Veronica Klipp

Veronica has been Publisher at Wits University Press (WUP) since 2002. Established in 1912, WUP is the oldest university press in the country with a tradition of publishing excellence in fields as diverse as palaeontology, anthropology, politics, history and literature in indigenous languages. Under Veronica’s watch the Press has diversified into areas such as art history and popular science, and extended its market to cross-over books for a general trade readership. Veronica’s entry into publishing followed a number of years as teacher, during which she identified a need for children’s books suitable for South African children. In 1993 she and a colleague set up an independent company which published books in a number of indigenous languages. However, her focus gradually shifted to literary and scholarly publishing, and from 2000 to mid-2002 she worked as editor at University of Natal Press (now UKZN Press) just as South Africa’s publishing boom of the early 2000s took off. Since August 2010 Veronica has chaired the Academic Sector of the Publishers’ Association of South Africa. She completed her MA degree in German Literature (UCT) in 1991.