Tjawangwa Dema
Motswana poet (born 1981)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tjawangwa "TJ" Dema (born 1981) is a Motswana poet, known for her spoken word and performance poetry.
Tjawangwa Dema | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1981 (age 44–45) Gaborone, Botswana |
| Alma mater | Lancaster University |
| Occupation | Poet |
Life and career
Dema was born in 1981 in Gaborone, Botswana.[1] She has a master's of arts degree from Lancaster University.[2]
Dema's chapbook, Mandible, was published as part of the 2014 boxed set Seven New Generation African Poets (edited by Kwame Dawes and Chris Abani, published by Slapering Hol Press).[2][3] John Taylor, reviewing the set for The Antioch Review, said Dema's work "is especially touching in moments when intimate feelings are expressed metaphorically".[4] She has also had work published in the Cordite Poetry Review, Elsewhere Lit, the New Orleans Review and in the anthology Read Women (Locked Horn Press, 2014).[2]
As a performance poet she has performed at the Gaborone International Music and Culture Week,[5] and internationally in over 20 countries including Germany, Singapore, Portugal,[6] Sweden,[7] and Scotland.[8][9] She represented Botswana at the Poetry Parnassus in London in 2012.[10]
In 2018 Dema received the Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets for her collection The Careless Seamstress.[2] The prize came with US$1,000 and publication of her collection as part of the African Poetry Book Series by the University of Nebraska Press.[2] The collection was a Brittle Paper Notable Book of 2019.[11]
In 2022 Dema published a collection of ecopoetry, an/another pastoral (No Bindings Press), illustrated by Tebogo Cranwell and with a foreword from Chris Abani. The collection was launched on Earth Day.[12] It was a Brittle Paper Notable Book of 2022, described as "[combining] history and race with the climate crisis to create riveting poetry that brings an African ecopoetics perspective to our changing world".[13]
Dema has received fellowships and residencies from the University of Iowa's International Writing Program, the Vermont Studio Center, the Danish Arts Foundation (Danish International Visiting Residence programme, 2014),[14] and the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities at Northwestern University (2016 Artist-in-Residence).[2]
