Sindiswa Busuku-Mathese's debut collection of poetry Loud and Yellow
Laughter, published by Botsotso, was awarded the 2018 Ingrid Jonker
prize for poetry.
Busuku Mathese's entry was described by one judge as 'completely
original: the presentation of family history as a play, in which the
narrator is an unreliable character'. The poet was praised for the 'the
mix of WW2 history, the narrator's dilemmas about being adopted, and the
way she manages to weave these together without ever losing her balance
or falling into incongruity'. Another judge highlighted how Busuku
Mathese's 'memoir in the form of a collage... offers fragments in
several voices, some of them "reconstructed". [The collection]
'movingly reflects the quest of the 'The Girl Child', as intimate
'curator' of family memory and experience, to integrate the surprising
puzzle that is her current self'.
The original version of this collection was written as part of the
poet's Master's thesis in Creative Writing at the University of
KwaZulu-Natal.
A collection of 39 pieces, some mystical and elliptical, some seemingly
mundane snatches of prose-poetry that retain a poetic intensity,
together they create an atmosphere of nostalgia tinged with a subtle yet
matter-of-fact sadness. Accompanied by a series of graphic images, made
up of old photographic portraits and scenes of natural beauty.
