Arthur Nortje
Mafik Gwala
Karen Press
Wopko Jensma
Lionel Abrahams
Seithlamo Motsapi
Ingrid de Kok
Tatamkhulu Afrika
Douglas Livingstone
Mongane Wally Serote

Adam Schwartzman's anthology offers substantial selections of ten outstanding South African poets drawn from more than four decades and from very different traditions and cultures. Far from establishing a canon, the vital and diverse literatures represented here offer a pluralistic vision of Africanism. While politics loom large, the poetries of place, region, country and survival assemble an imaginative vocabulary through which the volatility of South Africa's history emerges.

The editor's introduction examines the radically altered circumstances of the contemporary poet in South Africa and reflects on the cultural and social struggles which have brought and will bring new resources into the poetry of Africa and the English language.