Ancestral Voices

Etienne van Heerden’s debut youth novel, Matoli, was published in 1978. During the 1980s he was member of a group of Afrikaans writers secretly meeting exiled ANC members at the now-famous Victoria Falls Writers’ Conference, held in Zimbabwe. He went on to establish himself as one of South Africa’s pre-eminent writers with novels such as Toorberg (1986), Die stoetmeester (1993), Die swye van Mario Salviati (2000), In stede van die liefde (2005) and 30 nagte in Amsterdam (2008), and his work has been translated and sold all over the world. Of his generation of writers, Van Heerden has won the most literary awards in South Africa. Etienne is the founding editor of the cultural website LitNet and now works as a professor at the University of Cape Town, where he lectures on literature, literary theory and creative writing. http://www.etiennevanheerden.co.za