Abdul Mogale
President
Former member of the Mayoral Committee for Economic Development in the City of Ekurhuleni where he led the adoption of the Aerotropolis Model as a core strategy for city development. He is the former NWASA Treasurer and author of the poetry collection titled – Warriors, King & Queens Of Africa.
Dr. Lebogang Lance Nawa
Secretary–General
Former Congress of South African Writers (COSAW) President for two terms; Deputy Chairperson – COSAW PWV; member of various editorial committees/boards and author of two works of fiction (titled: Through the Eye of the needle & Wandering Tributaries). Holds several awards in poetry, has a short story – Bundle of Joy – made into a film and has written lyrics for Vusi Mahlasela.
Kabelo Duncan Kgatea
Organisational Building and Development
Founding member of Book Tourism, an imprint of CEM Publishers, and an independent publishing house with 22 titles, 4 of which were authored by the member. 1 won a PanSALB award in the 2016/2017 Xhosa poems category and 4 of the titles have been listed in the Gauteng Department of Education and training library catalogue as teacher-leaner resource material.
Vonani Bila
Publishing, Editorial & Mentoring
Holds an MA in Creative Writing (cum laude) from Rhodes University, South Africa. Bila is a driving force in South African poetry – founding editor of the Timbila poetry journal, publisher of Timbila books and founder of Timbila Writers’ Village, a rural retreat centre. In 2013, he edited New Coin, a poetry journal that is published by the Institute for the Study of English in Africa, Rhodes University.
Keith Gottschalk
NWASA Literature Institute
Retired political scientist and poet. He served on the Cape executive of the Congress of SA Writers, (COSAW) during the 1980s. His book of prison and protest poems, Emergency Poems, came out in 1992. In 2021 he published Cosmonauts do it in Heaven, a collection of spaceflight & astronomy poems.
Keith also chairs the Lansdowne Local Writers’ Group; the Off the Wall Poetry volunteers, and the New Contrast literary magazine.
Abigail George
Campaigns and Projects
Pushcart Prize and two time Best of the Net nominated Abigail George is a South African-based blogger at Goodreads, essayist, poet, playwright, grant, scriptwriter, novella and short story writer. She briefly studied film at the Newtown Film and Television School in Johannesburg. She is the recipient of writing grants from the National Arts Council in Johannesburg, the Centre for the Book in Cape Town and ECPACC (Eastern Cape Provincial Arts and Culture Council) in East London. Her writing has appeared numerous times in print in South Africa, in various anthologies, and online in e-zines based across Africa, Asia, Australia, Canada, Europe, Ireland, and the United States including Wales, and Singapore. She is the writer of twelve books including essays, life writing, memoir pieces, novellas, poetry and a self-published story collection. She lives in Gqeberha, works, and is inspired by the people and mountains of the Eastern Cape of Southern Africa. She is the Contributing Editor at African Writer Magazine and editor at Mwanaka Media and Publishing, she interned at a production company in Johannesburg and she is busy working on a feature film. She recently participated in the Mandela Bay Book Fair Roadshow 2021. Her books are forthcoming from Gazebo Books in Australia and Scarlet Leaf Publishing in Canada.