Overview

Now in its 12th year, the Sol Plaatje European Union Poetry Award is a launching pad for upcoming poets. From slam poetry to formal rhyme, the anthology is a celebration of language and cultural diversity. Assembled by a brilliant team of judges, from a blind selection, this year’s compilation contains the best poems from over 600 entries, in 10 of the 11 South African languages. Named after Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje (1876–1932), the award recognises the life and vision of this highly respected political and social activist. We always hope that it reveals the political and social attitudes of our time and reflects the complex, nuanced and uncomfortable truths of life in South Africa.

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9781431434633

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Professor Mongane Wally Serote is a Black Consciousness icon, poet and writer. His poems speak of the realities of apartheid and have been invaluable in provoking thought about oppression, as well as capturing the truths of the era. He is the chairman of the Jacana Literary Foundation, has founded several NGOs and sits on advisory boards with the aim of promoting matters of arts, culture, indigenous knowledge and African renaissance. Sandile Ngidi is a South African poet and literary critic. In 2019 Sandile obtained an MA in creative writing at Rhodes University, thanks to a bursary from the Andrew Mellon Foundation. His poems have appeared in Upbeat, Five Points, Konch, Punch, Baobob, Asameena,The Johannesburg Review of Books and Isolezwe. He is featured in Halala Madiba, a poetry collection in honour of Nelson Mandela, published in 2008. In 2018 Sandile published an English poetry chapbook, Don’t Tell Me Anything Now. Goodenough Mashego is a 360 degrees artist and cultural worker based in Mpumalanga. He has published three volumes of poetry: Journey with Me, Taste of My Vomit, Just Like Space Cookies, and one collection of essays: How to Sink the Black Ball. In 2016 Mashego released his first audio project of an invented genre he terms ‘muse-tree’, titled Just Like Space Cookies–Listening Sessions Volume One. Mashego is co-founder of Mpumalanga’s indigenous language hip-hop label, Lepulana Musik. Pieter Odendaal is a South African poet, performer, translator and editor. He is currently busy with a practice-led PhD on spoken word poetry in South Africa. He is the director of InZync Poetry, a non-profit organisation dedicated to the growth of performed poetry in all South African languages. His debut Afrikaans poetry collection, asof geen berge ooit hier gewoon het nie (like no mountains ever lived here), was published by Tafelberg in 2018. Odendaal is the co-editor of the multilingual poetry translation anthologies Many Tongues (2013) and ConVerse (2018), both of which aim to promote an awareness of poetry in indigenous South African languages through translation. He is also the poetry editor at Kabaka, a newly formed literary magazine for LGBTIQA+ voices in Africa. Dr Innocentia Jabulisile Mhlambi is an associate professor in the Department of African Languages at the University of the Witwatersrand. She teaches African-language literatures, black film studies, popular culture, oral literature and visual culture. She is the author of African-language Literatures: Perspectives on isiZulu Fiction and Popular Black Television Series, a timely critical intervention into the aesthetic hiatus in the field. She has published extensively on aesthetics, literature, black opera, popular culture and broadcast and print media in South Africa.

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