Klara du Plessis is a

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

poet, who writes in both English and

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

. Her debut poetry collection ''Ekke'' won the

Pat Lowther Award The Pat Lowther Memorial Award is an annual award presented by the League of Canadian Poets to the year's best book of poetry by a Canadian woman.Gerald Lampert Award The Gerald Lampert Memorial Award is made annually by the League of Canadian Poets to the best volume of poetry published by a first-time poet. It is presented in honour of poetry promoter Gerald Lampert Gerald Lampert (c. 1924 - April 29, 1978) w ...

,"League of Canadian Poets Announces 2014 Prize Shortlists & Spoken Word Winner!"
''Open Book Toronto'', April 1, 2014. in 2019. Her second collection, ''Hell Light Flesh'', was released in 2020. Du Plessis was born in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

, but raised predominantly in

Bloemfontein Bloemfontein, ( ; , "fountain of flowers") also known as Bloem, is one of South Africa's three capital cities and the capital of the Free State (province), Free State province. It serves as the country's judicial capital, along with legisla ...

, South Africa."Introducing: Writing in English from a Multilingual Perspective"
''The Town Crier'', October 3, 2016. She is currently a graduate student at Montreal's

Concordia University Concordia University ( French: ''Université Concordia'') is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1974 following the merger of Loyola College and Sir George Williams University, Concordia is one of the t ...

. Since 2018, she has been developing Deep Curation, a practice of poetry reading organization that places poets' works in deliberate thematic and conceptual dialogue in performance.

References

21st-century Canadian poets 21st-century Canadian women writers Canadian women poets People from Bloemfontein Writers from Montreal South African emigrants to Canada Living people Year of birth missing (living people) {{Canada-poet-stub