Creative Writing Workshop

Barry Gilder’s award-winning novel, At Fire Hour, was written for his PhD in Creative Writing. The book is described as a remarkable work of historical fiction in which Barry weaves political memory with imagination and fiction resulting in a tale that is deeply moving and unforgettable. Barry will facilitate a closed-session two-hour creative writing workshop with the ten finalists of the DALRO Can Themba Merit Award drawing inspiration from their visit to the Kwa Muhle Museum in Durban. The KwaMuhle Museum was originally the offices of the native administration Department, a central cog in the machinery of apartheid and the axis for Durban’s harsh system of labour control. It is a fitting irony that the museum now displays reconstructions of the oppressive environments experienced by the black population of South Africa under apartheid, offering a window into the harsh realities of the period.