Elleke Boehmer

Elleke Boehmer is a Dutch-born British novelist and academic. Her scholarship and creative writing explore postcolonial experiences, with a particular focus on the lasting effects of colonial history in post-apartheid South Africa and Britain.

Elleke Boehmer was born in 1961 in Durban, South Africa. She studied English and Modern languages, then briefly medicine. Post-university, Boehmer taught English in Mamelodi township. Winning a Rhodes Scholarship, she pursued an MPhil, and then a DPhil at Oxford.

Professor Boehmer's academic career included appointments at several UK universities, culminating at Oxford as Professor of World Literature. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Historical Society, her research has shaped Postcolonial Studies.

Her first novel, Screens Against the Sky, appeared in 1990. Since then, she has published several influential works, including Indian Arrivals 1870–1915, which won the 2016 ESSE prize.

Her 2019 short story collection, To the Volcano, published by Myriad Editions, was shortlisted for the 2019 Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize for the story Supermarket Love.

Boehmer weaves together a tapestry of lives across continents, delving into the intricacies of personal and cultural identity in the backdrop of the global South's rich landscapes. Sharp observations, tender moments, and arresting insights into the human condition are common themes in these stories, which explore migration and past trauma.

Boehmer was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. She was also nominated to the Dutch Society of Letters.

Elleke Boehmer lives in the UK with her family.

Photo credit: www.ellekeboehmer.com