Karen Press
{{short description|South African poet}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Karen Press
| image =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1956}}
| birth_place =
| occupation = Poet, translator
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| nationality = South African
| awards = South African Literary Award
| years_active = }}
Karen Press (born 1956) is a South African poet and translator.{{Cite web |last=Press |first=Karen |title=Poetry Journals in South Africa, 1994 |work=New Coin |date=December 1994 |url=http://www.ru.ac.za/institutes/isea/NewCoin/docs/94/R94dec.htm |access-date=2008-08-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050529075449/http://www.ru.ac.za/institutes/isea/NewCoin/docs/94/R94dec.htm |archive-date=2005-05-29 |url-status=dead }}
She was born in Cape Town, and lives in Sea Point. Press is a full-time writer and editor, having published ten collections of poetry,{{cite web |title=Karen Press |url=https://sala.org.za/karen-press/ |website=S. A. Literary Awards}} a film script, short stories, as well as educational material and textbooks in the fields of science, mathematics, English and economics.{{cite web |title=Karen Press |url=https://www.poetryinternational.org/pi/poet/5378/Karen-Press/en/tile |website=Poetry International |publisher=Poetry International Foundation |accessdate=7 October 2019}} She also translated poetry from Afrikaans, primarily work by Antjie Krog.
In 1987 she co-founded the publishing collective Buchu Books.
Antjie Krog described her poems in The Museum of Working Life as "a haunting museum constructed in Press's delicate tone and vivid poetic intelligence."{{citation |url=https://mg.co.za/article/2004-12-08-poetry |title=Poetry |newspaper=Mail & Guardian |date=8 December 2004}}
Poetry
- Emergency Declarations (found poems, co-produced with Ingrid de Kok, 1985)
- This Winter Coming (Cinnamon Crocodile, 1986)
- Bird Heart Stoning the Sea (Buchu Books, 1990){{cite journal |last1=Sole |first1=Kelwyn |title=Bird Hearts Taking Wing: Trends in Contemporary South African Poetry Written in English |journal=World Literature Today |date=Winter 1996 |volume=70 |issue=1 |pages=26, 31 |doi=10.2307/40151848 |jstor=40151848 }}
- History is the dispossession of the heart (Cinnamon Crocodile, 1992)
- The Coffee Shop Poems (Snailpress, 1993)
- Echo Location - a guide to Sea Point for residents and visitors (Gecko Books, 1998){{cite journal |last1=West |first1=Mary |title=The Co-Ordinates of (Post-) Colonial Whiteness: A Reading of Karen Press's "Echo Location: A Guide to Sea Point for Residents and Visitors (1998)" |journal=English in Africa |date=May 2006 |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=93–111 |issn=0376-8902|jstor=40399025 }}{{cite news |last1=Dove |first1=Rita |title=Survival guide found in poet's words |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/36854700/survival_guide_found_in_poets_words/ |accessdate=7 October 2019 |work=Palm Beach Daily News |date=4 February 2001 |location=Palm Beach, Florida |page=20}}
- Home (Carcanet, 2000)
- The Little Museum of Working Life (Deep South, 2004)
- The Canary’s Songbook (Carcanet, 2005)
- Slowly, As If (Carcanet, 2012)
Awards
Press received the Literary Translators Award in the 2015 South African Literary Awards for translation of Mede-wete and Synapse by Antjie Krog.{{cite news |last1=Jennifer |title=2015 South African Literary Awards (SALAs) Winners Announced |url=http://bookslive.co.za/blog/2015/11/09/2015-south-african-literary-awards-salas-winners-announced/ |accessdate=8 October 2019 |date=9 November 2015}}
References
External links
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Category:South African women poets
Category:Writers from Cape Town
{{SouthAfrica-poet-stub}}