Alfred Schaffer grew up in The Hague. In 1996, he moved to Cape Town, South Africa, to continue his studies. He returned to the Netherlands in 2005 and worked as an editor in Dutch publishing before moving back to South Africa in 2011. 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. He was awarded the prestigious Herman de Coninckprijs for his latest collection, Who Was I and the prestigious P. C. Hooft Prize 2021 for his poetry oeuvre. In 2020, Eyewear published his subversive biopic of African ruler Shaka Zulu, Man Animal Thing, translated by Michele Hutchison. He is a lecturer at Stellenbosch University.
