Gabeba Baderoon and I lived in South Africa at the same time, which meant I was lucky to attend several of her readings and interview her for a literary website, catering largely for Afrikaans literature, called LitNet. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑯𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝑰𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒂𝒄𝒚 is an exquisite collection which won the 2019 University of South Africa Main Prize and a 2020 Humanities and Social Sciences Award.

"Baderoon’s poems are finely crafted objects of art, delicately shaped and containing rich emotion and thought,” describes Kwame Dawes, author of 𝑪𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝑩𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒔: 𝑨 𝑻𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕. “She is building a powerful body of work, rooted in Africa and reaching line after line to the wider world."

This collection of elegant and beautifully crafted poems ensures Baderoon's place among the most talented voices in South African poetry. Read it!

*

𝑷𝒐𝒆𝒕𝒓𝒚 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝑩𝒆𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒔

In the evening poetry class for beginners
a girl in a thick brown coat she doesn't take off

breathes in deep
and risking something says fast

my boyfriend's in prison

I'm here to find out
how to write to him through the bars

and someone laughs

and she pulls herself back into her coat and from inside looks past us

and the next week doesn't come back

and I think of her for years and what poetry is

I think this is my origin
where poetry is risk, is betrayal

and the memory of the first question how not to be alone

From 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑯𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝑰𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒂𝒄𝒚: 𝑷𝒐𝒆𝒎𝒔

*

𝑨𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑨𝒖𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒓

Born on the coastal shores of Port Elizabeth, Gabeba Baderoon is one of South Africa’s most acclaimed literary voices.

She is the author of three poetry collections, including 𝑨 𝒉𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒔𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒔, a finalist for the University of Johannesburg Prize and the Olive Schreiner Award, and 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑫𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒎 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑵𝒆𝒙𝒕 𝑩𝒐𝒅𝒚, which received the Daimler Chrysler Award for South African Poetry. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑯𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝑰𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒂𝒄𝒚, her third collection, won the 2019 University of South Africa Main Prize and a 2020 Humanities and Social Sciences Award.

Gabeba is an associate professor of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies and African studies at Penn State University.

*

A huge thank you to @NetGalley and @nupress for an DRC of 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑯𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝑰𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒂𝒄𝒚: 𝑷𝒐𝒆𝒎𝒔 by Gabeba Baderoon.

Get a table of contents of poems, poems are up to two pages - so good if you do like longer poems. Really nice movement of poems.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, having not really been widely experienced in poem reading, UNlike most books I read, namely ficion, there is a deep rooted and underlying message in all of these, I have some favourites within the pages of this book, though, I found the writing to be rich with superb descriptions, her work really is able to cut deep letting some of the hurt the author has felt both as a woman and personally in her own country to let out a little in her writing.

A great read, certainly will be looking out for more stuff written by this author.

With thanks to Netgalley and publishers for access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review.