Bronwyn Law Viljoen

Dr Bronwyn Law Viljoen

Senior Lecturer

School of Humanities

Faculty of Arts, Business, Law and Economics

Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD - email supervisor to discuss availability.

Bronwyn Law-Viljoen is a writer, editor, and publisher, and a senior lecturer in the Department of English, Creative Writing and Film at the University of Adelaide. She has a doctorate in Literature from New York University and a doctorate in Creative Writing from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits). She was Head of the Department of Creative Writing at Wits from 2011 to 2023.

She is co-founder and editor of the publishing company Fourthwall Books http://fourthwallbooks.com/, the former managing editor of David Krut Publishing https://davidkrut.com/ and a former editor-in-chief of the premier South African arts quarterly, Art Africa https://artafricamagazine.org/.

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, Notes on Falling, was published by Umuzi/Penguin Random House in 2022. She has published essays and short stories in local and international journals, books and magazines. She is currently at work on a collection of short stories.

My research areas include the relationship between image and text, writing and visual art, contemporary poetry, and contemporary literary fiction. My creative writing (fiction and non-fiction) often explores the meaning and practice of various art forms (in particular photography and printmaking). I am also interested in book arts, experimental printmaking, and avant-garde visual art practices.

  • Journals
    Year Citation
    2023 Law Viljoen, B. (2023). Nguni: A Genetic-Cultural Parallel Text. PARSE.
    2022 Law Viljoen, B. (2022). Call-and-Response. Printmaking Today.
    2022 Law Viljoen, B. (2022). Up is Down, Left is Right. Printmaking Today.
    2019 Law-Viljoen, B. (2019). Gideon Mendel. APERTURE, (234), 84-89.
    2018 Law-Viljoen, B. (2018). The Caretaker of Wounds. Image and Text.
    2018 Law-Viljoen, B. (2018). Albert Adams and the Deposition of Christ. de arte, 53(1), 27-48.
    DOI
    2016 Law-Viljoen, B. (2016). Samuel Gratacap Empire. APERTURE, (222), 58-67.
    2013 Law-Viljoen, B. (2013). Ricardo rangel. Aperture, (213), 110-115.
    Scopus1 WoS3
    2012 Law-Viljoen, B. (2012). The Cambridge companion to creative writing. SCRUTINY2-ISSUES IN ENGLISH STUDIES IN SOUTHERN AFRICA, 17(2), 132-137.
    DOI
    2011 Law-Viljoen, B., Goldblatt, D., & Vladislavic, I. (2011). ABOUT THOSE PHOTOGRAPHS ... <i>TJ</i> AND <i>DOUBLE NEGATIVE</i>. APERTURE, (205), 34-42.
    WoS1
    2010 Law-Viljoen, B. (2010). 'Bang-Bang Has Been Good to Us': Photography and Violence in South Africa. Theory, Culture and Society, 27(7), 214-237.
    DOI Scopus3
    2010 Law-Viljoen, B. (2010). The intimate violence of diane victor's disasters of peace. Critical Arts, 24(3), 418-437.
    DOI Scopus2
    2008 Law-Viljoen, B. (2008). South Africans in the global art market. Scrutiny2, 13(1), 68-81.
    DOI Scopus1
    2007 Law-Viljoen, B. (2007). Pieter Hugo: The critical zone of engagement. Aperture, (186).
    Scopus2
    1997 Law-Viljoen, B. (1997). Midrash, myth, and prophecy: George Eliot's reinterpretation of biblical stories. Literature and Theology, 11(1), 80-92.
    DOI Scopus7
    - Law-Viljoen, B., de Villiers, P. Y., & Zerbst, F. (n.d.). How Poetic Language Enacts Agency. Image &amp; Text, (37), 1-17.
    DOI

  • Books
    Year Citation
    2022 Law Viljoen, B. (2022). Notes on Falling. Cape Town, South Africa: Penguin Random House South Africa.
    2016 Law-Viljoen, B. (2016). The Printmaker. Penguin Random House South Africa.
    2015 Law Viljoen, B., & Schneider, G. (2015). Portrait of the Artist as a Left Hand.

  • Book Chapters
    Year Citation
    2023 Law Viljoen, B. (2023). Notes from an Archive of the Body in Movement. In K. Moolman, D. Brown, & N. Sithole (Eds.), Notes from the Body: Health, Illness, Trauma. Durban: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press.
    2023 Law-Viljoen, B., & Law-Viljoen, B. (2023). Lubumbashi to Paulshoek: Iterations of the Local in Six African Photobooks. In Unknown Book (pp. ).
    2021 Law-Viljoen, B., & De Villiers, P. Y. (2021). Ukubhukuda: Not Sinking in Language but Swimming. In The Place and the Writer: International Intersections of Teacher Lore and Creative Writing Pedagogy (pp. 13-30).
    2012 Law Viljoen, B. (2012). Sailing a Smaller Ship. In A. van der Vlies (Ed.), Print, Text and Book Cultures in South Africa. Johannesburg: Wits University Press.

Mellon residency funding at the University of the Witwatersrand, 2018–2023 (enabled the installation of writers-in-residence in the department of Creative Writing).

Currently teaching Creative Writing for first year, third year and Honours. I am convening the 2024 Honours cohort.

  • Current Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)
    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2024 Principal Supervisor 36 Questions Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Mr Thomas Russell Simpson
    2024 Co-Supervisor The Legacy of White Shame in Postapartheid South African Writing Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Yin Gao
    2023 Co-Supervisor Silicon Nursery Rhymes: Human–A.I. Relationships of A Speculative Future Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Mr Nicholas Garwood Dawes
    2023 Principal Supervisor Instructions for Life: A novella manuscript and companion exegesis Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Dr Thea Williams

  • Past Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)
    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2024 - 2024 Principal Supervisor Volume 1: Scheherazade
    Volume 2: Unveiling the Carnal Feminine    		 Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Miss Victoria Tomaszczyk

  • Other Supervision Activities
    Date Role Research Topic Location Program Supervision Type Student Load Student Name
    2019 - ongoing Principal Supervisor Poetry and the Writing of Violence in South Africa University of the Witwatersrand PhD program Doctorate Full Time Vonani Bila
    2018 - 2023 Co-Supervisor Poetry and the writing of Black exile and adoption. University of the Witwatersrand PhD programme Doctorate Full Time Phillippa Yaa de Villiers
    2017 - 2023 Principal Supervisor Black Theatre and Ritual Performance University of the Witwatersrand PhD programme Doctorate Full Time Kgafela oa Magogodi
    2014 - ongoing Principal Supervisor Zimbabwean sex workers and Creative Non-Fiction University of the Witwatersrand PhD program Doctorate Part Time Greta Schuler
  • Position: Senior Lecturer
  • Phone: 83135659
  • Email: bronwyn.lawviljoen@adelaide.edu.au
  • Campus: North Terrace
  • Building: Napier, floor Fifth Floor
  • Room: 507
  • Org Unit: English, Creative Writing
Connect With Me
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