Publisher Description

This is the fourth annual Sol Plaatje European Union Poetry Anthology, and is a compendium of the poems long-listed for the 2014 Sol Plaatje EU Poetry Award. Every year South African poets, young and old, debut or previously published, are invited to submit up to three of their poetic efforts to the Award, in any of the country's 11 official languages. The anthology seeks to publish voices in as many different languages as possible, and be one of the spaces in which these tongues are given equal space and respect. The anthology is a truly democratic as well as creative effort, in keeping with the spirit of the legendary intellectual giant, Sol Plaatje, the activist, linguist, translator, novelist, journalist and leader.

Author Biography

Ndumiso Ngcobo is a creative phenomenon of the new South Africa, a one-time corporate lackey who used to write amusing emails for fun in his spare time and eventually came up with the brilliant, Bookseller's Choice Award-shortlisted Some Of My Best Friends Are White in 2007 (20,000+ copies sold). He followed it in 2009 with the bestselling Is It Coz I'm Black?, (9,000 copies sold) and is now a columnist for Sunday Times Lifestyle and a DJ on Power FM.

Review

"Ndumiso Ngcobo is the brilliant Commissar of Random Weirdness. My personal guess is that his secret is mainlining Grandpa." - Conrad Koch (Chester Missing) "A delicious, light mix of sarcasm and sharp wit... A streetwise author and a sharp commentator" - Drum "[H]ard hitting, delightfully insightful and funny. Ndumiso Ngcobo has a very distinct voice. It is bold, streetwise and falls somewhat short of PC... Saying it as it is, Ngcobo stomps across the colour lines with impunity, kicking holy cows out the way" - The Citizen

Details