2018 IBHUKU Award Statuette for English Academic

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UKZN English Studies academic, Professor Lindy Stiebel was recently honoured with the 2018 IBHUKU Award Statuette in the Literary Tourism Award category.

She received the award during the inaugural IBHUKU Women Authors Exhibition Festival held at the Pietermaritzburg City Hall. The festival showcased and celebrated the role played by female authors in the country’s social development.

Stiebel was one of 10 women writers who were honoured on the night for their exceptional writing and for leaving a mark and legacy in literature.

Said Stiebel, ‘I am greatly honoured to have been a recipient of this award and thank Musa Zulu and Valhalla Arts for the recognition of my services to literary tourism over many years. I also would like to thank my publisher, UKZNPress, for having faith in the book I co-authored with Niall McNulty, titled A Literary Guide to KZN (2017) which powerfully summarises the work of the KZN Literary Tourism project.’

Stiebel is Professor Emeritus of English Studies at the University. Her research interests are linked by a profound interest in the relationship between writers and place. These include the South African colonial and post-colonial novel; Indian Ocean studies, particularly literary interconnections between South Africa, India and Mauritius; and literary tourism. Her book published in 2016 is titled: Writing Home: Lewis Nkosi on South African Literature (with Michael Chapman, UKZN Press).

Words: Melissa Mungroo 

Photograph: Supplied