Helen Moffett

I wear many hats. The pic here shows me clutching a Moxyland beastie in my incarnation as an editor (in this case, of Lauren Beukes’s Moxyland.) I cut my teeth as an academic editor, and soon came to specialise in what some call development editing. This means acting as much more than a copyeditor: ideally, the role is an amalgam of academic supervisor, agent, mentor, advisor and sounding-board. It’s vital that the relationship between the author and writer is a horizontal one, not vertical — both editor and author should meet as professionals with equally valuable skills in a spirit of collaboration. Both can and should learn from the process. Increasingly, I’m focusing on fiction editing, where I’m lucky to work with some of Africa’s best and brightest writers. Once again, both author and editor need to be “servants of the book” for the duration — and the process should always result in enlightenment of both parties.

Some authors I’ve worked with: Diane Awerbuck, Lauren Beukes, Andrew Brown, Mike Cope, Nadia Davids, Sarah Lotz, Sindiwe Magona, Amina Mama, Zakes Mda, S. A. Partridge, Elinor Sisulu, Jane Taylor, Ivan Vladislavic.

The words “learn” and “enlighten” take me to Hat the Second. Fundamentally, I’m a teacher. Or trainer. This is what I live to do, and love more than anything else. Life has conspired to lead me away from university teaching, although I’ve been doing this both part- and full-time for decades. I’ll never give it up entirely, although I do more training these days, which generally takes place outside of the academy.

Some clients I’ve done training for: African Gender Institute, Centre for Conflict Resolution, Feminist Africa, Human Sciences Research Council, Robben Island Heritage Centre, Timbuktu Project.

I have a very serious and dark hat as a feminist scholar/activist who writes about sexual violence. My writings are used for training purposes by Rape Crisis Cape Town, UN-INSTRAW, Womankind UK and and the National Resource Center for Sexual Violence in the US. I present this work to audiences ranging from trauma surgeons to psychologists to journalists, and I’ve been published in academic journals and essay collections. If only there was the slightest hint that the tide of gender-based violence in South Africa is receding.

So I have to wear other hats to comfort me, probably the most significant of which is my cricket hat. I spent ten unforgettable years working on the late Bob Woolmer’s magnum opus, with a team of amazing people that included co-author Tim Noakes and editor Tom Eaton. I am a never-quite-recovering cricket addict, and I’ve also been lucky enough to make two documentary films on cricket and nation-building with the gifted filmmaker Mark Kaplan. I’ve lectured on cricket in the Caribbean, and have an invitation to go back…

Other woolly and comforting hats: mother of Meg and Lily (tortoise-shell girls) and a Sunday night singer. And then there are my flamenco shoes.

I forgot the newest hat of all. I’m a writer, particularly a poet. My first collection of poems, Strange Fruit, has been published by Mojadji Books.