Personal information

Creative Writing, Literature, Printmaking, Photography
South Africa, Australia

Biography

Bronwyn Law-Viljoen is a senior lecturer in Creative Writing in the Department of Literature, Creative Writing and Film at the University of Adelaide. She was previously head of Creative Writing at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits). She is the editor and co-founder of Fourthwall Books, and a former editor of Art South Africa magazine. She received her Doctorate in Literature at New York University as a Fulbright scholar in 2003, and her Doctorate in Creative Writing from Wits in 2017. She taught Writing and Literature at New York University, and completed an extended internship at the Aperture Foundation in New York before returning to South Africa to take up the post of Managing Editor at David Krut Publishing. She has contributed to and edited many books on art, design and architecture in South Africa. Her first novel, The Printmaker, was published in 2016 (Umuzi/Penguin Random House). It was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Barry Ronge Fiction Award and won the 2018 Olive Schreiner Prize. It appeared in French in 2019 (Editions Zoé) and in German in 2021 (Akono Verlag). Her second novel, set in New York, Johannesburg and the Eastern Cape, was published by Umuzi/Penguin Random House in 2022 and longlisted for the Sunday Times Barry Ronge Fiction Award in 2023. She has published essays and short stories in local and international journals, books and magazines. Her research interests include the relationship between images and text, printmaking, photography, and the teaching of creative writing in the Global South.

Activities

Employment (5)

University of Adelaide: Adelaide, South Australia, AU

2023-06-12 to present | Senior Lecturer (English, Creative Writing, and Film)
Employment
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Fourthwall Books: Johannesburg, Gauteng, ZA

2010-01-01 to present | Editor, Founder (Publishing)
Employment
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

University of the Witwatersrand: Johannesburg, ZA

2019-01-01 to 2023-07-01 | Deputy Head of School (Literature, Language and Media)
Employment
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg: Johannesburg, Gauteng, ZA

2015-07-01 to 2023-07-01 | Associate Professor, Head of Department (Creative Writing)
Employment
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

University of the Witwatersrand: Johannesburg, ZA

2010-12-09 to 2015-07-01 | Senior Lecturer, Head of Department, Creative Writing (Literature, Language and Media)
Employment
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Education and qualifications (3)

University of the Witwatersrand: Johannesburg, Gauteng, ZA

2013 to 2017 | PhD (Creative Writing)
Education
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

New York University: New York, NY, US

1995 to 2003 | PhD (English)
Education
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Rhodes University: Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, ZA

1993 to 1994 | MA (English)
Education
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Professional activities (8)

Joburg Contemporary Art Foundation: Johannesburg, Gauteng, ZA

2022-01-01 to present | Associate Editor (JCAF Journal: Interdisciplinary Knowledge from the South)
Service
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

PEN South Africa: Johannesburg, ZA

2016-10-01 to present
Membership
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

University of the Witwatersrand: Johannesburg, Gauteng, ZA

2023-08-01 to 2026-07-31 | Visiting Associate Professor in Creative Writing (School of Literature, Language and Media)
Invited position
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Sunday Times: Johannesburg, Gauteng, ZA

2023-07-01 | Longlisted for Sunday Times Fiction Award (Barry Ronge Fiction Award)
Distinction
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

English Academy of South Africa: Johannesburg, Gauteng, ZA

2018 | Olive Schreiner Prize for Fiction
Distinction
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Sunday Times Literary Award: Johannesburg, Gauteng, ZA

2017 | Shortlisted for the Barry Ronge Sunday Times Fiction Prize
Distinction
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Art South Africa: Cape Town, Western Cape, ZA

2010-01-01 to 2013-12-31 | Editor (Art South Africa Journal)
Service
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

University of Johannesburg: Johannesburg, ZA

2008-01-01 to 2011-12-31 | Research Fellow (Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture)
Invited position
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Funding (2)

Supporting a New Generation of African and 'South' Writers

2019-01 to 2021-10 | Grant
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (New York, US)
Part of GRANT_NUMBER:

180706004

Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Mellon Distinguished Visiting Scholar

2014-09 to 2014-11 | Grant
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (NY, NY, US)
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Works (50)

Johannesburg in a Time of Darkness

The Conversation
2024-04-23 | Book review | Writing - original draft
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Ghostly Figures

Masabelaneni: The Books Arts Archive of the Caversham Press and Centre for Artists and Writers
2023 | Book chapter | Writing - original draft
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Lubumbashi to Paulshoek: Iterations of the Local in Six African Photobooks

The Routledge Companion to Photography, Representation and Social Justice
2023 | Book chapter | Writing - original draft
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Nguni

PARSE
2023 | Journal article | Writing - original draft
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Notes from an Archive of the Body in Movement

Notes from the Body: Health, Illness, Trauma
2023 | Book chapter | Writing - original draft
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

How Poetic Language Enacts Agency

Image & Text
2023-11-01 | Journal article
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen; Phillippa Yaa de Villiers; Fiona Zerbst
Source: check_circle
Crossref

Call-and-Response

Printmaking Today
2022 | Journal article | Writing - original draft
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Notes on Falling

Penguin Random House
2022 | Book | Writing - original draft
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Up is Down, Left is Right

Printmaking Today
2022 | Journal article | Writing - original draft
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

African Women Photographers

IMA magazine
2021 | Magazine article | Writing - original draft
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Der Nachlass des Grafikers

Akono Verlag
2021 | Translation
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen; Cathrin Neufeldt
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Ukhubhukudu: Not Sinking in Language but Swimming

The Place and the Writer: International Intersections of Teacher Lore and Creative Pedagogy
2021 | Book chapter | Writing - original draft
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen; Phillippa Yaa de Villiers
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Gideon Mendel

Aperture
2019 | Journal article | Writing - original draft
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Le Graveur

Editions Zoé
2019 | Translation
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen; Elisabeth Gilles
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

The Caretaker of Wounds

Image and Text
2018 | Journal article | Writing - original draft
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Albert Adams and the Deposition of Christ

de arte
2018-01-02 | Journal article
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Source: check_circle
Crossref

A Short History of the African Photobook

Aperture Photobook Review 12
2017 | Journal article | Writing - original draft
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Andrew Tshabangu’s City

Andrew Tshabangu: Footprints
2017 | Book chapter | Writing - original draft
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Geen Dassiejag Vandag

New Contrast 176
2017 | Other | Writing - original draft
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

One for All

ZUM Photography Magazine
2016 | Magazine article | Writing - original draft
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Samuel Gratacap

Aperture Magazine
2016 | Magazine article | Writing - original draft
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

The Package

Source: The Photographic Review 87
2016 | Other | Writing - original draft
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

The Printmaker

Penguin Random House/Umuzi
2016 | Book | Writing - original draft
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

If You Go Out in the Woods Today: Check

Aerodrome
2015 | Other | Writing - original draft
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

If You Go Out in the Woods Today: Fence

Aerodrome
2015 | Other | Writing - original draft
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

If You Go Out in the Woods Today: Phone

Aerodrome
2015 | Other | Writing - original draft
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

If You Go Out in the Woods Today: Slope

Aerodrome
2015 | Other | Writing - original draft
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Ponte

Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2015
2015 | Book chapter | Writing - original draft
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Portrait of the Artist as a Left Hand

Handbook: South African Artists
2015 | Book chapter | Writing - original draft
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen; Gary Schneider
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Blood Room

Aerodrome
2014 | Other | Writing - original draft
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Fochville

New Contrast vol 42 no 4
2014-10 | Other | Writing - original draft
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Préface

Hybridation et Art Contemporain
2013 | Book chapter | Writing - original draft
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Walking the Line

Jürgen Partenheimer, Seeds, Tracks and Folded Spirits
2013 | Book chapter | Writing - original draft
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Ricardo Rangel

Aperture Magazine 213
2013-12-16 | Journal article | Writing - original draft
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Sailing a Smaller Ship

Print, Text and Book Cultures in South Africa
2012 | Book chapter | Writing - original draft
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Teaching Creative Writing

Scrutiny vol 17, no 2
2012 | Review | Writing - original draft
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

ABOUT THOSE PHOTOGRAPHS ... TJ AND DOUBLE NEGATIVE

APERTURE
2011 | Journal article
Part of ISSN: 0003-6420
Contributors: Law-Viljoen, B; Goldblatt, D; Vladislavic, I
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

David Goldblatt, Santu Mofokeng, Christine Meisner, Mitch Epstein, Jane Alexander, Penny Siopis, Sabelo Mlangeni, Zanele Muholi, Jo Ractliffe, Peter Friedl, Guy Tillim, Ângela Ferreira, Mikhael Subotzky

Appropriated Landscapes: Contemporary African Photography from the Walther Collection
2011 | Book chapter | Writing - original draft
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Introduction to Fire Walker

Fire Walker: William Kentridge, Gerhard Marx
2011 | Book chapter | Writing - original draft
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Sojourns in Occupied Territory

Image and Text 17
2011 | Journal article | Writing - original draft
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Bang-Bang Has Been Good to Us

Theory, Culture and Society
2010 | Journal article | Writing - original draft
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

The Intimate Violence of Diane Victor's Disasters of Peace

Critical Arts vol 24 no 3
2010-11 | Journal article
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Who Is Riason Naidoo?

Art Africa
2010-11-24 | Other | Writing - original draft
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen; Riason Naidoo
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Compendium of Taxi Art Books Educational Supplements

David Krut Publishing
2009 | Book | Writing - review & editing
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen; Jacki McInnes; Lara Kosseff
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

David Krut Print Workshop

The Printmaking Bible
2009 | Book chapter | Writing - original draft
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Photographing Johannesburg

Representation and Spatial Practices in Urban South Africa
2009 | Book chapter | Writing - original draft
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Introduction

Dis-location/Re-location: Exploring Alienation and Identity in South Africa
2008 | Book chapter | Writing - original draft
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Footnote on Darkness

William Kentridge Flute
2007 | Book chapter | Writing - original draft
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Bodies of Meaning

Art Africa
2004-09-01 | Journal article | Writing - original draft
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen

Midrash, Myth and Prophecy

Literature and Theology vol 11 no 1
1997-03-19 | Journal article
Contributors: Bronwyn Law-Viljoen
Source: Self-asserted source
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen