By surname

Stephen Gray is a famous South African writer and critic born in Cape Town in 1941. He is a well-known poet, now retired from academic life, and works in Johannesburg as a freelance journalist. He matriculated from St. Andrew’s College in Grahamstown, and then studied at the University of Cape Town, Cambridge University, England, and the University of Iowa, USA. Until 1992 he was Professor of English at the Rand Afrikaans University in Johannesburg.

Gray is a prolific poet and has published eight novels. Recurrent themes include attitudes to homosexuality and the many rewritings of history in South Africa. He has also written for the theatre and edited collections of work by Athol Fugard, Herman Charles Bosman and William Plomer. One of his collections of short stories is Modern South African Stories, published by Jonathan Ball Publishers in 2005.