South African poetry since 2014

Athambile Masola wins NIHSS Award for Poetry, Kopano Maroga shortlisted

April 1, 2022

We’re proud to announce that Athambile Masola’s debut collection of poems in isiXhosa, Ilifa, has won the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences award for Best Fiction (Poetry). An amazing result for poetry in isiXhosa!

In addition, Kopano Maroga’s collection, Jesus Thesis and Other Critical Fabulations, was named on the shortlist.

The awards were announced at a ceremony on 31 March 2022 at the Javett-UP Arts Centre. Thank you to the judges and organisers, and congratulations to the other winners.

About uHlanga

uHlanga is a small South African poetry press run by Nick Mulgrew.

Our books are available to order from all retail bookstores in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. From 1 October 2025, all of our books are represented to the trade by Blue Weaver and distributed by Booksite.

Outside of South Africa, many of our books are available print-on-demand through the African Books Collective.

On social media

“I’ve always felt that my work resonated beyond an Afrikaans audience. Despite the contextual relevance of Afrikaans to my poetry, I’ve long harboured the desire to make my work accessible to more South Africans. These English translations make that larger conversation possible beyond the limitations of Afrikaans.” 🥀 Read our interview with ‘a corpse is also a garden’ author at our 🔗 in bio #uHlanga #uHlangaInterview #poetry #poemspoemspoems #PieterMadibusengOdendaal #poet #CorpsePoems

"In Owele, Sihle Ntuli meditates on the origins of his family, clan and language through the earthen-toned rivers of the Zulu world."# This Thursday, head to Braam and join @sihlexntuli at a Joburg launch of 'Owele'. Sihle will be in conversation with poet and photographer, @fassielikebrenda at @theforgejhb (87 De Korte Street, Braamfontein). 🌊 RSVP today: rsvp@theforge.org.za #uHlanga #OwelePoems #BookLaunch #SihleNtuli

At the start of July of this year, Nick, uHlanga publisher, had an idea. Based on the high standard of submissions uHlanga received during the submissions period earlier in 2025, which couldn’t all be accepted for publication, he thought it would be remiss to ignore this opportunity to showcase such incredible South African poetry. This idea germinated, and we called for submissions of self-published poetry and poetry zines 🌊 Our inbox was flooded. We were overjoyed. And now, we are proud to bring you ⭐️with our hands⭐️, a new zine and self-published series that will run on the uHlanga social media channels. Keep an eye on our socials for more! #uHlanga #poetry #poemspoemspoems #newsletter #zine #SelfPublished #ZineMaker #WithOurHands