Festival of Poetry – 4 November 2023

Earlier this year, the McGregor Poetry Festival announced a hiatus for a year. The organisers are taking a well-deserved break. The Red Wheelbarrow Poetry Collective and the Rosebank Writers’ Circle decided to step into the breach and organised a once-off event to celebrate poetry at a day-long poetry festival here in Cape Town. Please join us for these exciting poetry panels, taking place at two venues, the Bertha House and Youngblood-Africa, on 4 November 2023.

Events are free! Books will be on sale throughout the day.

Hope to see all poetry lovers there!

Rosebank Writers: Book talk with Kerry Hammerton

Photo credit: Digby Young

A poetry morning next to the fireplace. Rosebank Writers and Friends gathered yesterday next to a cosy fire to listen to Kerry Hammerton speak about and read from her latest poetry collection, afterwards. I (Karina) had the privilege to ask the questions. It was a beautiful way to begin the weekend: hearing Kerry speak about her work was nourishment for the soul and the mind.

Thank you to all who attended, especially all the Rosebank Writers. Thank you also to Kim Gurney for recording the conversation and Digby Young for the photographs.

The Rosebank Writers have been meeting for almost a year now and are going from strength to strength.

All photographs: Digby Young

Karavan Press title: afterwards by Kerry Hammerton

afterwards is a thrilling collection that takes us in a series of lyrical bounds from the poet’s ancestry in Wales to her birth in England to the country and spirit animals she inhabits now. An exhilarating read.”

– Finuala Dowling

“In these provocative poems Kerry Hammerton probes with a ruthless acuity how society constructs and represents self and women. Her poems also explore the lived-in-ness of the body with its desires, its beauty and even its joys. Ranging from lyrical poetry to flash-fiction this experimental collection is richly satisfying.”

– Kobus Moolman

Publication date: April 2023

ISBN: 978-0-6397-2219-1

KERRY HAMMERTON lives in Cape Town, South Africa and has an MA in Creative Writing from Rhodes University. She has published poetry and prose in various South African and international literary journals and anthologies – including Living While Feminist (Kwela Books, 2020) and The Only Magic We Know (Modjaji Books, 2020). afterwards is Kerry’s fourth poetry collection. Kerry is a freelance tutor and supervisor on the Rhodes’ Masters in Creative Writing programme.

Find her at www.kerryhammerton.com.

Author: Kerry Hammerton

KERRY HAMMERTON lives in Cape Town, South Africa and has an MA in Creative Writing from Rhodes University. She has published poetry and prose in various South African and international literary journals and anthologies – including Living While Feminist (Kwela Books, 2020) and The Only Magic We Know (Modjaji Books, 2020). afterwards is Kerry’s fourth poetry collection. Kerry is a freelance tutor and supervisor on the Rhodes’ Masters in Creative Writing programme.

Find her at www.kerryhammerton.com.