ABOUT THE COLLECTION

In this, his ninth poetry collection, Kelwyn Sole gives voice to a wide range of concerns, characteristically interweaving the personal with a wider social and political focus. What Is Owed? explores many topics: questions of youth and aging; the complex and illuminating experience of living in contemporary South Africa; commentary on the literary world and on love and other relationships; and the eco-political. In these poems Sole explores themes familiar to readers of his work and also extends them; adding to his already considerable reputation as a poet unafraid to ask difficult questions and wrestle with issues of form and content.

ABOUT THE POET

Kelwyn Sole was born in Johannesburg and has lived there as well as in Botswana, Namibia and London. He subsequently spent thirty years lecturing in English, African and Post-Colonial literature at the University of Cape Town, retiring as the De Beers Professor. His critical articles and poetry have appeared in many books, journals and anthologies, both in South Africa and internationally. Among his previous eight poetry collections have been The Blood of Our Silence, winner of the Olive Schreiner Prize and runner-up for the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa, and Walking, Falling, which won the South African Literary Award (SALA) for Poetry. His eighth collection, Skin Rafts, was shortlisted for the National Institute for the Humanities & Social Sciences (NHSS) Award. Individual poems have won the DALRO, Sydney Clouts and Thomas Pringle Awards. He currently lives in Cape Town.