Obituary: Mafika Pascal Gwala’s poetry ‘a powerful force’
With the passing of one of South Africa’s finest poets, we pay tribute to his life and works.
Poetry
Eminent global voices top Spier Poetry Festival line-up
The 12 international poets appearing at the Spier Poetry Festival are no strangers to exile and dislocation.
My words want to be a part of it
Poetry: Break-out spoken-word artist Mutle Mothibe is stepping up his game —and taking it straight to the Apollo in New York.
Poet pad is all the rage
On the centenary of Dylan Thomas’s birth, his home town is exploring his ungentle, bohemian legacy.
Amiri Baraka: The poet who chose separation
Writer and activist Amiri Baraka – also known as LeRoi Jones – was born on October 7 1934 and died on January 9 2014.
Sharp turns on an angry road
The poet Makhafula Vilakazi lays bare and rejects the sorry conditions that govern life on the margins.
The stage set for magic with words
The man who provides a major outlet for poets explains why he is excited about Arts Alive.
Poet and Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney dies, aged 74
Irish writer and poet Seamus Heaney, who won the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature, has died.
Ethics knot leaves poetry at sea
Antjie Krog has diverged from the popular route of cheer and optimism in South Africa, describing instead a country devoid of common ground.
Every word a poem, unbound
Korean poet Ko Un discusses his work, his life, and the importance of writing in his mother tongue.
Dancing in Other Words: Poetry in motion
A conceptually explosive poetry event will take place on the Spier wine estate outside Stellenbosch on May 10 and 11.
Chile’s Neruda endures, as do questions over his death
Pablo Neruda was that rare thing – a public poet, and a great one, held in deep affection by every layer of Chilean society.
Poetic words of a whitey that slice through rhetoric
How many more necklacings will we turn into poems? Who will be the first to pen an epic in response to the Marikana massacre?
Mtshali: ‘The Miner’
Listen to South African poet Oswald Mtshali reading one of his poems in both English and Zulu at the Mail & Guardian Literary Festival.
Breytenbach: ‘This is a Season’
Listen to SA poet, novelist and founding member of the Sestigers, Breyten Breytenbach, reading one of his poems at the M&G Literary Festival.
Kozain: ‘Memory’
Listen to South African poet and writer Rustum Kozain reading one of his poems at the Mail & Guardian Literary Festival.
South Africa’s oldest literary journal forges ahead
New Contrast has a new look. Blood-red and slim with elegant type adorning 100-odd pages, the journal’s latest issue is all minimalist restraint.
Critic’s head is on fire
Andile Mngxitama responds to Kwanele Sosibo’s article on Lesego Rampolokeng’s new book, which he says was a gratuitous denunciation of Rampolokeng.
Lesego Rampolokeng: Fragments of obscurity
A new book of poetry renders its writer even more abstruse and, given its profanity and obsessiveness, it is a tough chew, writes Kwanele Sosibo.
Through closed doors with an African prankster
It has been 25 years since the death of Dambudzo Marechera, the joker of African literature and its
anti-hero.
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Memories from the female soul
<b>Kylie Thomas</b> is impressed by five titles from Modjaji Books, a publishing house that specialises in the work of Southern African women.
Musings of a letters’ man
Widely acknowledged as the greatest living Arab poet, the Syrian-born Adonis is a fiercely independent thinker.
The curse of the ill-fated apartheid-era imbongi
The politics of apartheid constrained both the substance and the form of David Manisi’s poetry.
An important journey not yet completed
Isobel Dixon’s latest collection of poetry initiates a move away from "the precious milk and honey of nostalgia".
Speaking our silences
In all her poetry Ingrid de Kok has deftly pushed at the boundaries of what can be said and reminded us of what we would rather forget.
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Out of love with South Africa
Introduced by Antjie Krog, Ingrid de Kok and Denis Hirson will discuss their poems at the festival.
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In verse and prose, Benghazi liberates speech
Freedom of speech is the name of the game in Revolution Square where new publications have blossomed and women recite poetry in public.
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Quo vadis university education?
Graduations took place all over the country last month. Flashbulbs popped on stages as chancellors conferred degrees on the bowed heads of thousands.
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Malawian poet’s pen is his sword
Percy Zvomuya writes that it’s easy to see why poet Frank Chipasula was exiled for two decades from Kamuzu Banda’s Malawi.
Panacea for Philistines
According to the festival organisers it will feature a poet of "high excellence who reflects Dennis’s passion for human rights and integrity".
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Durban theatre picks: August 27 2010
There’s a rare opportunity to catch one of Ionesco’s strangest plays this weekend.
Renaissance woman of punks
Patti Smith’s memoir, <em>Just Kids</em>, captures all the elements that made 1970s New York so exciting.
