Willemien Brümmer
Willemien Brümmer (1974–) is an Afrikaans journalist and author.
Biography
A great-granddaughter of C.J. Langenhoven, she was born in Claremont, Cape Town on 14 September 1974. The only daughter of Guillaume Cornelis Langenhoven Brümmer and Laetitia Conradie (sister of classicist and theatre researcher P.J. Conradie). Having grown up in the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town and gone to the Laerskool Groote Schuur in Rondebosch for her primary schooling, she matriculated from the Hoërskool Groote Schuur in Newlands.
She then studied drama (BA and BA Honnours) and journalism (Honnours) at the University of Stellenbosch, and in 1999 went to work as journalist for Media24, initially at Die Burger, then Insig. On the latter's demise in 2007, she became a columnist for By ("bee"), a appendix which is syndicated nationally through Die Burger, Beeld and Volksblad every Saturday. She has written a number of articles and interviews on various aspects of culture and arts in South Africa.
In 2011 she became the Rykie van Reenen fellow at the Journalism department at the University of Stellenbosch.
Over the years she has won numerous journalism awards.
She married Pierre Barkhuizen on is op 6 December 2014, and the couple have one son, Matthias.
Creative work
Having been awarded a bursary in creative writing by the University of Cape Town she completed an MA degree in Creative Writing (cum laude) with Etienne van Heerden (2003-2006), producing a collection of short stories. In 2005 she won the inaugural [[Woordfees national short story competition with her story Papagena and in 2008 her degree collection of stories was published in adapted form as Die Dag Toe Ek My Hare Losgemaak Het ("the day I let my hair down") in 2008.
In 2012 she won the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees and the Dagbreek-trust's text development award with her concept for the play Aandlied ("Evening song"). This was then developed, with the help of Schalk Schoombie and Marthinus Basson to become the play Braai ("Barbecue"), which was first performed at the KKNK in 2014.
