South African poetry since 2014

uHlanga at the 2025 Open Book Festival

August 5, 2025

Six uHlanga poets will take part in nine events during this year's Open Book Festival in Cape Town, from 5–7 September 2025 – Kopano Maroga, Athambile Masola, Manthipe Moila, Nick Mulgrew, Maneo Mohale, and Pieter Madibuseng Odendaal.

Make sure to join us for a special ten-year uHlanga reading on Saturday afternoon from 16:00 at the Book Lounge.

Elsewhere our authors will be touching on topics as diverse as artificial intelligence, queer anxiety and imagination, recovering feminist histories, first-person poetics, and even a one-on-one interview between Maneo Mohale and Zimbabwean superstar Tsitsi Dangarembga.

The events featuring uHlanga poets are below, in order of date and time. Click on any image below to take you through to the event page, on which you can buy tickets!

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

A moment worth celebrating! A copy of ‘Poésie de l’Afrique au sud du Sahara’ landed in the uHlanga postbox, featuring French translations of poems by our very own uHlanga poet, Athambile Masola. Congrats, @athambile_m 🎉 #uHlanga #poetry #poems #AthambileMasola

This year, uHlanga turned ten 🕯️. What began in 2014 as a small poetry operation from KwaZulu-Natal has become a home for some of our country’s most resonant voices. So stay close! Sign up for our newsletter to hear about new releases, news from our authors and poetry events near you. You can subscribe at our link in bio 🌊 #uHlanga #poetry #poemspoemspoems #newsletter

“But sickness, like the toilet, swallows sweepingly, with little to no carre when I whinge that it’s just so unfair as if this was the only time loss and living would meet; as if worse things weren’t happening mere metres down the street.” – Genna Gardini ‘Matric Rage’ is Genna Gardini’s reckoning with youth, womanhood and mortality. With hyper-literate, humorous and often heartbreaking poems, Gardini signalled a wind change in South African poetry – where the personal is not just political, but polemical, too. In sickness and sex, misogyny and manners, this is a collection that, above all, showcased – when it was published in 2015 – and still showcases, a powerful writer coming unapologetically into her own. ⚘ Commended for the 2016 Ingrid Jonker Prize 📗 Make it yours at our link in bio. #uHlanga #poetry #poemspoemspoems #GennaGardini #poet #MatricRagePoems