Poems 1973 – 2007. Published by: Umuzi

Patrick Cullinan is a distinguished, grand old man of South African letters, with a writing career that spans more than thirty years, as well as several genres. If Cullinan is best known by some as a poet, he is also an accomplished translator, having received the title ‘Cavaliere’ from the Italian government for his translations of the poetry of Eugenio Montale. In addition, Cullinan has written the novel Matrix (2002), a biography of the Dutch traveller and soldier Robert Jacob Gordon, and he has edited a collection of Bessie Head’s letters, and essays on Lionel Abrahams. Since his inaugural volume of poems The Horizon Forty Miles Away (1973), Cullinan has been the recipient of numerous literary honours, among them the Olive Schreiner Prize, the Pringle Award (three times), the Sanlam Literary Award, and let’s not forget the Slug Award, given by Gus Ferguson of Snail Press to poets for their service to the local poetry scene. In short, Cullinan is among the most eminent of literary figures in this country, and as was observed at the Cape Town launch of Escarpments, South Africa’s “poetic landscape cannot be imagined without his poetry” (Szczuek 2008).

When I first picked up the volume, after admiring the cover image taken from an oil on canvas by Caroline Cullinan, I paused a moment over the title, pondering….Depending on the discipline - geography, say, or geomorphology… - an ‘escarpment’ is considered a margin between land forms, or a transition zone between different physio-geographic types. (Is there something, here, an unbidden analogy, with Douglas Livingstone’s final collection of poems A Littoral Zone?) An escarpment involves a sharp and abrupt elevation visible as a precipitous cliff, or a dramatic slope. Within architecture, the term ‘escarpment’ may be extrapolated to describe a steep slope designed to form a fortification against an enemy’s approach….Rich metaphorical pickings; a good deal of intriguing suggestion about the uncertain positioning of a poet, over time, in relation to both the slippery slopes of social change and a more substantial population mass than the solitary poet. Separate and distinctive. Elevated. And yet shifting and vulnerable. Plus, the associated metaphors of solidity in relation to faultlines, fracturing, and erosion may be worked in both directions, towards the poet, and at his uncertain audience.

Join us on a literary safari of KwaZulu-Natal, home to Alan Paton, author of the world-renowned novel, Cry, the Beloved Country.  KwaZulu-Natal, the Kingdom of the Zulu, is also home to many other writers – come and meet them on our safari:

• stroll through Grey Street, Durban’s old Indian quarter, featured in the writings of apartheid struggle stalwarts Fatima Meer, Phyllis Naidoo and Dr Goonam;
• take a tour through Cato Manor, a Durban township rich in culture and conflict, inspiration to Lewis Nkosi, Ronnie Govender and the worker poet Mi Hlatswayo;
• drive through Alan Paton’s Pietermaritzburg and visit his birthplace, his school and the Alan Paton Centre on the university campus;
• pop in to Michaelhouse school – where Wilbur Smith and John van de Ruit started out as schoolboys
• be moved at the Anglo-Zulu Battlefields of Isandlwana and Rorke’s Drift which Rider Haggard, author of King Solomon’s Mines and She, visited and described.
• Experience ‘Haggard’s Zululand’ at Ghost Mountain, Mkuze, setting for Nada the Lily
• Walk in Gandhi’s footsteps at the Phoenix settlement where he established his printing press

Be prepared to hear stories from KwaZulu-Natal’s writers, both past and present, and watch places rise up from the pages. See South African history come to life before your eyes.  

Author, academic, and activist Mbulelo Mzamane was born in Brakpan in 1948 and has been described by former South African President, Nelson Mandela, as a “visionary leader, [and] one of South Africa 's greatest intellectuals.” Mzamane schooled in Swaziland , where he was taught by Can Themba, and his long and distinguished academic career has seen him gain a Masters in English from the University of Botswana and a Doctorate in English Literature from the University of Sheffield ( England ). He held a number of academic positions - including the University of South Australia , Yale University and Boston University - before returning to South Africa in 1993 to take up the position of Vice Chancellor at the University of Fort Hare. Mzamane's academic work has focused on issues confronting the populations of Africa in the post-colonial era.

His publications include Images of the Voiceless: Essays on Popular Culture and the Media (1984), Multicultural Education in Colleges and Universities: A Transdisciplinary Approach (1988), and Race, Ethnicity and the American Context. Mzamane is also widely known as a writer of fiction and poetry, and his collections of short stories are especially noteworthy. Much of his fiction work was written whilst in exile and subsequently banned in apartheid South Africa . Manuscripts in the works include: Of Minks and Men and Other Stories of Our Transition and The Mbeki Turn: South Africa after Mandela.

Since leaving the University of Fort Hare, Mzamane has been a vocal contributor to international debate on issues confronting African populations on the continent and in the diasporas of the Americas . Mzamane has chaired and served on numerous boards, including: the African Arts Fund (affiliated to the U.N. Centre against Apartheid) and the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism (affiliated to the University of the Witwatersrand ).  

Mzamane is currently the director of the Centre for African Literary Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN).

Courtesy of the Centre for Creative Arts, UKZN.

Tracey Farren (1966 - ) is a full time writer and lives in False Bay with her teenage children, her partner and four large dogs. Farren has a psychology honours degree from the University of Cape Town. Before pursuing her full time writing ambitions, she worked as a freelance journalist for a few years, publishing in the South African newspapers and magazines. Her journalism during this time showed a marked interest in issues like child justice, prison conditions and prostitution.

Farren published several short stories in South African collections before writing her first novel, Whiplash. These include stories in the South African Short Story Review, Urban One, Urban Two, Nobody Ever Said Aids, Women Flashing and Writing the Self. She is currently working on her second novel entitled Snake in the Grass.