About Brent Meersman

Brent Meersman was born in Cape Town in 1967. His first job was as a news photographer in 1989 at the height of the turbulence that saw the closing days of apartheid. He has had an eclectic career – business entrepreneur, property developer, managing director of a hotel, and in the theatre world, he has acted as performing artists’ manager, producer, marketer and impresario. He has spent much of his time traveling – at last count 60 countries – having visited every continent including Antarctica.

Since 2003, he has been the performing arts critic for the Mail & Guardian covering theatre, opera, ballet and dance. In 2005, he started South Africa’s first theatre blog: www.realreview.co.za He teaches a semester course on Arts Journalism at the University of Cape Town in the Film and Media Studies Department. Articles and more from his restaurant review column for the M&G can also be found at his food blog www.oncebitten.co.za
He writes on politics and economics for the UK-based news magazine New Africa Analysis.

His first short story was published in The Invisible Ghetto (1993), and his most recent in What Love Is (Arcadia Books, 2010).
His latest novel Reports Before Daybreak was published by Umuzi in 2011.
His novel Primary Coloured was published in 2007.