We are thrilled to announce the upcoming publication of All the Places, the full debut collection by Musawenkosi Khanyile.

This is an especially important release for us. Musa was one of the poets we published in our first-ever release, a once-off magazine in 2014. It was one of his first publications, and his growth as a poet — which has included a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of the Western Cape — has culminated in this wonderful collection.

In his moving collection, Musawenkosi Khanyile speaks for the heartache, perseverance and untriumphant triumph of township life. Through snapshots and memories of family and community, centred around the boy- and young manhood of a single narrator, All The Places is a rare and compelling poetic Bildungsroman, with the ambition and scope of a novel, paired with (and pared down to) minimalist and clear-eyed verse.

Concurrently original and quintessentially South African, these poems mark Khanyile out as a skilled stylist and storyteller – a frank and important new voice in South African literature.

Musawenkosi Khanyile was born in 1991 and raised in Nseleni, KwaZulu-Natal. He holds a Masters in Clinical Psychology from the University of Zululand, and a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of the Western Cape. His first chapbook, The Internal Saboteur, appears in the African Poetry Book Fund's 2019 New-Generation African Poets Boxset. He currently lives in Cape Town.

For more information, see the publication’s page. An overseas edition will soon be available through the African Books Collective.

We are looking forward to launching the book at The Book Lounge in Cape Town on 18 July. Further launches in other towns and cities will be announced soon.