GEORGE NEWS - Local poet Archie Swanson will release his 2024 poetry collection, at the estuary, at Exclusive Books on Friday 14 November. 

The launch will start at 16:00 and will be followed by an open mic and a cheese and wine. People interested to attend are asked to RSVP by Thursday at www.exclusivebooks.co.za /about us/events/poetry evening: open mic poetry evening by Archie Swanson.

Swanson has published six collections of poetry - the stretching of my sky (2018), the shores of years (2019), beyond a distant edge (2021), of clay (2022), at the estuary (2024), and winnowings (2025). 

His poems have been published in the triannual South African poetry magazines Stanzas and New Contrast, and his work has featured in all of the Best New African Poetry Anthologies (BNAP) from 2015 to 2024. 

In addition, three of his poems were translated into Spanish by poet López-Vega and appeared in 2016 in the Spanish national newspaper El Mundo.

He has also collaborated regularly with celebrated composer Grant McLachlan, with his poem "déjà vu" being the inspiration for the composition performed at the Baxter Concert Hall in 2019. 

Two of his poems are included in McLachlan’s 2023 song cycle entitled "the silence of the day", and he has written the words (that were translated into isiXhosa) for McLachlan's choral piece "Intombazana".

In 2017, his poems were shortlisted for the European Union Sol Plaatje Award and the UK Bridport Prize. His poem, "my Guernica" placed second in the Avbob Poetry Competition (English/2019). 

He was one of four international guest poets invited to the Nigerian Abuja Writers’ Forum, “Poetry - Nuts and Bolts”, in 2021.

Swanson is one of 10 African poets invited to contribute 20 pages of English poetry each to a ten-year commemorative BNAP anthology.

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