Amelia de Vaal
Amelia de Vaal holds a master’s degree in Afrikaans (specialisation: Journalism and Women’s Studies) from the University of Pretoria and has been working as an editor and translator for Protea Boekhuis since 2008. As a translator, her main focus is children’s and young-adult fiction. Her most notable work so far has been the Afrikaans translation of Wil Huygen and Rien Poortvliet’s ‘Het leven en werken van kabouters’ and ‘Oproep van de kabouters', which were awarded the South African Academy of Arts and Science’s Elsabé Steenberg Prize for translated children’s fiction in 2012. Other well-known Dutch titles she has translated into Afrikaans include works by Henri van Daele and Annie M.G. Schmidt. As an editor, Amelia has been involved with the translations of award-winning Dutch publications such as ‘Tirza’ by Arnon Grunberg and 'El Negro and Me' (El negro en ik) by Frank Westerman. She also translates from German, English and French.