Keorapetse Kgositsile

Born in Johannesburg, South African poet and editor Keorapetse Kgositsile left his homeland in 1961 because of the pressures of apartheid. He earned an MFA at Columbia University, and his publications include This Way I Salute You (2004), If I Could Sing: Selected Poems (2002), and The Present Is a Dangerous Place to Live (1974). He also edited the African poetry anthology The Word Is Here: Poetry from Modern Africa (1973).

In 2006, Kgositsile was chosen as South Africa’s national poet laureate. In 2008, he was awarded the Order of Ikhamanga. Additional honors include a Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Prize, a National Endowment for the Arts award, a New York Council of the Arts Poetry Award, and a Rockefeller Foundation poetry grant.

Kgositsile taught at the University of Dar es Salaam, Nairobi University and Sarah Lawrence College. In 2001, he returned to Johannesburg. He died in 2018.