We are proud to announce the publication in April 2022 of Peach Country, the debut collection by Nondwe Mpuma.

This slim volume should not be underestimated. With dreamy cover art from Shakil Solanki, our first release of 2022 will take you on an equally dreamy journey through landscapes of tornado-stricken villages, mythical beings, and the eternally evanescent promise of love.

Grounded by understated and precise verse, Mpuma weaves together the spiritual and the natural with effortless, imagistic flair. In Peach Country there is celebration, mourning, meditation, prayer, exploration, impatience and joy; throughout, however, Mpuma maintains an open-eyed wonder at the entirety of existence, viewed from her particular, and particularly enchanting, corner of the world.

Nondwe Mpuma was born in 1995, in Lubaleko, emaXesibeni, on the rural plains of the Eastern Cape. A Mellon Mays Fellow during her undergraduate studies, Mpuma has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of the Western Cape, and is currently a lecturer at the same institution.

The winner of the 2017 Patricia Schonstein Poetry in McGregor Award, Mpuma has been published widely in South Africa and abroad. (Including in the previous uHlanga collection Cutting Carrots the Wrong Way). She is currently one of the organisers of The Red Wheelbarrow Poetry Society, based in Cape Town, where she lives.

Peach Country will be available from April 2022 in all good bookstores in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana, and printed on demand overseas from the African Books Collective. Distribution in Southern Africa is done by Protea Distribution. Bookstores and other retail may order from Tamsin Doubell at 021 699 850, or orders@proteadistribution.co.za.