Liesl Jobson

Liesl Jobson is a South African poet and short story and flash fiction writer. Her works center on identity, trauma, abuse, shame and motherhood, among other themes. In her childhood, she lived in Pinetown and Cape Town before her family relocated to New Canaan, Connecticut for 18 months before returning to Cape Town. While at New Canaan High School, she played flute in orchestra and was inspired for the first time to become a writer. She has a BMus and a Master of Arts in writing from the University of the Witwatersrand. By the time she started her Master's in the early 2000s, she had already published more than 60 of her stories and poems online. One of her professors suggested she anthologise them and submit the result as her dissertation. This later became 100 Papers, which she published through Botsotso Publishing in 2008.

Jobson placed first in the inaugural Inglis House Poetry Contest in 2003

Jobson's protagonists are mainly women, and themes present throughout her works include identity, trauma, women's sexuality, abuse, motherhood, divorce and friendship. and Jane Rosenthal of Mail & Guardian described her stories as "occupy[ing] a narrow, intense zone of personal relationships and personal sense of identity." Her 2013 publication Ride the Tortoise explored "the intersections between shame, bodies and women's physical vulnerability in the context of a society that is structured according to unequal gender relations." Michael Northen of Wordgathering praised her "portrayal of women under mental duress [as] a significant contribution to the growing field of disability literature." in Timbila 2003 : A Journal of Onion Skin Poetry, Timbila Poetry Project/Elim. 2007: In White Ink: Poems on Mothers and Motherhood (ed. Rishma Dunlop), Demeter Press. 2008: "Missive From Shakaland" in After Shocks: The Poetry of Recovery for Life-Shattering Events (ed. Tom Lombardo), Press 53. 2008: "Seven Saucy Smokelong Stories" in Home Away - 24 hours 24 cities 24 writers (ed. Louis Greenberg), Zebra Press. 2010: "You Pay for the View – Twenty Tips for Super Pics" in The Edge of Things (ed. Arja Salafranca), Dye Hard Press. 2012: "Boston Brown Bread" and "Soda Lakes" in Pangea: An Anthology of Stories from Around the Globe (eds. Indira Chandrasekhar, Rebecca Lloyd), Anthem Press. 2017: "Still Life in the Art Room" in The Right Way To Be Crippled & Naked: The Fiction of Disability (eds. Sheila Black, Michael Northen and Annabelle Hayse), Cinco Puntos Press. 2024: In The Creative Arts: On Practice, Making & Meaning (eds. Michèle Betty, Sally-Ann Murray), Dryad Press.