Picture of Yuwinn Kraukamp: provided
Short.Sharp.Stories is a platform showcasing established and emerging South African short story writers. For the 2025 anthology, Power: Short stories that light the dark, writers imagined “power” in fictional terms – how it influences and affects us, including political and personal power, and ever-present issues with loadshedding.
In this Short.Sharp.Stories interview, Consuelo Roland chats with Yuwinn Kraukamp, author of the short story “The Department of Small Reparations”, an exploration of democracy in three acts.
Yuwinn Kraukamp is a bilingual writer who lives in the coastal town of Bredasdorp. He’s a book lover, a dog lover, an autodidact, a natural-born creative and a patron (saint) of everything that’s artistically unique and beautifully weird in this world. He majored in literature and language studies at UWC. In the past five years, he’s worked as a journalist, columnist, short story writer and occasional poet. His work has been published in various magazines, newspapers and anthologies. He believes that the right collection of words, written with a bit of magic, can change a reader’s world forever.
Firstly, what draws you to writing short stories? Or, more specifically, for what reason are you passionate about short stories?
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Like many writers, I’m sure, I have files upon files of hundreds of story ideas that I dreamed about turning into novels one day. Realistically, writing one novel could take years of work, research, editing and stress; short stories are sort of a “creative hack” for writers to express and explore those novel-esque ideas, but with the benefit of bypassing those aforementioned pressures that come with a novel-length project.
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Like many writers, I’m sure, I have files upon files of hundreds of story ideas that I dreamed about turning into novels one day. Realistically, writing one novel could take years of work, research, editing and stress; short stories are sort of a “creative hack” for writers to express and explore those novel-esque ideas, but with the benefit of bypassing those aforementioned pressures that come with a novel-length project. Writing short stories is also fun; it’s a great way of testing and experimenting with your writing skillsets, like in instances where you have to adapt creatively to a given theme that you would’ve normally never written about.
“The Department of Small Reparations” personalises trauma from an embittered male perspective, making Damascus a fascinating protagonist. Ruth plays the role of a foil character, representing a contrasting perspective and set of beliefs. How did you come to decide on this dual viewpoint story, set in a post-apartheid landscape?
Having opposing characters with contradicting viewpoints is integral for any narrative to be impactful and lasting. Your characters can’t just show up with all the answers; they must be challenged and questioned by those around them. So, my two main characters are embodiments of an ancient dualism that’s always been present in both fiction and reality: right versus wrong, chaos versus order – or the demonised motivations of Damascus’s urge for vengeance and violence, versus the moral and angelic qualities within Ruth’s choices towards forgiveness and self-healing.
Your story has a visceral sense of trauma experienced and endured. How did the idea of Epimetheus trauma come to you?
Everyone is familiar with the Greek myth of Prometheus, who stole the sacred fire from Olympus, gifting it to mankind and getting eternally tortured for it. The lesser known part of his myth is that Prometheus had the ability to see the future – his name literally meant “foresight”. Prometheus’s younger and less famous brother, Epimetheus, was the exact opposite of him. He was a deity of the past – his name meant “hindsight”. South Africa’s past can be summed up in one very complex and painful word: apartheid. Our democracy, not unlike that sacred fire, was a political gift for which many were tortured, imprisoned and killed. So, Epimetheus trauma was my way of reimagining the genetic trauma that many past and present generations (of the post-apartheid world) have inherited and lived with.
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South Africa’s past can be summed up in one very complex and painful word: apartheid. Our democracy, not unlike that sacred fire, was a political gift for which many were tortured, imprisoned and killed. So, Epimetheus trauma was my way of reimagining the genetic trauma that many past and present generations (of the post-apartheid world) have inherited and lived with.
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Do you think it’s important that stories carry an important message about today’s society, or is pure escapism just as valid?
It’s always preferable for any story to have a strong moral core or meaningful message, but I don’t think it’s a necessity. Not every reader is looking for a life lesson on every page of their book, just as different writers choose to embed different messages and social commentaries in various metaphorical ways – or sometimes none at all. As for escapism, the literary world has always been an excellent, reliable form of escape. Not only can you lose yourself in a riveting scene in the right chapter, but that form of escape also happens to expand your mind with words you’ve never encountered (and have to google), perspectives you’ve never considered – with a new world of intellectual curiosities.
You’ve written all sorts of forms besides short stories – essays, factual columns and articles, screenplays, poetry, advertising. Do you have a preference?
I really do like the versatility of being able to work in multiple fields, but if I had to choose, I’d select short stories for sure. Writing short stories has been an excellent way of practising and honing my craft, and expanding it by experimenting with different writing styles. In the beginning, my “writer’s voice” or “style” was proficient only in crime fiction – a dark, noir-like style – but through creatively exploring with different creative approaches and voices (within short stories), I have taught myself to adapt to and merge with styles and genres (such as comedy and romance) that I didn’t naturally gravitate towards at first.
As a writer chosen for inclusion in this latest Short.Sharp.Stories collection, Power, could you share what value you see this annual competition adding to the South African literary scene?
The Short.Sharp.Stories anthology adds such significant value to our literary landscape by providing a platform for diverse perspectives and voices – including underrepresented voices with unheard stories. By including seasoned and especially emergent writers, this anthology showcases fresh talent, new energy and raw creativity, which not only augments our literary scene, but also offers readers a more diverse and unique storytelling experience. It is this diversity that proves the immensity of South Africa’s writing talent, and why said talent is worth investing in.
What tip would you as a fiction writer who has worked with editors offer to aspiring writers about the editorial process?
Editing is arguably the least fun part of writing, especially when compared with the elation of the creative process. But editing is absolutely necessary for several reasons. It’s there to refine the structure and readability of your writing – to cut out the “linguistic fat”, so to speak: the unnecessary adjectives, repetitions and expositions. Primarily, editors are capable of detecting not only the flaws within your writing, but also the unwritten flaws – the things you didn’t write down, that extra sentence or piece of dialogue that elevates your entire story to a whole new level. So, if you want to be a professional writer, editing is a process you need to embrace.
What are you currently working on? Could you tell us a little more about this?
A few weeks ago, I was one of the three winners of the Diana Ferrus Poetry Prize and was offered a publishing contract from Minimal Press. So, currently I’m working on my manuscript for my debut collection, which is scheduled to be released in March 2026.
Consuelo Roland is a writer, editor and writing coach. She holds an MA in creative writing from the University of Cape Town. The new edition of her acclaimed debut, The good cemetery guide, is now available from Karavan Press. With her subsequent novels in the Limbo series, Lady Limbo and Wolf trap, she continues her exploration of human relationships and the power of possibility. Her poetry, essays and short stories appear in various journals and anthologies. She lives with her husband and animal family in Hout Bay, a coastal town on the Cape Peninsula.
Power is available at good bookstores and directly from Tattoo Press: joanne.hichens@gmail.com.
Tattoo Press is an independent small publisher, specialising in contemporary South African short fiction.
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