Tag: Chantal Stewart

Cover artwork, ‘Echoes’ © Liffey Joy

Shouldn’t everyone have such a night
without thoughts
without words
only taste and touch and smell
and the light behind closed eyes
slightly red
slightly yellow?

‘In Let’s Be Legends, Chantal Stewart leads the reader into her intimate life and asks us to bear witness to her love of the land and family, nature and the night sky, and to her connection to a foreign city and to loves. She also shows us the comfort of a mature love, getting married and building a home with that love. At the centre of this collection is the curious poet who asks us to pay attention to the small things – the tortoise, a field mouse, red dust, the smell of paraffin, pink toenails, eggshells, a child’s kite; and to big issues – gender-based violence, war, refugees and displacement. Her call is for you to feel life. You also have to admire a poet who uses the word paraphernalia and makes it sing.’—KERRY HAMMERTON

CHANTAL STEWART is a medical doctor and has worked in an academic hospital for most of her life. Her first love has always been writing and she completed an MA in Creative Writing at UCT. Her debut novel, The Veil of Maya, was published in 2022 and was joint winner of the NIHSS Award for Best Novel in the Fiction Category (2023) and the UCT Book Award (2024). She has also published poems and short stories in Women Flashing (2006), Writing the Self (2008), Twist (2006) and Stanzas (2021, 2024). She facilitates writing workshops and retreats for beginner and experienced writers. Let’s Be Legends is her first collection of poems.

Publication date: December 2025

ISBN: 978-0-6398626-9-9