Writers’ Block is a Johannesburg-based collective dedicated to facilitating public conversations around contemporary arts criticism, and generating new writing on visual art, performance, film, and literature. Depending on the context, a block can be understood as a solid structure, an obstacle, a place, a platform, an alliance, or a possibility. While recognising  and engaging with the difficulties of making a living through writing in South Africa today, the public interventions organised by Writers’ Block create a space for gathering and thinking together about art. 

Founded by writers David Mann, Christa Dee, and Bárbara Rousseaux, Writers’ Block presents six-month-long Seasons of public talks and workshops, curated around specific themes, sectors, predicaments, and niches of the art world and beyond. Season 1 looks at the visual arts, with a focus on alternative, emergent forms of creative writing and art criticism.