Windhoek
Windhoek (, , ) is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre. The population of Windhoek in 20 ...
,
Namibia
Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...
) is a South African playwright, actor, poet, literary critic and anthologist.
Education and career
Cosmo Pieterse went to the
University of Cape Town
The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...
and taught in
Cape Town
Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...
until leaving South Africa in 1965. He was banned under the Riotous Assemblies Act of 1962. He subsequently taught in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
and at
Ohio University
Ohio University is a Public university, public research university in Athens, Ohio. The first university chartered by an Act of Congress and the first to be chartered in Ohio, the university was chartered in 1787 by the Congress of the Confeder ...
in the United States: arriving at Ohio University in 1970, he became a tenured faculty member in 1976. However, after travelling to meet his London publisher in 1979 he was denied re-entry to the US on classified information, allegedly for being "a suspected communist".
In London, in the later 1960s and early '70s, Pieterse worked for the
BBC World Service
The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...
at Bush House and for the Transcription Centre, an organisation that under the direction of Dennis Duerden recorded and broadcast the works of African writers in Europe and Africa. Also an occasional actor, Pieterse appeared in ''The Burning'', a 1968 30-minute short drama film directed by Stephen Frears. As a poet, Pieterse has been characterised as producing work that is very "European in its tone, metaphors, and delivery", as Laura Linda Holland writes: "Cosmo Pieterse's poems, like those of ennisBrutus, are heavily inundated with Western influences, concerns, and motifs while retaining a definite African bias....Cosmo Pieterse uses his love of words to create poetry of hope and renewal."Holland, Laura Linda "A Critical Survey of Contemporary South African Poetry: The Language of Conflict and Commitment" (1987), pp. 41–43. Open Access Dissertations and Theses. Paper 5964.
Pieterse edited several anthologies of plays and poetry for the
African Writers Series
The African Writers Series (AWS) is a collection of books written by African novelists, poets and politicians. Published by Heinemann (publisher), Heinemann, 359 books appeared in the series between 1962 and 2003.
The series has provided an int ...
published by
Heinemann Heinemann may refer to:
* Heinemann (surname)
* Heinemann (publisher), a publishing company
* Heinemann Park, a.k.a. Pelican Stadium in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
See also
* Heineman
* Jamie Hyneman
James Franklin Hyneman (born Se ...
.
Works edited
* ''Ten One-act Plays''. London: Heinemann Educational Books, African Writers Series 34, 1968.
* (with Donald Munro) ''Protest & Conflict in African Literature'', Heinemann Educational, 1969.
* ''Seven South African Poets: Poems of Exile''. African Writers Series 64. London: Heinemann Educational, 1971.
* ''Short African Plays''. London: Heinemann, African Writers Series 78, 1972.
* ''Five African Plays''. London: Heinemann, African Writers Series 114, 1972.
* (with Dennis Duerden) ''African Writers Talking: a collection of radio interviews'', Holmes & Meier, 1972.
* (with Gwyneth Henderson) ''Nine African Plays for Radio''. London: Heinemann, African Writers Series 114, 1973.
* ''Echo and Choruses: "Ballad of the Cells", and selected shorter poems'', 1974.
* (with George Hallett) ''Present Lives Future Becoming: South African Landscape in Words and Pictures''. Guildford: Hickory Press Ltd, 1974.
* (with
Angus Calder
Angus Lindsay Ritchie Calder (5 February 1942 – 5 June 2008) was a Scottish writer, historian, and poet. Initially studying English literature, he became increasingly interested in political history and wrote a landmark study on Britain during t ...