Valda Jansen

was born in Aliwal-Noord, but grew up in coastal town Strand. She studied German language at the university of West-Kaapland and worked as German language teacher in Mitchels Plain and Paarl, and was an editor for a TV news show. Her poems were published in several poetry collections; she also was a columnist at Die Burger en Beeld. In her debut novel Hy kom met die skoenlappers, published in 2016, the main character is torn between her black community in South Africa and the white world of her German lover. In both countries, the past is an important element of the present.