This is a list of noted

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 count ...

n poets, poets born or raised in South Africa, whether living there or overseas, and writing in one of the

South African languages South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz' ...

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* Lionel Abrahams *

Tatamkulu Afrika Ismail Joubert (7 December 1920 – 23 December 2002), commonly known as Tatamkhulu Afrika, which is Xhosa for ''Grandfather Africa'', was a South African poet and writer. His first novel, ''Broken Earth'' was published when he was seventeen (u ...

Mike Alfred Mike Alfred is a South African poet, journalist, and historian who lives in Muizenberg Cape Town. His poems have been widely published in anthologies In book publishing Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music ...

Ingrid Andersen Ingrid Andersen (born 1965) is a South African poet. Biography Andersen lived in Johannesburg most of her life, worked in Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape for five years and relocated to the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands in 2007. She worked as a th ...

* Gabeba Baderoon * Shabbir Banoobhai *

Sinclair Beiles Sinclair Beiles (b. Kampala, Uganda, 1930 - 2000, Johannesburg) was a South African beat poet and editor for Maurice Girodias at the Olympia Press in Paris. He developed along with William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin the cut-up technique ...

Robert Berold Robert Berold (born 1948) is a South African poet, editor and author Berold was born in Johannesburg, but currently lives in the Eastern Cape. He matriculated from Hilton College at the age of 16, and went on to study Chemical Engineering and ...

* Vonani Bila * Roy Blumenthal * Herman Charles Bosman * Breyten Breytenbach *

André Brink André Philippus Brink (29 May 1935 – 6 February 2015) was a South African novelist, essayist and poet. He wrote in both Afrikaans and English and taught English at the University of Cape Town. In the 1960s Brink, Ingrid Jonker, Etienne Lerou ...

* Dennis Brutus * Guy Butler * Roy Campbell * Charl Cilliers * Johnny Clegg * Jack Cope * Jeremy Cronin *

Patrick Cullinan Patrick Roland Cullinan (21 May 1932 – 14 April 2011) was a South African poet and biographer. He was born in Pretoria into a significant diamond-mining family (his grandfather, Sir Thomas Cullinan, a diamond mine owner, gave his name ...

Gary Cummiskey Gary Cummiskey (born 1963) is a South African poet and publisher. Life Cummiskey was born in England and moved to South Africa in 1969 with his family for a few years and he returned in 1983 as an adult. He is the founder and editor of Dye Hard ...

* Sheila Cussons

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* Achmat Dangor * Ingrid de Kok * Phillippa Yaa de Villiers *

Modikwe Dikobe Modikwe Dikobe (pseudonym of Marks Rammitloa, 1913 – July 2005) was a South African novelist, poet, trade unionist and squatter leader in Johannesburg, in the 1940s. He wrote one book and one collection of poetry, whilst working as a hawker, ...

Isobel Dixon Isobel Dixon (born 1969) is a South African poet. She is also a literary agent based in London. Life Born and raised in South Africa and living now in Cambridge, England, Isobel Dixon works in London as a literary agent. She has published seve ...

* Angifi Dladla * Finuala Dowling * I D du Plessis *

Koos du Plessis Jacobus (Koos) Johannes du Plessis (10 May 1945 – 15 January 1984) was a prominent South African singer-songwriter and poet, colloquially known as ''Koos Doep''. Although he received critical acclaim for much of his work, he became best ...

* Elisabeth Eybers * Kingsley Fairbridge *

Gus Ferguson Hugh "Gus" Ferguson (1 July 1940 – 27 December 2020) was a South African poet, small publisher, cartoonist, and pharmacist. Career Although a pharmacist by profession, Ferguson was best known as a prolific independent publisher of South A ...

* Sheila Meiring Fugard * Keith Gottschalk * Stephen Gray * Mafika Gwala

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* Megan Hall *

Joan Hambidge Joan Helene Hambidge (born 11 September 1956 in Aliwal North, South Africa) (the English surname notwithstanding), is an Afrikaans poet, literary theorist and academic. She is a prolific poet in Afrikaans, controversial as a public figure and c ...

* Colleen Higgs * Christopher Hope * Peter Horn *

Allan Kolski Horwitz Allan Kolski Horwitz (born 1952) is a South African poet who was born in Vryburg, and grew up in Cape Town. Matriculating from Herzlia, he later moved to Johannesburg after studying philosophy and literature at the University of Cape Town. In ...

* Alan James *

Wopko Jensma Wopko Pieter Jensma (born 26 July 1939 in Ventersdorp, South Africa) is a South African poet and artist. During the 1960s and 1970s Jensma published three collections of poetry, next to that he created graphics and reproductions of woodcuts. He ...

Liesl Jobson Liesl Jobson is a South African poet and musician. She received first prize in the Inglis House Poetry Contest 2003 and her poetry was performed at the "Art of Survival" exhibition of the University of Alaska Fairbanks The University of Alask ...

* Sarah Johnson * Ingrid Jonker * Aryan Kaganof *

Anne Kellas Anne Kellas is an Australians, Australian poet, reviewer and editor, who was born in South Africa and emigrated to Australia in 1986. Poetry life Anne Kellas was born in South Africa, in Germiston, Gauteng, Germiston in 1951 in what was then th ...

* Keorapetse Kgositsile * Olga Kirsch * Koos Kombuis *

Rustum Kozain Rustum Kozain (born 1966) is a South African poet and writer. Life Kozain was born in Paarl. After he matriculated, he studied at the University of Cape Town. During this time, he focus his PhD research on selected South Africa poetry in Englis ...

* Uys Krige * Antjie Krog * Anton Krueger *

Mazisi Kunene Mazisi (Raymond) Kunene (12 May 1930 – 11 August 2006) was a South African poet best known for his translation of the epic Zulu poem ''Emperor Shaka the Great''. While in exile from South Africa's apartheid regime, Kunene was an active suppo ...

* Cornelis Jacobus Langenhoven * C. Louis Leipoldt * Douglas Livingstone * Lindiwe Mabuza *

Don Maclennan Donald Alasdair Calum Maclennan (9 December 1929 – 9 February 2009) was a South African poet, critic, playwright and English professor. He published a number of plays, short stories, collections of poems and scholarly works. Born on 9 Decembe ...

Mzi Mahola Mzi Mahola is a South African writer, author and poet. He was born on 12 February 1949, in Claremont near Durban. He grew up between Lushington near Seymour and Port Elizabeth, living the Eastern Cape as Mzikayise Winston Mahola. Mzi Mahola is ...

* Eugene Marais * Andrew Martens * Lebogang Mashile * John Mateer * Don Mattera * James Matthews * Mzwakhe Mbuli * Kim McClenaghan *

Michelle McGrane Michelle McGrane is a poet who was born in Rhodesia Rhodesia (, ), officially from 1970 the Republic of Rhodesia, was an unrecognised state in Southern Africa from 1965 to 1979, equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. Rhodesia was the '' ...

* Sheila Meiring Fugard * Joan Metelerkamp * Ruth Miller * Amitabh Mitra * Natalia Molebatsi *

Kobus Moolman Kobus Moolman (1964) is a South African poet. He has published eight volumes of poetry, a collection of radio plays, and is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing, and the coordinator of the Creative Writing programme in the English departmen ...

* Isabella Motadinyane * Seitlhamo Motsapi * Casey Motsisi * S.E.K. Mqhayi * Oswald Mtshali

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* Arthur Nortje *

D. J. Opperman Diederik (or Dirk) Johannes Opperman, commonly referred to as D.J. Opperman ( 29 September 1914 – 22 September 1985) was an Afrikaans poet. Biography He was born on 29 September 1914 in Dundee in Natal, where he grew up. He went to school in ...

* William Plomer * Karen Press * Thomas Pringle *

Lesego Rampolokeng Lesego Rampolokeng (born 7 July 1965) is a South African writer, playwright and performance poet. Early life and education Lesego Rampolokeng was born in 1965 in Orlando West, Soweto, Johannesburg. He studied law at the University of the North ...

Azila Talit Reisenberger Dr. Azila Talit Reisenberger is ''Le Professeur Distinqué''; and a distinguished author, the Head of the Hebrew Department at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, a champion of Women's Rights and Gender Equality, and an acting Rabba. Biogra ...

* Robert Royston * Gerard Rudolf *

Arja Salafranca Arja Salafranca (born 1971, Málaga Málaga (, ) is a municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 578,460 in 2020, it is the second-most populous city in Andalus ...

Sipho Sepamla Sydney Sipho Sepamla (22 September 1932 – 9 January 2007) was a contemporary South African poet and novelist. Biography Born in a township near Krugersdorp, Sipho Sepamla lived most of his life in Soweto. He studied teaching at Pretoria Norm ...

* Mongane Wally Serote * Steve Shapiro *

Ari Sitas Ari Sitas (born 1952 in Limassol, Cyprus) is a South African sociologist, writer, dramatist and civic activist. Background Sitas studied sociology and political philosophy at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and was one of ...

Douglas Reid Skinner Douglas Reid Skinner is a South African writer, editor, translator and poet. He was born in 1949 in Upington, in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. Literary career Skinner has published seven collections of poems, the most recent of ...

* Adam Small

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* Totius * Ernst van Heerden *

Christopher van Wyk Christopher van Wyk (19 July 1957 – 3 October 2014) was a South African children’s book author, novelist and poet. Van Wyk is famous for his poem "In Detention" on the suspicious deaths that befell South African political prisoners during Ap ...

* Benedict Wallet Vilakazi *

A.G. Visser Andries Gerhardus Visser (1 March 1878 – 10 June 1929) was a well-known early Afrikaans poet. He was popularly known as the "Singer of the Suikerbosrand". Biography Visser was born on the farm Zaaifontein in the Fraserburg district of South A ...

* Wayne Visser *

Gert Vlok Nel Gert Vlok Nel (Beaufort West, 1963) is a South African poet. He studied English, Afrikaans and history at Stellenbosch University and worked as a guide, a bartender and a watchman. He has published one collection of poems, ''Om te lewe is onnatuur ...

* Crystal Warren * Stephen Watson * Mary Morison Webster * George Weideman * Athol Williams * David Wright *

Makhosazana Xaba Makhosazana Xaba (born 10 July 1957) is a South African poet and short-story writer. She trained as a nurse and has worked a women's health specialist in NGOs, as well as writing on gender and health. She is Associate Professor of Practice in the ...

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See also