Chris Mann (poet)

South African poet (1948–2021)

Christopher Michael "Zithulele" Mann^[1][2] (1948 – 10 March 2021) was a South African poet.^[1]

Biography

Chris Mann was born in Port Elizabeth in 1948 and went to Diocesan College (Bishops) in Rondebosch, Cape Town. He studied English and Philosophy at the University of the Witwatersrand, and went to Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar where he was awarded an MA in English Language and Literature. He also studied African Oral Literature at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.^[3] From 1977 to 1980 he held a lecturer post in the English Department at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa. From 1980 to 1995 he worked with an NGO, The Valley Trust^[4] at KwaNyuswa outside Durban, where he received his isiZulu nickname, Zithulele, meaning "the quiet one."^[2] After that, after which he returned to Rhodes University where he was a professor of poetry at the Institute for the Study of English in Africa.^[5] He was founder and convenor of Wordfest, a national multilingual festival of South African languages and literature with a developmental emphasis.^[3][6][7] A native English speaker, Mann was also conversant in Afrikaans, isiZulu and isiXhosa. He performed his work at festivals, schools, churches, universities and conferences in South Africa.^[3] He was married to artist Julia Skeen.^[5]

Works

Books

• First Poems, 1979. Cape Town: Bateleur Press.
• A New Book of South African Verse, 1979. With Guy Butler. Cape Town: OUP.
• New Shades. David Philip. 1982. ISBN 978-0-908396-54-2.
• Kites, and Other Poems. New Africa Books. 1990. ISBN 978-0-86486-151-1.
• Mann Alive!: Poems. David Philip. 1992. ISBN 978-0-86486-239-6.
• South Africans: a set of portrait-poems. University of Natal Press. 1996. ISBN 978-0-86980-922-8.
• The horn of plenty: a series of painting-poems. ISEA, Rhodes University. 1997. ISBN 978-0-86810-324-2. with Julia Skeen
• The Roman Centurion’s Good Friday, 1999. Grahamstown: Cathedral of St Michael & St George.
• Heartlands. University of Natal Press. 2002. ISBN 978-1-86914-010-6.
• In Praise of the Shades, 2003. Grahamstown: Cathedral of St Michael and St George.
• Walking on Gravity, 2004. Grahamstown: Cathedral of St Michael and St George.
• Thuthula, 2005. Johannesburg: Ravan & PanMacmillan.
• Beautiful Lofty Things, 2005. Grahamstown: Cathedral of St Michael and St George.
• Walking on Gravity, 2005. In: Dante in South Africa. Cullinan, Patrick and Watson, Stephen (Eds.). Cape Town: Centre for Creative Writing, University of Cape Town.
• Lifelines, 2006. With: Skeen, Julia and Craig, Adrian. Pietermaritzburg: UKZN Press.
• Home from Home: New and Selected Poems. Echoing Green Press. 2010. ISBN 978-0-9802501-7-6. with Julia Skeen
• Small Town Big Voice, 2012. Ed. Renard, Andrew. Port Elizabeth: SACEE.
• Rudiments of Grace, 2014. Grahamstown: Cathedral of St Michael and St George.^[8]
• Epiphanies, 2017. Grahamstown. Cathedral of St Michael and St George.
• Heraclitus in Africa. forthcoming.

^[8]

Plays in verse and multimedia poetry productions

• The Sand Labyrinth. 1980 National Student Drama Festival.
• Mahoon’s Testimony. Broadcast on SAfm in 1998, rebroadcast 2007.
• Frail Care. Broadcast on SAfm in 1997 and re-broadcast in 1999 and 2007.
• The Crux of Being. 1999 National Arts Festival Fringe.
• In Praise of the Shades. 2003 National Arts Festival Fringe.
• Thuthula. 2003 National Arts Festival Main Programme.
• Walking on Gravity. 2004 National Arts Festival Fringe.
• Beautiful Lofty Things. 2005 National Arts Festival Fringe production.
• Lifelines. 2006 National Arts Festival Fringe poetry performance production.
• LifeSongs. 2007 National Arts Festival Fringe installation.
• Epiphanies. 2008. National Arts Festival Fringe installation.
• LifeSongs. 2011. National English Literary Museum installation.
• The Ballad of Dirk de Bruin, 2014.^[9][10] National Arts Festival Fringe.
• Anxiety and Grace. With Julia Skeen. 2016. National Arts Festival Fringe and Spiritfest.
• Epiphanies. With Julia Skeen. 2018. National Arts Festival Fringe and Spiritfest.

Articles

• "The Guttural Muse in the Sky: A valediction for Seamus Heaney". English Academy Review. 30 (2): 129–132. 2013. doi:10.1080/10131752.2013.843906. ISSN 1013-1752. S2CID 162267971.
• "Saturnalia satirica: six satires wearing masks". Scrutiny2. 19 (1): 147–151. 2014. doi:10.1080/18125441.2014.906257. ISSN 1812-5441. S2CID 144690149.
• "Creation and translation". Current Writing. 19: 21–52. 2007. doi:10.1080/1013929x.2007.9678260. S2CID 143802524. with Ileana Dimitriu
• "Seeing the cosmos in a grain of sand". Current Writing. 20 (2): 108–126. 2008. doi:10.1080/1013929x.2008.9678304. S2CID 145580265.
• "The Poetry of Belonging". English Literature. 2016. doi:10.14277/2420-823x/el-3-16-1.
• "Points of Illumination: Wordfest South Africa This Year and Next."^[11]

Commentary on Mann's Work

Mann's work has received critical consideration in journals such as

• The English Academy Review;^{[12][13][14][15][16][17]}
• English in Africa;^[18]
• Shakespeare in Southern Africa;^[19]
• Scrutiny2;^[20] and
• Literator.

Awards

• Newdigate Prize for Poetry while a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford.
• Olive Schreiner Prize for South African Poetry in English.
• South African Performing Arts Councils’ Playwright Award.
• Hon.D.Litt. University of Durban-Westville, now University of KwaZulu-Natal.
• Eastern Cape Premier’s Award for Literature.
• First Professor of Poetry, Rhodes University.
• English Academy of South Africa Thomas Pringle Award for Poetry.
• Mann's 2014 play The Ballad of Dirk de Bruin which premiered at the National Arts Festival was awarded a Silver Standard Bank Ovation Award for "artistic innovation, excellence and the exploration of new performance styles".^[21][22]
• Honorary Artist in Residence, Grahamstown Cathedral (2017–2021)
• Guest poet, Incroci di civiltà international poetry festival, Venice 2019
• English Academy of South Africa Gold Medal 2019

References

Citations

1. Eve 2003, pp. 135–136.
2. Ngidi, Sandile. "An ode to Chris Mann". Citypress. Retrieved 14 March 2021.
3. Jobson, Liesl. "Chris Mann". Poetry International Rotterdam. Poetry International. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 13 February 2015.
4. Anon (1989). Annual Report of the Valley Trust. Valley Trust.
5. Eve 2003, p. 135.
6. "Wordfest- Rhodes University". Rhodes University. 20 July 2011. Retrieved 13 February 2015.
7. Eve 2003, p. 136.
8. Greybe 2014.
9. Sassen 2014.
10. Rickard 2014.
11. LindsayC. "Points of Illumination: Wordfest South Africa This Year and Next". PEN South Africa. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
12. Brown 2011, pp. 64–72.
13. Brown 2007, pp. 134–137.
14. Johnson 1996, pp. 75–102.
15. Gardner 1995, pp. 99–107.
16. Foley 1991, pp. 15–29.
17. Butler 1985, pp. 163–176.
18. Meihuizen 2007, pp. 133–140.
19. Gagiano 2009, pp. 95–98.
20. Levey 2010, pp. 55–69.
21. Anon 2014, p. 19.
22. Grocotts 2014.

Sources

• Eve, Jeanette (2003). A Literary Guide to the Eastern Cape: Places and the Voices of Writers. Juta and Company Ltd. ISBN 978-1-919930-15-2. Retrieved 16 September 2013.
• Butler, G. (1985). "English and the English in the New South Africa". English Academy Review. 3 (1): 163–176. doi:10.1080/10131758585310141.
• Foley, A. (1991). "The white English-speaking South Africans: 'Bastards', 'Wimps', 'Ghosts with ears', or something else again?". English Academy Review. 8 (1): 15–29. doi:10.1080/10131759185310041.
• Johnson, A. (1996). "'The president waves back': Twelve recent books of poetry". English Academy Review. 13 (1): 75–102. doi:10.1080/10131759685310091.
• Gardner, C. (1995). "A rediscovery of the ordinary: A reading of three recent poems by Chris Mann". English Academy Review. 12 (1): 99–107. doi:10.1080/10131759585310111.
• Meihuizen, N. (2007). "Lifelines, Chris Mann, Adrian Craig, and Julia Skeen : book review". English in Africa. 34 (2): 133–140. ISSN 0376-8902.
• Brown, M. (2007). "The fixative of earth and mind …". English Academy Review. 24 (1): 134–137. doi:10.1080/17535360712331393530. S2CID 161778698.
• Gagiano, A. (2009). "Thuthula : Heart of the Labyrinth, Chris Zithulele Mann : book review". Shakespeare in Southern Africa. 21: 95–98. doi:10.4314/sisa.v21i1.47840. ISSN 1011-582X.
• Brown, M. (2011). "Light on shades: Complex constructions of identity in the poetry of Chris Mann". English Academy Review. 28 (1): 64–72. doi:10.1080/10131752.2011.574004. S2CID 144125563.
• Levey, David (2010). "Could you not write otherwise?' Thirty years of Chris Mann's poetry". Scrutiny2: Issues in English Studies in Southern Africa. 15 (1): 55–69. doi:10.1080/18125441.2010.500458. S2CID 142959812.
• Anon (6 July 2014). "2014 Arward Winners". Cue. Grahamstown: CueMedia, a project of the Rhodes University School of Journalism. p. 19. Retrieved 6 July 2014.
• Staff Reporter (2014). "Festival Ovation Award winners announced". Grocotts Mail. Archived from the original on 9 March 2016. Retrieved 15 July 2014.
• Sassen, Robyn (7 July 2014). "Ballad of a backveld farm boy". Cue Online. Archived from the original on 11 July 2014. Retrieved 9 July 2014.
• Rickard, Carmel (13 June 2014). "Curious vistas on the platteland". Mail & Guardian. Retrieved 9 July 2014.
• Greybe, David (2014). "Spiritfest programme launched". Grocotts Mail. Retrieved 15 July 2014.

External links

• Official website
• Biography, KZN Literary Tourism
• Biography, Poetry International Rotterdam
• Articles, Mail and Guardian
• Interview, English Experience