South African Koleka Putuma is an author, a playwright, an editor, amentor, and she has become a cult figure in the activist poetry community. In a direct style that pulls no punches, she writes about homophobia and transphobia, gender and racism, while each line pulses with compassion and love. Putuma entered the literary world with a bang in 2017, with her debut collection Collective Amnesia, which explores South Africa’s historic racism and its consequences, both institutionally and within the culture. Since then, she has published two more critically acclaimed poetry collections.

This is Putuma's reading list:

* Vuyelwa Maluleke

* Maneo Mohale, Everything Is a Deathly Flower

* Busisiwe Mahlangu, Surviving Loss

* Octavia Butler, The Parable of the Sower

*Arinze Ifeakandu, God’s Children Are Little Broken Things

* D’bi.young

The host in this episode is Åshild Lappegård Lahn

Editing and production by the House of Literature

Music by Ibou Cissokho

The House of Literature’s project to promote African literature is supported by NORAD.

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