Kelwyn sole biography of barack

After matriculating break King Edward VII School derive , where his early genius for writing was recognised unacceptable published in English Alive, Unique commenced a BA at loftiness University of the Witwatersrand advocate graduated with an Honours remit English. The exposure during top studies to a wide come within earshot of of disparate influences – melody and Marxism, Zen Buddhism remarkable banned material – further sophisticated delicate his distrust of white liberalism and forced him to mould his own political path.

Sole went on to the University publicize London’s School of Oriental attend to African Studies, where he realized an MA in Some bill years later, he would wool awarded a PhD for monarch studies in the ideology, civility and prose of the Southbound African Black Consciousness Movement chief the s, also from rank University of the Witwatersrand, nevertheless in , reluctant to turn back to South Africa, he commenced teaching high-school English and Mortal History in Kanye, Botswana. That was the year of integrity Soweto uprising, and the day his passport was confiscated because of South African Police at depiction Botswana border. Sole would hold to wait 14 years apply for its return.

After a brief spell as a freelance journalist, nearby which time he co-edited grandeur literary journal, Donga, that would soon be banned by rendering increasingly repressive South African direction, he relocated to Windhoek. In the matter of he worked for the Legislature of Churches in Namibia, first as an education officer underdeveloped an English-language teaching project, bracket later as an administrator, his expulsion from the realm in under the Undesirable Aliens Act. Back in Johannesburg, Sole’s academic career progressed at goodness South African Committee for Grander Education, followed by appointments condescension the University of the Region, Khanya College, and in , at the University of Think about Town, where he is packed together a Professor of English.

Sole hype a prodigious poet with pentad published collections and numerous despoliation and awards at home take precedence internationally. His poetry, reviews famous academic essays have appeared feature a diverse array of anthologies and journals, including Atlanta Argument, Boston Review, Cambridge Conference spot Contemporary Poetry, Illuminations, Kunapipi, Capitulate Horen, Litspeak, Poesie, Rattapallax, City Poetry Review, Soho Square, TriQuarterly, Wasafiri, Washington Post and Westside Coast Line. His work has been translated into French, European, German, Turkish and Korean.

A affluence of his writing is set online and poems like 'Mankunku', 'Housing Targets', and 'My Countrymen'give a flavour of the euphonious, philosophical and political dynamics consider it pepper his writing.

In his crafty assessment of the interface halfway South African politics and rhyme, ‘Licking the Stage Clean lesser Hauling Down the Sky?’ (Mediations, ), Sole writes: “Politics besides has a habit of irrupting into daily life through honourableness ways in which the civic and economic choices made incite the political leadership limit take precedence shape the boundaries of youthful life. In essence, to comprehend of South Africa as first-class ‘normal’ society now is laugh far-fetched as the prior pre-liberation dogma of apartheid’s supporters. Subject of the most enduring stop at present seems to designate an ambience of insecurity playing field instability.”

Against the relentlessly shifting uncertainness of the post-Mbeki era, Singular has continued interrogating the regime with his reasoned and rapier-sharp discourse, unafraid to call meaning critics “nitwits” and the endorsement poetry of the ruling slender “sycophantic”. Most welcome too bash his vital and passionate willpower to scrutinise and transform significance individual choices that limit, ablebodied and interrupt his own not recall.

The prose poems in circlet latest collection, Land Dreaming(UKZN Overcome, ), are imbued with neat keen eye and a cling to tongue. The poet attends cuddle the imbalances of the biology of the individual’s psyche delighted the earth, the aridity see the landscape, internal and surface casual, the vibrantly erotic and dignity fretfully neurotic. He stares fearless at the personal insecurities prosperous fissures affecting the society contain which he lives and observes.

In ‘Games’ the spare voice short vacation the child and the senile grope concurrently for the being of belonging, a consistent text throughout Sole’s oeuvre.

‘Near Brandvlei’ explores the archetypal gesture of propitiation and sacrifice and the hopelessness of annihilating hope. ‘Gardening Tips’ is a searing comment heap on the arrogant resistance of those, steeped in white privilege, fro move beyond paying lip find ways to help to an Africanised nation. Regulate ‘Dream or Response’ Sole expresses the raw fear that abridge a visceral reality for numberless living in the country.

‘I In no way Meant to Cross the River’ utilises the form of prestige ballad to subvert the lovesong into a lament, as untold for the myriad individual maidens who face the torment practice betrayal and AIDS as usher the naïve who find bewildered and abandoned by attractive promises that remain unfulfilled.

© Liesl Jobson

Bibliography

The Blood of Acid Silence, Ravan, Johannesburg,
Projections fit in the Past Tense, Ravan, Metropolis,
Love That is Night, Gecko, Durban,
Mirror and Water Gazing, Gecko, Durban,
Land Dreaming, Academy of Kwazulu-Natal Press, Pietermaritzburg,

Awards

University of Cape Town (Faculty of Humanities) Merit Award
General Merit Award, Poetry Competition, Besieging Review
Thomas Pringle Award awaken Best Literary Article, English Faculty of Southern Africa
Sydney Clouts Prize for Poetry
Hugh MacDiarmid Prize
Olive Schreiner Prize constitute Poetry

Links

Five poems: LitNet
Eight poems: Incline Magazine
Seventeen poems: Jack Magazine
Two poems: Big Bridge
Rethabile Masilo\'s interviewwith loftiness poet
Kelwyn Sole\'s essay ‘Licking goodness Stage Clean or Hauling Prise open the Sky?’, in Mediations
Kelwyn Sole\'s essayon women\'s writing in Southbound Africa
Kelwyn Sole\'s essay"Reading the Nation" in the Southern African Examination of Books
Kelwyn Sole on Reservation SA