Kobus Moolman - a short biography and bibliography of this KwaZulu-Natal author.

zoom Kobus Moolman

Kobus Moolman was born in 1964 in Pietermaritzburg. He has a Masters degree (Cum Laude) in English and an Honours degree in Drama Studies from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He has worked as English teacher and sub-editor on The Natal Witness. He was formerly head of the Education Department at the Tatham Art Gallery in Pietermaritzburg, a position he held for thirteen years. He is currently a lecturer in creative writing in the Department of English at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, although he still resides in Pietermaritzburg.

In 1992 Moolman was a finalist in the Amstel Playwright of the Year Award. He is the recipient of the BBC African Radio Theatre Award (1987), the Macmillan Southern African Playwriting Award (1991) and in 2000 he won a merit award in the Noupoort Reward for Playwriting.

In 1998 he was awarded the Helen Martins Fellowship which enabled him to spend a month in the Karoo village of Nieu Bethesda working on an anthology of poetry. This collection, Time like Stone, was published by the University of Natal Press in June 2000. In 2001 Moolman was one of five South African poets featured in a collection by Botsotso Publishers, entitled 5 Poetry. His debut collection, Time like Stone, was awarded the Ingrid Jonker Prize for 2001, the premier South African award for a debut anthology.

Several of Moolman’s short stories have also been broadcast by the BBC and the SABC. In 2002 a short story of his was featured in the collection From Jo-burg to Jozi, published by Penguin Books. His poetry is also featured in the new anthology, it all begins: poems from postliberation South Africa, published by Gecko Poetry.

Moolman is the editor of the annual poetry journal, Fidelities. As co-ordinator of the Fidelities Poetry Project (a project he began in 1995) he facilitates and conducts regular creative writing workshops and readings for a variety of interest groups. He has also edited several books of poetry for the University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, including work by Moira Lovell, Karen Press, Robert Greig and Kelwyn Sole.

In 2003 he was awarded second prize in the BBC African Performance radio drama competition. His winning play was produced for the BBC World Service in April 2003. In the same year it was also read at the Moscow Theatre Festival of New Writing.

A second collection of poetry, Feet of the Sky was published by Brevitas Press in 2003. In 2003 and 2004 he participated in a radio drama residency organized by the BBC, the British Council and the Performing Arts Network of South Africa. Moolman’s work has also appeared on the following on-line poetry sites: Donga; LitNet; Southern Rain Poetry and Mindfire Renewed. In 2004, he was selected to be one of the invited poets at the PoetryAfrica Festival in Durban, where his work was very warmly received. In the same year his play, Full Circle, was awarded the Jury First Prize in the third PANSA Festival of Reading of New Writing. This play premiered at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown in 2005, directed by Charmaine Weir-Smith.

Selected Work

Ballad of a Soft Man

soft man slumped
into a corner
of the sky

opaque sky, distracted
by sand and stones
scraping against sun;

the broken shell
of a wind
see-sawing across
a glass eye;

soft man slumped
into a corner
of the sky

leaking stray birds
and stuffing.

(Windermere Road, Durban central)

In the Name of the Moon

The wind wears the face
of the sea today.

The sea appears
more solid than the sky.

The sky turns its back
on all the world,
except the moon.

The moon
stops so far from my hands

I must repeat
its un-pronounceable name
three times to reach it.

(Howard College, UKZN, Durban)

Bibliography

2003. Feet of the Sky. Howick: Brevitas Press.
2001. 5 Poetry. Johannesburg: Botsotso Publishers.
2000. Time like Stone. Pietermaritzburg: University of Natal Press.

- Durban -
- Index -

For more information please visit KZN Literary Tourism