12/07/2024
Hear Here, Here Hear, Read All About it!
Press Release:
"Four renowned South African poets, namely Vonani Bila, Mxolisi Nyezwa, Mangaliso Buzani and Enock Shishenge will be off to China to participate in the international poetry festival
alongside poets and literary critics from the Brics countries. This poetry festival is organised by the China Writers Association, scheduled to take place from 18th -25th July this year in
Hangzhou and Beijing cities, China.
The poets will participate in poetry readings, dialogues, teach-ins and offer writing workshops to diverse audiences. They will also visit the newly built Zhejiang Literature Museum in Hangzhou and will also feature strongly at the closing ceremony at the National
Museum of Modern Chinese Literature, Beijing. The museum was founded in 1985. It is a first-class museum of China and the largest literary museum in the world. After nearly four decades of development and construction, it is now a multifunctional literary museum composed of exhibitions, libraries, archives, academic research and cultural exchanges.
The museum covers an area of 27, 000 square meters, of which 3, 000 square meters are used for housing books. So far there are nearly 930, 000 collections and over 150 libraries of writers in the museum. The museum is increasingly becoming a popular literary scene, a respected literary field, and a beautiful entrance for digital empowering literature. The invited poets will each donate their books to this prestigious museum for archiving and posterity.
The invited poets will have selections of their best poems included in the festival anthology in their original languages as well as in Chinese translation. Besides the poetry anthology, each participating poet has been invited to contribute an essay which will be published in the collection of scholarly essays which explore poetry, poetic form and sensibilities, aesthetics and the essence of projecting and protecting native languages in a multicultural
environment. The South African delegation, led by Bila from the Limpopo province, are drawn from three provinces, Nyezwa and Buzani from Ggeberha in the Eastern Cape, and Shishenge from Gauteng.
The South African delegation boasts several years of experience in poetry and cultural activism.
Bila, author of *Bilakhulu!*, *Handsome Jita*, *In the name of Amandla*, among some of his poetry collections, grew up in Shirley village. He is the founding editor of the poetry journal *Timbila*, publisher of Timbila books, curator of Vhembe International Poetry Festival, and founder of Timbila Writers Village, a retreat centre for writers.
In 2016, Bila and Max Marhanele produced a Xitsonga monolingual dictionary, *Tihlungu ta Rixaka*. Bila is currently a lecturer in English at the University of Limpopo. In addition to poetry, Bila has published essays on contemporary South African poetry and the creative arts.
Buzani is the author of *a naked bone* and winner of the 2019 Glenna Luschei Prize for African poetry. He grew up in Bhlawa (New Brighton). His first collection *Ndisabala Imibongo* written in isiXhosa, won the 2015 South African Literary Award (SALA) for poetry. Buzani teaches poetry in English and isiXhosa in the MA Creative Writing at Rhodes University. Buzani’s poetry draws from isiXhosa culture, Christianity and elements of nature. He writes love
poems in the widest sense, embracing the interface of daily life and the spiritual, expressing joy and compassion in the face of deprivation and mourning.
Nyezwa lives in Bhlawa, has published three poetry books in English, namely, *Song Trials*, *New Country*, and *Malikhanye*. Additionally, he has published a collection of isiXhosa poems
titled *Ndiyoyika*. His poetry has been featured in numerous anthologies in South Africa and internationally. His new book, a memoir titled *Bhlawa’s Inconsolable Spirits* was published in
2023. In the 1980s he was a member of the Congress of South African Writers (COSAW). His second collection of poetry, *New Country*, won him the SALA for Poetry in 2009. His writing
awards include the Thomas Pringle Poetry Prize, Dalro Poetry Award, and Port Elizabeth / Gothenburg City Poetry Prize. Mxolisi has been the editor of the English and isiXhosa writing
magazine, *Kotaz* since its inception in 1997. *Kotaz* has been pivotal in sustaining writing by Black poets in South Africa, especially those who live in the Eastern Cape province and uses
isiXhosa language. Nyezwa also curates the Mandela Bay Book Fair from Gqeberha, Eastern Cape Province, where he interacts with writers’ groups and students from community schools and universities to promote poetry and books and teach about isiXhosa language rights.
Shishenge is a multi-award-winning poet, teacher, unionist and an indigenous languages activist, born in Jim Jones village, Limpopo province, but now based in Ivory Park, Gauteng. He is the author of three poetry books in English, namely, *Lockdown*, *My Gospel Scriptures* and *Times of Fears and Tears* and a novel in Xitsonga, *Muhloti wa tinyarhi*. His recent book is *The Struggle of a Black child*.
The participating South African poets envisage to establish and strengthen relationships with the Chinese poets and fellow writers from Brazil, India, Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia
and the United Arab Emirates – all members of Brics. They believe this relationship will result in cultural cooperation, literary exchanges, writing residencies, fellowships and opportunities for
poetry translation, publications and scholarly research.
