All the Places
by Musawenkosi Khanyile
This debut collection by Musawenkosi Khanyil won the South African Literary Award for Poetry in English in 2020. The book was also a finalist for this year’s Ingrid Jonker Prize.
In his moving debut collection, Musawenkosi Khanyile speaks for the heartache, perseverance and untriumphant triumph of township life. Through snapshots and memories of family and community, centred around the boy- and young manhood of a single narrator, All The Places is a rare and compelling poetic Bildungsroman, with the ambition and scope of a novel, paired with (and pared down to) minimalist and clear-eyed verse.
Concurrently original and quintessentially South African, these poems mark Khanyile out as a skilled stylist and storyteller – a frank and important new voice in South African literature.