Gabeba Baderoon

Gabeba Baderoon grew up in Athlone, Cape Town, and studied English at the University of Cape Town, attaining her doctorate with a thesis on the portrayal of Islam in South African media and art. Her initiation into poetry occurred during a four-month fellowship to the US in 1999 when she enrolled in an evening class. "Though I was a PhD student, I was a complete beginner at writing poetry. I learned how to listen to the rhythms of words and how to end a line. It connected with something in me." She submitted one of her class exercises to a competition in Philadelphia, and won the competition.

She continued her studies in poetry as a visiting scholar at the University of Sheffield as part of her doctorate. She enrolled for the respected MA in Writing at nearby Sheffield Hallam University taught by decorated British poet and playwright Sean O'Brien. Baderoon's poetry education was rounded off with an Advanced Poetry Workshop with the distinguished American poet Robin Becker at Pennsylvania State University. In 2004 she concluded her studies when she graduated with her PhD, but wanted to grow as a writer.

Baderoon won the DaimlerChrysler Award for South African Poetry for 2005 with her first anthology, The Dream in the Next Body, for crafting an "original voice [who] finds the poetic in the ordinary with a fine sense of locality and space. She weaves political and social issues into her poetry without sloganeering. Her work tackles a wide range of themes, astutely shifting the focus from the outside to the inside."

The DaimlerChrysler Poetry Award includes the opportunity to publish a collection of new work and give readings of her work in the major South African centres. She will also be a contributor to the South Africa Day celebrations in Stuttgart, Germany. During a residency on the German island of Sylt and a fellowship at Vaxjo University in Sweden, Baderoon will spend the rest of 2005 preparing the manuscript for her award book.



LitNet: 13 December 2005

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