EKKE, Klara du Plessis

Klara du Plessis

Winner 2019 Pat Lowther Memorial Award

Finalist 2019 Gerald Lampert Award

Poetry
ISBN-13: 978-1-926794-71-6
$18.95 CDN / $17.95 US | Trade Paperback
April 2018

Multilingually inflected, Klara du Plessis’ first collection of poetry explores the multiplicity of self through language, occupying a liminal space between South Africa and Canada. A sequence of visceral, essay-like long poems, du Plessis’ writing straddles the lyrical and intellectual, traversing landscapes and fine arts canvases. Ekke is a watershed debut from one of Canada’s most exciting young voices.

Praise for Ekke

Ekke entwines a filigree of language and being, unpacking/unfolding the subject—a web of intersections with language, landscape, art, culture, nation—while pushing language to and beyond the limits of meaning. Like tides coming in and out, du Plessis’ lines advance and recede over her themes to “eke out a meaning for [the] self,” a self existing between Afrikaans and English, writing the (animal) body between “lyftaal” and “skryftaal.” Philosophical and tectonic, vulnerable and vivid, Ekke’s long poems ultimately become “ululations in the throat.”–Oana Avasilichioaei, author of We Beasts

In Ekke, Klara du Plessis proves her assertion that “a mirror image is never static.” Her long, thoughtful poems look in the bent mirrors of two languages – English and Afrikaans – where we encounter cows, roses, women, museums, and the girls of Las Meninas. du Plessis’ curiosity glances and pauses, meanders and dwells, always pulling the reader through memorable lines and startling insights in this remarkable and original debut. A must-read from one of our country’s finest new voices.–Sachiko Murakami, author of Get Me Out of Here