning eJournal, Volume 12, Issue 1, April 2019, How Do We Know? What Do We Do?, 13 pages.

2019 FERREIRA-MEYERS, K. Medical narratives in the South African novel: Case Study of Chris Karsten’s trilogy The Skin Collector (2012), The Skinner’s Revenge (2013) and Face-Off (2014), in Arno Görgen, German Alfonso Nunez and Heiner Fangerau (eds), Handbook of Popular Culture and Biomedicine, Knowledge in the Life Sciences as Cultural Artefact, Cham: Springer International Publishing AG, Part of Springer Nature, ISBN 978-3-319-90676-8, 2019, pp. 195-206.

Hendrik Petrus (Hennie) van Coller is a research fellow of the University of the Free State and and extraordinary professor at the Northwest University. He is one of the most acclaimed researchers in Afrikaans and Dutch and was awarded the Jan H. Marais prize for his lifelong contribution to Afrikaans.  Furthermore he is a translator of poetry (Bandelose gedigte by Luuk Gruwez, 2007) and a published poet (Soom, 2012). Some of his most important publications are  Tussenkoms, Tussenstand, Perspektief en Profiel and a Dutch Literary History in Afrikaans. He is a former president of Die Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns and a member of ASSAF.

Jan H. Marais prize for lifelong contribution to Afrikaans as scientific language.

Qualifications: B Iur LLB, MA (Language Studies) Currently enrolled for a Master of Arts with specialisation in Creative Writing, UFS

Married to an architect of Bloemfontein, Hennie Lambrechts

Interests: Academically: Literature (Migrant literature, Intertextuality), Classical Greek Literature and Philosophy

Other: Organic horticulture, Art, Architecture, Travelling and Nature

Charl-Pierre Naudé is a writer, poet, freelance journalist and editor; journalistic and academic reviewer of literary publications; newspaper article writer on the intersection of politics and culture; and academic researcher of themes concerning literature, philosophy and culture. He is also a compiler of the work of other poets.

In 1988 he completed a B.A. honours degree in Philosophy at Stellenbosch University and in 2016 and in 2016 the University of the Free State awarded him an M.A. degree in theory of creative writing, literary theory and creative writing, with distinction.

He is the author of several poetry volumes in Afrikaans, one in English and a bilingual volume in Afrikaans and Dutch translation, and is the recipient of several literary prizes.

In 2014/15 he did a year-long writer’s residency in the Artists Programme of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in Berlin, Germany.

His areas of focus tend to be interdisciplinary and comparative in nature and concerns creative writing and philosophy. As reseracher he is presently working on translation theories.

Since 1997, Jerzy Koch has been connected to the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland, where he is a tenured professor and Head of the Department of Dutch and South African Studies in die Faculty of English. He was also attached to the University of Wrocław (1985-2011), where he established the Department of Modern Dutch Literature and Afrikaans within the Chair for Dutch Philosophy and which has now been taken over and led by one of his pupils.

In 1991, he was awarded a PhD in Literature and Philosophy with ‘Major Distinction’ at the Catholic University Louvain (Belgium), with his thesis on the reception of Multatuli in Poland. Since 1992, he has been occupying himself with Afrikaans and (South-) African literature.

He was a guest lecturer at the University of Debrecen (Hungary) for seven years and lectured in Olomouc, Vienna, Leiden, Bloemfontein, Stellenbosch, Curaçao and others. Since 2014, he regularly lectures and present courses for students in the so-called Dutch Antilles.

He is the author of, amongst others, the following books: Outsider onder de zijnen. Vormen van xenofanie in de Afrikaanse roman (2002), Wenus Hotentocka i inne rozprawy o literaturze południowoafrykańskiej (2008), Historia Literatury południowoafrykańskiej. Literatura afrikaans XVII-XIX wiek (2004), Historia Literatury południowoafrykańskiej. Literatura afrikaans. Okres usamodzielnienia 1900-1930 (2012), A History of South African Literature. Afrikaans Literature. Part One: From the 17th to the 19th Century (2015).

He is the author of many articles, amongst others, Spiegel der Letteren, Hollands Maandblad, Over Multatuli, Stilet, Tydskrif vir Letterkunde, Acta Academica, Literator. Furthermore, he is the founder and editor in chief of the journal Werkwinkel: Journal of Low Countries and South African Studies and serves on the board of editors of LitNet.

He is also active as translator of Dutch and Afrikaans literature (Multatuli, H. Mulisch, H. Claus, H. de Coninck, A. Krog, and B. Breytenbach). In 1995, he received the Nijhoff Prize for his translation oeuvre.

Jerzy Koch (DrsLitt – University of Wroclaw, PhD - KULeuven, DLitt – University of Wroclaw) is head of the Division Dutch and South African Studies at the School of English of the A. Mickiewicz-University in Poznan. He is also chief editor and founder editor of “Werkwinkel. Journal of Low Countries and South African Studies” https://content.sciendo.com/view/journals/werk/werk-overview.xml & https://voertaal.nu/poolse-tydskrif-werkwinkel-plaas-in-sy-1ste-dekade-kwart-van-bydraes-in-afrikaans/. He lectures specifically Dutch literature after 1830, colonial literature and Afrikaans and as researcher he is interested in translations, literary transfer and Afrikaans literature.

His books include Multatuli w Polsce (2000, Multatuli in Poland), Miedzy Holandia a Indonezja (2000, Between the Netherlands and Indonesia), Outsider onder de zijnen: vormen van xenofanie in de Afrikaanse roman (2002), Historia literatury poludniowoafrykanskiej. Literatura afrikaans XVII-XIX wiek (2004, History of South African literature. Afrikaans literature 17th-19th century), Wenus Hotentocka i inne rozprawy o literaturze poludniowoafrykanskiej (2008, Hottentot Venus and other essays on South African literature), A History of South African Literature: Afrikaans Literature 17th–19th centuries (2015) - https://www.vanschaiknet.com/book/view/344.

Some of the books, e.g. Outsider is available in Dutch at: http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/koch003outs01

The following articles had been published in i.a. (inter alia) i.a. Spiegel der Letteren, Over Multatuli, Hollands Maandblad, Stilet, Literator, Tydskrif vir Nederlands & Afrikaans and Acta Academica.

For his translations from the Dutch literature into Polish (more than twenty books, i.a. of H. Claus, J. Bernlef, H. de Coninck, G. Kouwenaar, Lucebert, H. Mulisch, Multatuli, L. Nolens, P. Rodenko, F. Timmermans) he received the M Nijhoff-award (1995). For his endeavours in the field of neerlandistiek Dutch in Poland he received the Visser Neerlandia award in 2009. He also translated Ingrid Jonker, Antjie Krog, Breyten Breytenbach and Etienne Leroux.

Jerzy Koch is a member of the Maatschapij der Nederlandse Letterkunde in Leiden, Association of Polish authors (SPP) and is the first foreign member of the South African Academy of Science and Art (2006).

He is married to Magdalena a professor of Slavonic literatures at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan.

Joanita Erasmus-Alt is a music teacher at Fichardt Park High School in Bloemfontein. In 2006 she obtained a masters degree in music from the University of the Free State. In 2013 two of her short stories were published under LitNet’s top 15 short stories of the year. With the completion of a M.A.-degree (creative writing) (with distinction), she was awarded the Gerhard Beukes prize for creative writing from the University of the Free State in 2013. In 2016 she obtained a Ph.D.-degree in the department Afrikaans and Dutch from the University of the Free State with a thesis titled “Grensoorskryding in Alfabet van die voëls deur S.J. Naudé en Sondag op ʼn voëlplaas deur Johann Nell”.