Farewell to PEN SA’s Nick Mulgrew

It is with great sadness that we say goodbye to our immensely gifted and wonderfully dedicated Communications Director, Nick Mulgrew.

Nick has been with PEN SA for just over a year but he’s made an extraordinary and lasting contribution to our organisation. His initial job title was ‘Newsletter Editor’ but his wonderful enthusiasm, wide-ranging skills and fine-grained attention to detail, in combination with his vast knowledge of, and deep commitment to, South African literature immediately meant his remit was much broader and deeper. Nick is a writer, an editor and a publisher: his love of the written word made him the ideal person to work for an organisation that works to protect and support writers.

In the short time that Nick was with us he produced 23 outstanding newsletters and 1000+ tweets. He re-designed our logo, revamped our website structure, re-wrote out invitation letters, authored an excellent piece for the Mail and Guardian on Inxeba and put together an extremely detailed and comprehensive timeline of the UCT Artworks issue. He produced the publicity materials for our launch of the Prison Letters of Nelson Mandela at the Fugard Theatre and for our annual Day of the Imprisoned Writer at ICA (he also helped oversee the planning and execution of both events).

Nick has brought a sense of passionate commitment to his work with PEN SA; he’s helped us to re-imagine and re-invigorate our organisation’s public engagement, he’s been resolute about wading into complex political terrain and he’s been a terrific, thoughtful and generous colleague. He leaves impossibly big shoes to fill and he’ll be much missed but we know he will be excellent at any and everything he turns his attention to.

Go well Nick, and thank you so much for everything!

Nadia and Khanya