Alfred Schaffer
One of the most talented Dutch poets of his generation, Alfred Schaffer (b. 1973) debuted in 2000 with the collection 'His Rise in the Suburbs'. His second book, 'Vagrants' (2002) was nominated for the prestigious VSB prize. After that came 'No Hands Before Your Eyes' (2004), Foam' (2006) and 'Cage' (2008).
After winning the Jo Peters poetry prize for his first collection, he was nominated for the C. Buddingh’ prize and went on to win the Hugues C. Pernath prize, the Ida Gerhardt poetry prize and the Jan Campert prize.
Schaffer grew up in The Hague, the son of Dutch-Aruban parents. In 1996, he moved to Cape Town, South Africa to continue his studies and met his future wife. He returned to the Netherlands in 2005 and worked as an editor in Dutch publishing before moving back to South Africa in 2011. He currently works as a lecturer at Stellenbosch University.
