If I Could Sing: Selected Poems by Keroapetse Kgositsile, Keorapetse Kgositsile

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Synopsis

South African poet Keorapetse “Willie” Kgositsile has selected 69 poems from six previously published collections as well as new work. The poems, written over four decades, many while in exile, explore a wide spectrum of emotions and a need to participate in the struggle to liberate the poet’s land of birth. In the stunning original rhythms of the poems, the subtle influence of jazz and the Setswana language, the poet’s mother tongue, can be heard.

Biography

Keroapetse Kgositsile has had six books of poetry published, in addition to numerous poems in literary journals and anthologies, and has been the recipient of a number of literary awards, the latest being the Gwendolyn Brooks Prize for Poetry 2000. Over the last four decades he has been awarded the National Endowment for the Arts poetry award, the New York Council of the Arts poetry award, and the Rockefeller Foundation poetry grant. He has been teaching courses in literature, African literature, African American literature and creative writing in various United States and African institutions since his first post at Sarah Lawrence College in New York in 1969. Other works include My Name Is Afrika, When the Clouds Clear, and To the Bitter End.