Kelwyn Sole

Kelwyn Sole (born 1951) is a South African poet and academic.

Sole was graduated with honours in English from the University of the Witwatersrand and, following that, he was awarded an MA degree by the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies.

Reluctant to return to apartheid South Africa, Sole initially taught in Kanye, Botswana, before returning to South Africa to co-edit the literary journal, Donga. After stints in Windhoek and Johannesburg, where he completed a PhD in on the subject of the South African Black Consciousness Movement of the 1970s, Sole was appointed in 1987 by the University of Cape Town where, as of 2015, he is the chair of English Literature.

He has published numerous poetry anthologies and has won a number of literary awards.

Poetry The Blood of Our Silence, Ravan, Johannesburg, 1988 Projections in the Past Tense, Ravan, Johannesburg, 1992 Love That is Night, Gecko, Durban, 1998 Mirror and Water Gazing, Gecko, Durban, 2001 Land Dreaming, University of Kwazulu-Natal Press, Pietermaritzburg, 2006 "Absent Tongues", Hands-On Books, Cape Town, 2012 Walking, Falling, Deep South, 2017

Awards 2020: DALRO Award (co-winner) for Poetry 2018: South African Literary Award (SALA) for Poetry 2012: Thomas Pringle Award for Poetry 2001: University of Cape Town (Faculty of Humanities) Merit Award 1999: International Merit Award, Poetry 1999 Competition, Atlanta Review 1998: Thomas Pringle Award for Best Literary Article, English Academy of Southern Africa 1994: Sydney Clouts Prize for Poetry 1991: Hugh MacDiarmid Prize 1989: Olive Schreiner Prize for Poetry