OLGA KIRSCH, a life in poetry

355pp., illus., paperback, No Place, 2018.

South African Jewish poet Olga Kirsch (1924-1997) wrote mainly in Afrikaans.

"Olga Kirsch needs to be more widely known in South African letters. She is well known in Afrikaans circles, but she is selectively appreciated there and in English South African literary history she is hardly known at all. This biography brings the various threads of Kirsch's life and work together, showing their complex interrelationship, their multilingualism and cross-culturalism. In particular, it gives Kirsch the nuanced, complex positioning between languages and cultures that she deserves. Kirsch's poetry is a bridge between cultures that are otherwise scarcely in communication." Professor David Attwell

Egonne Roth was affiliated with the English Department at Bar Ilan University in Israel. She is the author of Lessons in Writing the Biography of the Crossover Poet, Olga Kirsch and The Men in the Life and Work of Olga Kirsch.