[2] The Skrywerskring was founded in Johannesburg and its goal was to positively promote the Afrikaans literature and arts.

van den Heever, Abel Coetzee [af] and other prominent writers that were part of the Skrywerskring.

Elisabeth Eybers, a poet who was not allowed to join the group, once described it as: "Die Johannesburgse Vereniging vir Manlike Belangstellendes in Letterkunde"[2] [The Johannesburg Association for Men interested in Literature].

[3] In order to establish a democratic society, the club recognised that it was also important for writers be able to freely express themselves so that a diverse body of voices can be heard.

Ons moet aanneem dat die optrede in goeie trou geskied en dat inperkinge óf net tydelik sal wees, óf net in die allernoodsaaklikste gevalle toegepas sal word"[5] ["As citizens we should accept that the [censorship] group appointed, is assessing growing concerns for the community and acting upon it.

In its early history Tydskrif vir Letterkunde received a lot of criticism because it accepted money from the central government to finance the journal.

The journal also received finances from the Afrikaanse Persfonds (a trust established from the personal funds of general J.B.M.

[2] In 1976 the funds were stopped because the trustees of the Persfonds felt the money would be better suited for other purposes, as they explained to the then editor-in-chief Elize Botha.

This was based on a geographic division between the North, known previously as the Transvaal, and the South, the current Western Cape.

It was important for the editorial members to create a platform where there was no external influence on the discussion of Afrikaans literature.

It is difficult to explain exactly what this means, but there was a palpable tension in the early decades of the two journals' existence.

Under his editorship many new, creative voices were published such as Abraham H. de Vries, Hennie Aucamp, Ingrid Jonker and Chris Barnard.

Botha's appointment was quite a remarkable event as women were not previously allowed to be members of the Skrywerskring.

In 1992 Henning Pieterse [af] , a writer, poet and Hertzog prize winner, was appointed as the new editor-in-chief of Tydskrif vir Letterkunde.

The journal now has a focus on a broad variety of African literature and editors and collaborators were appointed in Africa, North America and Europe.

Because of the work with editors and collaborators of other countries, the journal's language policy was changed to not only include Afrikaans, but also Dutch, English and French.