Klara Du Plessis

G is a sound. Phonetically, it is represented as ?]?and corresponds to ? in the Arabic alphabet?a guttural resonance shared between Afrikaans and Persian. Hinging on this mutual fricative sonically prominent in their respective languages, and a playful inclusion of homonyms across English, Afrikaans, and Persian, Klara du Plessis and Khashayar ?Kess? Mohammadi composed G collaboratively in a shared Google document, an act of hospitality into their languages. Amplifying common etymologies, but centering communication beyond the delimitation of verbal systems, this work stages a conceptual project of human interconnection through the metaphors of tongue, speech, and poetry as sound. G builds on both poets? earlier translingual and translation work, including du Plessis? award-winning Ekke and Mohammadi's Me, You, Then Snow.

"Recording the event say, I am the event." The event represents the lyrical, but an attempt at defining the event endlessly defers meaning--poetry readings, death, belonging, the digital and-- Post-Mortem of the Event is a cyclical archive that twists back to recorded readings of Klara du Plessis's earlier Hell Light Flesh and leans forward to invoke a still unwritten manuscript. Here poetic composition encompasses audiovisual media, transcription, wave form visualization, and digital humanities and interdisciplinary methods. With the maturity of three previous collections, Du Plessis presents a brilliant expansion of her musical yet essayistic poetics.

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 Canadas most exciting young voices.

In her second collection of poetry,Hell Light Flesh,Klara du Plessis returns with a Dantesque trilogy on family, punishment, and the ferocity and brilliance of creation.Hell Light Fleshdrops the reader into a narrative claustrophobically entwined in unquestioned systemic violence where art and art criticism act as a consistent glimmer of hope. Over and over, the poem lends itself to allegory, and yields to layers of interpretation.Hell Light Fleshis mandatory reading for devotees of the long poem and fans of du Plessis thrilling brand of essayistic poetry alike.