In conversation: Writing the family

IN CONVERSATION REWRITING THE FAMILY

Emeritus Professor Ingrid de Kok, University of Cape Town; Emeritus Professor Antjie Krog, University of the Western Cape

Wednesday 28 January  11.15 am  COURSE FEES R115; Staff and students R58

Celebrated writers Antjie Krog and Ingrid de Kok have written extensively about family and the influence of family, in addition to meditating on many other cultural topics. In Krog’s autobiographical novel, Blood’s Inner Rhyme, she explores with rigour and humour her complex relationship with her mother, the Afrikaner writer Dot Serfontein. De Kok’s new collection of poems, Unleaving, is partly an elegiac tribute to her late partner, Tony Morphet, and to her late brother, Kenneth de Kok. In this talk, the writers will engage with each other about the pleasures, difficulties and taboos involved in writing about family. They will also read from their recent work.

Recommended reading

De Kok, I. 2006. Seasonal Fires: New and Selected Poems. Johannesburg: Umuzi and New York: Seven Stories. De Kok, I. 2024. Unleaving. Johannesburg: Fourthwall Books.

Krog, A. 2009. Begging to be Black. Cape Town: Random House Struik. Krog, A. 2022. Pillage. Cape Town: Human & Rousseau.

Krog, A. 2025. Blood’s Inner Rhyme. Cape Town: Penguin Books.

TO BOOK: https://www.webtickets.co.za/performance.aspx?itemid=1575250105

Krog has published 13 volumes of poetry in Afrikaans of which four volumes have English translations, as well as 4 non-fiction books: Country of my Skull (1998), on the South African TRC; A Change of Tongue (2004) about transformation in South Africa; Begging to be Black (2009) about learning to live within a black majority; Blood’s Inner Rhyme (2025) about some Afrikaner remnants. Krog had been awarded most of the prestigious awards for poetry, non-fiction, journalism and translation and her work has been translated into Dutch, Italian, French, Spanish, Swedish, Serbian, Arabic and Chinese.

Emeritus Professor Ingrid Fiske took early retirement from UCT in 2014 after being Director of Extra-Mural Studies for many years.

Writing as Ingrid de Kok, she has published 6 volumes of poetry. Her recent book Unleaving (Fourthwall Books), appeared to acclaim in 2024. In 2022, with Antjie Krog and illustrator Fiona Moodie, she co-wrote a children’s book, Vetplant Fairies/Vetplant Feetjies. She is the recipient of numerous national and international awards and residencies. Her work is taught around the world and has been translated into 9 languages.