Sheila Cussons
Sheila Cussons (9 August 1922 – 25 November 2004) was an Afrikaans poet. She was born on the Moravia missionary station near Piketberg, South Africa, and, after matriculating from Afrikaanse Hoër Meisieskool, studied fine arts at the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg. She was one of the most important poets in Afrikaans, besides an accomplished painter and artist.
Sheila Cussons
- Born
- 1922. · Western Cape.
- Died
- 2004. · Cape Town.
- Nationality
- South Africa.
- Occupation
- poet, translator, writer and painter.
- Education
- University of Natal and Afrikaanse Hoër Meisieskool.
- Languages
- English and Afrikaans.
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Sheila Cussons (9 August 1922 – 25 November 2004) was an Afrikaans poet. She was born on the Moravia missionary station near Piketberg, South Africa, and, after matriculating from Afrikaanse Hoër Meisieskool, studied fine arts at the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg. She was one of the most important poets in Afrikaans, besides an accomplished painter and artist.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Note VALÉORINE
Sheila Cussons (1922–2004) was a South African painter, poet and translator, among other activities. Born in Western Cape, the painter died in Cape Town. Sheila Cussons studied at Afrikaanse Hoër Meisieskool and University of Natal. Languages used include Afrikaans and English.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 27 September 2026
VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Sheila Cussons. 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
Evidence Panel
not yet certified
- Identity
- resolved
- Independent source families
- 0
- Admitted assertions
- 0
- Open conflicts
- 0
Authority files
wikidata · Q2568495 · wikipedia · Sheila Cussons
In this article
Volumes of poetry
Volumes of poetry
The poet D.J. Opperman was influential in her decision to write in Afrikaans, while N. P. van Wyk Louw maintained prolonged correspondence with her, which they both considered as beneficial to their work. Nevertheless, she always deemed herself to be a visual artist in the first instance, and a poet second. Publishing 11 volumes of poetry during her lifetime, she received the Ingrid Jonker Prize (1970), the Eugène Marais Prize (1971), the WA Hofmeyr Prize three times (1972, 1982 and 1991), the CNA Prize (1981), the Louis Luyt Prize (1982), and the prestigious Hertzog Prize in 1983. She died in 2004 at the age of 82, at Nazareth House, a Catholic institution in Vredehoek.
Plektrum (1970) ("Plectrum") Die swart kombuis (1978) ("The black kitchen") Verf en vlam (1978) ("Canvas and flame") Donderdag of Woensdag (1978) ("Thursday or Wednesday") Die skitterende wond (1979) ("The brilliant wound") Die sagte sprong (1979) ("The soft pounce") Die somerjood (1980) ("The summer jew") Die woedende brood (1981) ("The angry loaf") Omtoorvuur (1982) ("Transforming fire") Verwikkelde lyn (1983) ("Complicated line") Membraan (1984) ("Membrane") Poems: a selection (1985) (A selection of poems translated by the poet herself) Die heilige modder (1988) ("The sacred mud") Die knetterende woord (1990) ("The sonorescent word") 'n Engel deur my kop (1997) ("An angel through my mind")(A selection of Sheila Cussons' religious poems compiled by Amanda Botha) Die asem wat ekstase is (2000) ("The breath that is ecstasy")(A selection of Sheila Cussons' non-religious poems compiled by Amanda Botha) Versamelde gedigte (2006) ("Complete poems") Teesuiker (1983) (Verwikkelnde lyne)
Fiction
Fiction
Gestaltes 1947 (1982) ("Figures")
As translator
As translator
Die vorm van die swaard en ander verhale (1981) ("The shape of the sword and other stories") (Cussons' translations of short stories by Jorge Luis Borges)
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1922
Sheila Cussons born at Western Cape.
2004
Sheila Cussons died at Cape Town.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Western Cape.
Birth place
Cape Town.
Death place
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
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 14 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Paintings
18,705 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Shaykh 'AbbasiArtist
- Sheela GowdaArtist
- Sheikh ZainuddinArtist
- SheikhzadehArtist
- Sheila FellArtist
- Sheldon PeckArtist
- Shen QuanArtist
- Shen ZhouArtist
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Sheila Cussons?
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.