Dr Raphael d’Abdon is a writer, scholar, spoken word
poet, editor and translator. He holds an MA in Arts from the University of
Uppsala (Sweden) and a PhD in Linguistics and Literary Studies from the
University of Udine (Italy), and is a lecturer at the Department of English
Studies at the University of South Africa (UNISA). He has published articles,
essays, translations, interviews, short stories and poems in several volumes
and journals. In 2007 he complied, translated and edited I nostri
semi/Peotsarona, an anthology of contemporary South African poetry published by
Mangrovie (Naples, Italy). In 2011 he translated into Italian (with Lorenzo
Mari) Bless Me Father (La Compagnia delle Lettere), the autobiography of South
African poet Mario d’Offizi. He has read his poetry in South Africa, Nigeria,
Italy and the USA, where he chaired a session on spoken word and literature at
the 2011 Chinua Achebe Colloquium. In 2013, he compiled and edited the
collection Marikana: A Moment in Time (Geko), published his debut poetry
collection sunny side night walk (Geko), and was one of the featured poets at
the “Poetry Africa” festival in Durban. In 2016 he published his second
collection of poems, salt water (Poetree Publishing). He lectures at the Mzansi
Poetry Academy, he is the co-editor of the academic journal scrutiny, and he is
a member of ZAPP (The South African Poetry Project) and IPP (International
Poetry Project), two joint-projects of the University of Cambridge, UNISA and
the University of the Witwatersrand, whose chief aims are to promote poetry in
schools in South Africa, UK and beyond, and to instill knowledge, understanding
and a love of poetry in young learners.