Karina Author, Book, Festival

Klara du Plessis at Woordfees

Talle tale

Beskrywing

Klara du Plessis (Act/Ek’t) is ’n digter wat tussen tale glip: die Afrikaans
van haar kinderdae en die Engels van haar volwasse lewe in Kanada.
Pieter Madibuseng Odendaal se huwelik met die Peruaanse digter Jorge Alejandro
Ccoyllurpuma het tot wedersydse vertalings in Spaans en Engels gelei, en
Pieter se Afrikaanse gedigte is ook nou in Engels vertaal en gebundel as a corpse is
also a garden. Die Vlaamse digter Frank Keizer lees voor uit sy werk, wat met
min moeite deur Afrikaanssprekendes verstaan kan word.

Aangebied deur Karavan Press, uhlanga, Jakes Gerwel-stigting

Datum en Tyd: 12/10/2025 | 16:00

Venue: EasyEquities Skrywerskamer

For details and tickets, please see: Woordfees

Karina Author, Book

Karavan Press title: Ek’t Act by Klara du Plessis

TO ACT I S TO DO. TO ACT I S TO ADOPT A ROLE. This slippage between agency and being, on the one hand, and performance, on the other, is amplified in Ek’t Act’s homophonic play across languages. Expanding on Klara du Plessis’s earlier translingual poetry, critically acclaimed in Canada, this collection flows seamlessly between English and Afrikaans. In dié bundel verskyn ’n spreker en ’n kind. Hulle is verweef in taal, landskap, liggaam en digkuns. Ek’t Act se reeks lang gedigte wil voorgedra word, om in ritme en klank, ‘van liggaam tot lig,’ te resoneer.

PRAISE FOR EK’T ACT
‘Ek’t Act is eietyds, meesleurend, onweerstaanbaar eroties en beeldskoon. Die gedigte is opwindend vars en geanker in ons oomblik, maar die emosionele strominge waarmee die werk beweeg is veel ouer. Du Plessis verken met kenmerkende presisie en konseptuele sofistikasie maar ook in ’n diep persoonlike register hoe kuns te staan kom teen die liggaam, hoe die liggaam te staan kom teen kuns, en wat dit beteken om te skep vanuit ’n vroulike lyf.’ A Z I L L E COETZEE
‘A delicate, lyrical collection, Ek’t Act sings of the grand yearnings and desires of the body. With imagery that is at times candid, at times veiled, but always adventurous, the poet reveals herself as someone who maps out a world with an open, multilingual gaze.’ ALFRED SCHAFFER
‘In Ek’t Act plaas Klara du Plessis haar transtalige poëtika sentraal, ’n werks-wyse wat sy sedert haar debuut Ekke (2018) op intrigerende wyse oopskryf. Deur Afrikaanse en Engelse teksfragmente te vervleg, as deel van langer gedigsiklusse, ontstaan gedigte wat mekaar weerspieël én verruim, met veelvlakkige betekenislading. Temas soos taal, liggaamlikheid, begeerte en moederskap staan voorop. Met Ek’t Act vestig sy haarself as ’n grensverskuiwende nuwe stem in die Suid-Afrikaanse letterkunde.’ ALWYN ROUX

ISBN: 978-1-0370-9370-8

Publication date: September 2025

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

KLARA DU PLESSIS is known for her contributions to long-form and translingual poetics. In Canada, she has published five books of poetry and literary essays. Her debut collection, Ekke (Palimpsest Press, 2018), won the Pat Lowther Memorial Award and her critical writing received Arc Poetry Magazine’s Critic’s Desk Award. The book-length narrative poem, Hell Light Flesh (Palimpsest Press, 2020), was adapted and produced as a mono-opera film, composed by Jimmie LeBlanc, and premiered at the International Festival of Films on Art in 2023. Klara’s recent publications include Post-Mortem of the Event (Palimpsest Press, 2024), poetry that mobilises audiovisual media, transcription, waveform visualisation, and digital humanities methods, and I’mpossible collab (Gaspereau Press, 2023), a prose collection that posits essay-writing as a collaboration between author as subject and author as object of study.

Ek’t Act is Klara du Plessis se Suid-Afrikaanse debuutbundel. Ekke (Palimpsest Press, 2018) en G (Palimpsest Press, 2023)—’n samewerking met Khashayar “Kess” Mohammadi wat Afrikaans, Engels en Persies in transtalige vergelyking tot mekaar stel—is plaaslik by Poetry In McGregor, Tuin van Digters, Vrystaat Kunstefees en Woordfees bekendgestel. Dié bundels is ook met lof in Die Beeld en op LitNet geresenseer. ’n Keur van Klara se gedigte verskyn in Alfred Schaffer se Nederlandse vertaling in DW B se “Stemmen uit Zuid-Afrika” uitgawe (2024). Klara werk graag interdissiplinêr. Haar beeldende kuns en klank installasies is in Suid-Afrika uitgestal by die Johannes Stegmann Galery (Dead Air, Post-Mortem of the Event series, 2024) en by die Gallery @ Glen Carlou (Hell Light Flesh series, 2023). In Kanada, stal sy by Artexte (Incipit. Scree. Explicit., 2023), Centre Clark (Scree/n, 2023) en OBORO (Event Chambers, 2024) uit. Klara woon in Montreal en vir dele van die jaar in Kaapstad.

Klara will feature at the following events celebrating the launch of Ek’t Act in South Africa:

Karina Author

Author: Klara du Plessis

KLARA DU PLESSIS is known for her contributions to long-form and translingual poetics. In Canada, she has published five books of poetry and literary essays. Her debut collection, Ekke (Palimpsest Press, 2018), won the Pat Lowther Memorial Award and her critical writing received Arc Poetry Magazine’s Critic’s Desk Award. The book-length narrative poem, Hell Light Flesh (Palimpsest Press, 2020), was adapted and produced as a mono-opera film, composed by Jimmie LeBlanc, and premiered at the International Festival of Films on Art in 2023. Klara’s recent publications include Post-Mortem of the Event (Palimpsest Press, 2024), poetry that mobilises audiovisual media, transcription, waveform visualisation, and digital humanities methods, and I’mpossible collab (Gaspereau Press, 2023), a prose collection that posits essay-writing as a collaboration between author as subject and author as object of study.

Ek’t Act is Klara du Plessis se Suid-Afrikaanse debuutbundel. Ekke (Palimpsest Press, 2018) en G (Palimpsest Press, 2023)—’n samewerking met Khashayar “Kess” Mohammadi wat Afrikaans, Engels en Persies in transtalige vergelyking tot mekaar stel—is plaaslik by Poetry In McGregor, Tuin van Digters, Vrystaat Kunstefees en Woordfees bekendgestel. Dié bundels is ook met lof in Die Beeld en op LitNet geresenseer. ’n Keur van Klara se gedigte verskyn in Alfred Schaffer se Nederlandse vertaling in DW B se “Stemmen uit Zuid-Afrika” uitgawe (2024). Klara werk graag interdissiplinêr. Haar beeldende kuns en klank installasies is in Suid-Afrika uitgestal by die Johannes Stegmann Galery (Dead Air, Post-Mortem of the Event series, 2024) en by die Gallery @ Glen Carlou (Hell Light Flesh series, 2023). In Kanada, stal sy by Artexte (Incipit. Scree. Explicit., 2023), Centre Clark (Scree/n, 2023) en OBORO (Event Chambers, 2024) uit. Klara woon in Montreal en vir dele van die jaar in Kaapstad.

Karina Author, Book, Event, Festival

Karavan Press Poetry in McGregor

Book your tickets here:

POETRY IN McGREGOR

Melissa Sussens
Sipho Banda
Klara du Plessis
Stephen Symons

Melissa Sussens is a queer veterinarian and poet. Her work has appeared in many publications, both locally and internationally, and has been recognised with several accolades. Melissa has performed at the Poetry in McGregor festival, Off The Wall, The Commons and The Red Wheelbarrow, where she also hosts poetry readings. She lives in Cape Town with her wife and their two dogs. Slaughterhouse is her first book.

Sipho Banda was born in Himeville and grew up in Impendle, KwaZulu Natal. He is the author of Vusi’s Visit to Drakensberg Mountain, a children’s book published by Msinsi Press. His first collection of poetry, Ngigabe Ngezakithi, and a drama book, Umoya Wamagagasi, were published in isiZulu by Pelmo Publishers. Most of his poems in A Lonely Crowded Walk, his debut collection in English, reflect his own lonely and crowded walk.

Stephen Symons has published poetry and short-fiction, locally and abroad. His debut collection, Questions for the Sea, received an honourable mention for the 2017 Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry, and was also shortlisted for the 2017 Ingrid Jonker Prize. He is also the author of Spioenkop, Landscapes of Light and Loss and FOR EVERYTHING THAT IS POINTLESS AND PERFECT. Small Souls is a collection of new and collected poems.

Klara du Plessis is an award-winning Canadian South African writer, scholar, and literary curator. Her debut multilingual poetry collection Ekke, recipient of the 2019 Pat Lowther Memorial Award, was published by Palimpsest Press. She is also the author of poetry and essay collections, Hell Light Flesh, Unfurl, and most recently, Skin and Meat Sky. She is a PhD candidate in English Literature at Concordia University and lives in Montreal, Canada.