Helen Moffett is an editor, writer, poet, teacher, and scholar.
Although she started out as an academic, then worked as an academic editor, in the last twenty years she has worked with some of the African continent’s brightest literary and academic writers, including Lauren Beukes, Zakes Mda, Ivan Vladislavić, Sarah Lotz, Thando Mgqolozana, Diane Awerbuck, Gabeba Baderoon, Ade Adebajo, Nadia Davids, Jacqui L’Ange, Nechama Brodie, Fiona Snyckers, Petina Gappah, Elinor Sisulu, Jamala Safari, Nick Mulgrew, Liesl Jobson, Adam Habib, Amina Mama, and Sindiwe Magona.
She has also released two collections of poetry: Strange Fruit, published in 2009 by Modjaji Books; and Prunings, published in 2016 by uHlanga. John Eppel found Strange Fruit a “compelling” read, containing “a poetry of glittering surfaces”. (LitNet found the poems “altogether edible”.) Prunings likewise has been lauded for its “wonder and power” in the Cape Times, and was joint winner of the South African Literary Award for Poetry in 2017.
She has also had huge fun producing commercial fiction, notably the A Girl Walks In choose-your-own-erotic-adventure trilogy she co-wrote with Sarah Lotz and Paige Nick under the nom de plume Helena S. Paige. A Girl Walks Into a Bar, A Girl Walks Into A Wedding, and A Girl Walks Into A Blind Date have been translated into twenty-one languages, including Catalan and traditional Mandarin.
Away from creative writing and editing, Helen works as a teacher and loves it more than anything else.
Although she started out as an academic, then worked as an academic editor, in the last twenty years she has worked with some of the African continent’s brightest literary and academic writers, including Lauren Beukes, Zakes Mda, Ivan Vladislavić, Sarah Lotz, Thando Mgqolozana, Diane Awerbuck, Gabeba Baderoon, Ade Adebajo, Nadia Davids, Jacqui L’Ange, Nechama Brodie, Fiona Snyckers, Petina Gappah, Elinor Sisulu, Jamala Safari, Nick Mulgrew, Liesl Jobson, Adam Habib, Amina Mama, and Sindiwe Magona.
She has also released two collections of poetry: Strange Fruit, published in 2009 by Modjaji Books; and Prunings, published in 2016 by uHlanga. John Eppel found Strange Fruit a “compelling” read, containing “a poetry of glittering surfaces”. (LitNet found the poems “altogether edible”.) Prunings likewise has been lauded for its “wonder and power” in the Cape Times, and was joint winner of the South African Literary Award for Poetry in 2017.
She has also had huge fun producing commercial fiction, notably the A Girl Walks In choose-your-own-erotic-adventure trilogy she co-wrote with Sarah Lotz and Paige Nick under the nom de plume Helena S. Paige. A Girl Walks Into a Bar, A Girl Walks Into A Wedding, and A Girl Walks Into A Blind Date have been translated into twenty-one languages, including Catalan and traditional Mandarin.
Away from creative writing and editing, Helen works as a teacher and loves it more than anything else.
