A Joburg night when writers spoke and read to fellow writers at Wits
By Edward Tsumele, CITYLIFE/ARTS Editor
It was indeed an illuminating evening, and more than that, according to Stacy Hardy, the Head of the Creative Writing Unit at Wits, it is a new initiative to create a community of writers.
Those who have studied creative writing will tell you that first, the idea of writing and reading your rough draft in front of writers, some of whom may even be more talented than you, in your mind that is, is, a scary experience. But as you get used to the idea of fellow writers, the ones you trust, this is one of the most useful exercises to enrich your writing while learning what works and what does not work.
Everybody who dreams of one day writing critically acclaimed books, whether fiction or non-fiction needs this kind of feedback.
This issue dominated discussions on Monday, 24, March, 2025 at Wits at the launch of new bursary programme and a new reading session introduced by the Wits Creative Writing programme. The reading was done by alumni of the writing programme, reading from the work they produced while they studied for an MA in Creative Writing at the university.
In a way this was also a celebration of the alumni’s work while at the same time inaugurating a new bursary for creative writing students in need.
“The conceptual frame of the evening is justice: can writing evoke a sense of justice? with opening remarks by our Distinguished Professor, Ivan Vladislavi,” a write up leading to the event by the unit read.
The event was well- attended by mainly alumni of the programme as well as would-be new writers. The event was held at Humanities Graduate Centre.
Those who read for the evening are Kurt Ellis from his novel Deadly Benefit, Anton Harber from his non-fiction book about Sate capture titled So, On The Record and Lee-Anne Gaertner who read from her as yet unpublished non-fiction book about the lack of justice for those facing trail during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2001. Cases would be delayed once one person on the case or in Court who were infected by Covid-19, impacting on those facing charges, in some cases forced to spend a long time in jail pending the finalisation of their cases.
The discussion was well facilitated by Phillipa Yaa de Villiers, a lecturer of creative writing at wits.
While this was the first session of what will become a quarterly event of reading organised by Wits Creative Writing programme, this according to Stacy Hardy, head of the Creative Writing department at wits is an effort to create a community of writers, having a safe space where they can talk about writing with fellow writers.