After stints as an educationist and anti-apartheid activist in Botswana, Namibia and Johannesburg, Kelwyn Sole was employed by the University of Cape Town for 30 years, retiring as De Beers Professor of Language and Literature. He has published seven volumes of poetry, numerous articles on postcolonial and South African literature, as well as editing a collection of contemporary South African poetry for The Common in 2012. He won the Olive Schreiner Prize for his first collection, The Blood of Our Silence, and the South African Literary Award for Poetry for his most recent, titled Walking, Falling. Individual poems have won the Sydney Clouts, Thomas Pringle, and DALRO Awards.

Photo by Poetry Africa

Read Sole's poetry here