Gert Vlok Nel came to the attention of South Africans in 1994 with his debut work Om te Lewe is Natuurlik (To Live is Natural), for which he received the coveted Ingrid Jonker Prize for exceptional debut poetry. Vlok Nel paints personal portraits of his childhood in Beaufort-West and writes lyrics that are of a haunting, bewitching, almost hypnotic quality in unusual, innovative Afrikaans.