Lebogang Mashile

The daughter of exiled South African parents, Mashile was born in the United States, in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and returned to South Africa in the mid-1990s after the end of apartheid. She began to study law and international relations at the University of the Witwatersrand but became more interested in the arts. With Myesha Jenkins, Ntsiki Mazwai and Napo Masheane, she founded the poetry group Feela Sistah. She appeared in the 2004 film Hotel Rwanda and has performed in a number of theatre productions, including Threads, which combined dance, music and poetry. She also recorded a live performance album incorporating music and poetry, titled Lebo Mashile Live. She co-produced and hosted the documentary programme L’Attitude on SABC 1 and hosted a game show called Drawing the Line on SABC 2. In 2005, she published her first poetry collection, In a Ribbon of Rhythm, for which she received the Noma Award in 2006. She was included in Beyond Words: South African Poetics (flipped eye publishing, 2009), alongside Keorapetse Kgositsile, Don Mattera and Phillippa Yaa de Villiers), and she is a contributor to the 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby. Mashile and musician, performer, writer Majola released an EP in 2016.

• In a Ribbon of Rhythm, poetry (Oshun Books, 2005) • Flying Above the Sky, poetry (African Perspective, 2008)

• Official website *