Koleka Putuma poetry collection “Collective Amnesia” now in Spanish.

Koleka Putuma debut poetry collection Collective Amnesia is now available in Spanish. It was translated by Arrate Hidalgo & Lawrence Schimel and published by Flores Rara.

Koleka Putuma is a South African award-winning performance poet, facilitator, and theatre-maker. Her work has travelled around the world, with her poetry garnering her national prizes, such as the 2014 National Poetry Slam Championship and the 2016 PEN South Africa Student Writing Prize. In 2018, her debut poetry collection Collective Amnesia was published by uHlanga Press. The new title had the following blurb accompanying it;

This highly-anticipated debut collection from one of the country’s most acclaimed young voices marks a massive shift in South African poetry. Koleka Putuma’s exploration of blackness, womxnhood and history in Collective Amnesia is fearless and unwavering. Her incendiary poems demand justice, insist on visibility and offer healing. In them, Putuma explodes the idea of authority in various spaces – academia, religion, politics, relationships – to ask what has been learnt and what must be unlearnt. Through grief and memory, pain and joy, sex and self-care, Collective Amnesia is a powerful appraisal, reminder and revelation of all that has been forgotten and ignored, both in South African society, and within ourselves.

The book would go on to success rarely seen by poetry collections with some prophesying that this instant classic could change how we sell African books. The poet found herself on the spotlight with wins at the Mbokodo Awards, the Forbes 30 under thirty among many other accolades.

In January her South African publisher Nick Mulgrew announced that a Spanish language translation was coming soon. It seems that it has come to pass as the new publication is here. Published by Flores Rara, the collection was translated by Arrate Hidalgo & Lawrence Schimel.

Putuma was very excited with the first translation of her work stating on her social media; “I’m overwhelmed. I’m terrified. I’m grateful. I’m shook. The first translation of my baby y’all. 😱😳😭😭”

Congratulations are in order. Bravo Koleka!