Feesdigter: Tom Dreyer

Festival Poet: Tom Dreyer

Tom Dreyer, Stellenbosch native, multi-award-winning author and Hertzog Prize winner for poetry, is this year’s festival poet. His latest collection, Brief op veertigduisend voet,echoes the festival theme. Look upward everywhere on the festival grounds and spot Dreyer’s words soaring above. Collect a paper airplane with one of four handwritten poems on it, and join in daily at the events where the festival poet appears on stage.

TOM DREYER
Tom Dreyer was born in 1972 and went to school in Stellenbosch. He studied at Stellenbosch University and the University of Cape Town, and made his debut as a poet inNuwe stemme in 1997. He also publishes prose, columns and stories, and in 2023 his first solo poetry collection, Nou in infrarooi, appeared. Earlier this year the collection was awarded the Hertzog Prize. In a review of his latest collection, Brief op veertigduisend voet, Louise Viljoen wrote: “Dreyer has already excelled in other genres, but it seems that in poetry he has found his true medium.”

MAKE FRIENDS WITH THE FESTIVAL POET
You can rub shoulders with our festival poet at the following events:

Brief op vyf-en-twintig voet54
Oggendkoffie met Tom DreyerHoog tussen die takke: Voëlgedigte55
Om die onsêbare te sê181
Pote en poëte55
Hoogsomer: Die nuwe psigedeliese seisoen181
Hoog tussen die takke: Voëlgedigte55
Tom Dreyer: Feesdigter en vriende54