Left to right: Strange Fruit, Oleander, Burnt Offering and Please, Take Photographs
In 2008, in addition to publishing Whiplash by Tracey Farren and Life in Translation by Azila Reisenberger, Modjaji published four collections of poems, all quite different and each filled with poems that live on long after reading them. Burnt Offering by Joan Metelerkamp, Please Take Photographs by Sindiwe Magona, Strange Fruit by Helen Moffett, and Oleander by Fiona Zerbst.
One of the biggest joys for me in my work at Modjaji has been working on book covers, although it has sometimes been challenging working with the authors who had ideas about what made their books seem serious enough for their intended readers. And there was also resistance to hand-lettering in the early days of Modjaji. Now hand-lettering is widely used and accepted even on academic titles. I had the pleasure of working with a talented young designer, Natascha Mostert; with Hannah Morris a young artist and illustrator for many covers, and with my friend, Colleen Crawford Cousins (also a poet) for the cover of Burnt Offering, and other covers later on.
You can read some poems from each of the poets if you click on the links below, and in some of the links, you can learn more about each poet. Joan Metelerkamp is featured on the Poetry International site.
Sindiwe Magona
Helen Moffett
Fiona Zerbst
Joan Metelerkamp
We will have giveaways on our social media platforms, so if you want to be in line for the giveaways, keep an eye on our social media. All books bought from our website in April have a 15% discount and free shipping if you buy over R300 worth of books. When you check out use the code: HBD15 to activate the special offer.