Karen Press

Karen Press
Born1956 (age 68–69)
NationalitySouth African
Occupation(s)Poet, translator
AwardsSouth African Literary Award

Karen Press (born 1956) is a South African poet and translator.[1]

She was born in Cape Town, and lives in Sea Point. Press is a full-time writer and editor, having published ten collections of poetry,[2] a film script, short stories, as well as educational material and textbooks in the fields of science, mathematics, English and economics.[3] She also translated poetry from Afrikaans, primarily work by Antjie Krog.[2]

In 1987 she co-founded the publishing collective Buchu Books.[3]

Antjie Krog described her poems in The Museum of Working Life as "a haunting museum constructed in Press's delicate tone and vivid poetic intelligence."[4]

Poetry

  • Emergency Declarations (found poems, co-produced with Ingrid de Kok, 1985)
  • This Winter Coming (Cinnamon Crocodile, 1986)
  • Bird Heart Stoning the Sea (Buchu Books, 1990)[5]
  • History is the dispossession of the heart (Cinnamon Crocodile, 1992)
  • The Coffee Shop Poems (Snailpress, 1993)
  • Echo Location - a guide to Sea Point for residents and visitors (Gecko Books, 1998)[6][7]
  • Home (Carcanet, 2000)[5]
  • The Little Museum of Working Life (Deep South, 2004)
  • The Canary’s Songbook (Carcanet, 2005)
  • Slowly, As If (Carcanet, 2012)

Awards

Press received the Literary Translators Award in the 2015 South African Literary Awards for translation of Mede-wete and Synapse by Antjie Krog.[8]

References

  1. ^ Press, Karen (December 1994). "Poetry Journals in South Africa, 1994". New Coin. Archived from the original on 29 May 2005. Retrieved 22 August 2008.
  2. ^ a b "Karen Press". S. A. Literary Awards.
  3. ^ a b "Karen Press". Poetry International. Poetry International Foundation. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  4. ^ "Poetry", Mail & Guardian, 8 December 2004
  5. ^ a b Sole, Kelwyn (Winter 1996). "Bird Hearts Taking Wing: Trends in Contemporary South African Poetry Written in English". World Literature Today. 70 (1): 26, 31. doi:10.2307/40151848. JSTOR 40151848.
  6. ^ West, Mary (May 2006). "The Co-Ordinates of (Post-) Colonial Whiteness: A Reading of Karen Press's "Echo Location: A Guide to Sea Point for Residents and Visitors (1998)"". English in Africa. 33 (1): 93–111. ISSN 0376-8902. JSTOR 40399025.
  7. ^ Dove, Rita (4 February 2001). "Survival guide found in poet's words". Palm Beach Daily News. Palm Beach, Florida. p. 20. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  8. ^ Jennifer (9 November 2015). "2015 South African Literary Awards (SALAs) Winners Announced". Retrieved 8 October 2019.
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