Karen Press
She was born in Cape Town, and lives in Sea Point. Press is a full-time writer and editor, having published ten collections of poetry, a film script, short stories, as well as educational material and textbooks in the fields of science, mathematics, English and economics. She also translated poetry from Afrikaans, primarily work by Antjie Krog.
Karen Press
- Name
- Karen Press
- Born
- 1956
- Birthplace
- Cape Town, South Africa
- Occupation
- Poet, translator
- Awards
- South African Literary Award
- Known for
- Co-founder of publishing collective Buchu Books
- Nationality
- South Africa
- Honours
- South African Literary Awards
- Languages
- English
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Karen Press. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q961702 · wikipedia · Karen Press
In this article
Biography
Biography
In 1987, she co-founded the publishing collective Buchu Books. Antjie Krog described her poems in The Museum of Working Life as "a haunting museum constructed in Press's delicate tone and vivid poetic intelligence."
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Karen Press • Born — 1956 • Birthplace — Cape Town, South Africa • Occupation — Poet, translator • Awards — South African Literary Award • Known for — Co-founder of publishing collective Buchu Books
Poetry
Poetry
• Emergency Declarations (found poems, co-produced with Ingrid de Kok, 1985) • This Winter Coming (Cinnamon Crocodile, 1986) • Bird Heart Stoning the Sea (Buchu Books, 1990) • History is the dispossession of the heart (Cinnamon Crocodile, 1992) • The Coffee Shop Poems (Snailpress, 1993) • Echo Location - a guide to Sea Point for residents and visitors (Gecko Books, 1998) • Home (Carcanet, 2000) • The Little Museum of Working Life (Deep South, 2004) • The Canary’s Songbook (Carcanet, 2005) • Slowly, As If (Carcanet, 2012)
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- “Karen Press”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q961702: Karen Press
General reference · Wikidata
Awards
Press received the Literary Translators Award in the 2015 South African Literary Awards for translation of Mede-wete and Synapse by Antjie Krog.
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Karen Press, revision 1374217487 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Secondary witnessauthority record
General reference
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 20 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Books
39,529 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Karen LloydAuthor
- Karen Mac CormackAuthor
- Karen McCarthy WoolfAuthor
- Karen MulhallenAuthor
- Karen PryorAuthor
- Karen RussellAuthor
- Karen SolieAuthor
- Karen TravissAuthor
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Karen Press?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.