Description
A unique, limited edition box set, containing collections by poets in the Dryad Press Living Poets Series: Otherwise Occupied, by Sally Ann Murray (2019), Allegories of the Everyday, by Brian Walter (2019), missing by Beverly Rycroft (2019), and Metaphysical Balm, by Michèle Betty (2018).
AUTHORS’ BIOGRAPHIES
Sally Ann Murray is Chair of the English Department at Stellenbosch University. She has an MA (cum laude) and a PhD from the University of Natal, Durban. Her novel, Small Moving Parts (Kwela, 2009), won the 2013 UKZN Book Prize, the 2010 M-Net Literary Award for Best Novel in English, and the 2010 Herman Charles Bosman Prize for Best Publication Media 24. It was also shortlisted for the University of Johannesburg Prize (2010), and the Sunday Times Fiction Prize (2010). She was the recipient of the 1991 Sanlam Award for Literature (Poetry) and the 1989 Arthur Nortje/Vita Award for poetry. Her poems have recently been published in poetry journals Aerodrome and Five Points, and in The New Century of South African Poetry (Jonathan Ball, 2018). Otherwise Occupied is her third poetry volume, her previous collections being open season (HardPressd, 2006) and Shifting (Carrefour Press, 1992). She has also published short fiction, most recently in the Short.Sharp.Stories competition anthologies Incredible Journey (Mercury Books, 2015), Trade Secrets (Tattoo Press, 2017), and Instant Exposure (National Arts Festival, 2018).
Brian Walter holds a doctorate from Rhodes University and taught literature at the University of Fort Hare for 19 years. He later worked in educational and community development projects in the Eastern Cape and currently mentors the Helenvale Poets and is an active member of the Ecca Poets group. Walter has published several collections of poetry, including Baakens (Lovedale Press, 2000) and Otherwise and Other Poems (Echoing Green Press, 2014). His debut collection, Tracks (Lovedale Press, 1999), was the recipient of the 2000 Ingrid Jonker Prize. He was also awarded the 1999 Thomas Pringle Award for poetry published in journals. His other books include Groundwork: An Introduction to Reading and Writing about Poetry (Macmillan, 1997).
Beverly Rycroft was born in the eastern Cape. She is a graduate of the University of Cape Town and the University of the Witwatersrand. A qualified teacher, she taught widely at various schools before turning full-time to writing and journalism. Her poetry has appeared in most local publications and has been anthologised in school textbooks. Her debut poetry collection, missing, won the 2012 Ingrid Jonker award. In 2013, she was awarded the Thomas Pringle Prize for best poem in a journal. Her first novel, A Slim, Green Silence, was published by Umuzi in 2015. A Private Audience is her second poetry collection.
Michèle Betty is the editor of New Contrast: The South African Literary Journal and the founder of Dryad Press (Pty) Ltd, an independent publishing company dedicated to the promotion and publication of poetry in South Africa. She has a BA LLB from the University of the Witwatersrand and an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Cape Town (cum laude). Her poems have appeared in journals both in South Africa and abroad. Metaphysical Balm is her debut collection and was shortlisted for the 2018 Ingrid Jonker Prize.
