Stephen Watson (6 November 1954 – 10 April 2011) was a South African poet. Most of his poetry is about the city of

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

, where he lived most of his life. His schooling was at Bishops (Diocesan College) in Rondebosch. He was a professor in English at the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) (, ) is a public university, public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university status in 1918, making it the oldest univer ...

. He was also the Director of the Writing Centre there, and one of the founders of the Creative Writing Program. Creatively, he believed that poetry and literature can stand on their own and need not refer to politics, or the struggle for liberation, in order to be valid. He took a strong stand on poetic relativism, believing it was possible and desirable to differentiate between "good" and "bad" poetry - a stance that has drawn criticism. As a literary critic, Watson suggested that "South Africa is held together by a nexus of peoples 'dreaming' each other in terms of the myths that the distance between them creates." Watson was anchored at the

for most of his career. In his poetry, he was best known as a lyrical chronicler of the Cape's natural beauty, documenting the response of the soul when surrounded by it. His intertwinedness with the landscape spilled into his prose, too: he memorably wrote about his "love affair" with the city's mountains last year, in what might be cast as a follow-up essay to his landmark 1990 piece, "In These Mountains". Although poetry was Watson's chief metier, he distinguished himself as an essayist, writing on subjects near and far, as diverse as South African "black" poetry and

Leonard Cohen Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian songwriter, singer, poet, and novelist. Themes commonly explored throughout his work include faith and mortality, isolation and depression, betrayal and redemption, soc ...

."Stephen Watson, RIP"
''Books Live'', 11 April 2011. In February 2006, the normally reclusive Watson made the mainstream news when, writing in '' New Contrast'', he launched an attack on

Antjie Krog Antjie Krog (born 1952) is a South African writer and academic, best known for her Afrikaans poetry, her reporting on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and her 1998 book '' Country of My Skull''. In 2004, she joined the Arts faculty of t ...

, accusing her of plagiarism. He claimed that she "lifted the entire conception of her book 'the stars say 'tsau' ''from is''Return of the Moon''", and that she also plagiarised from the work of

Ted Hughes Edward James Hughes (17 August 1930 – 28 October 1998) was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation and one of the twentieth century's greatest writers. He wa ...

. Krog strongly denied the claims.Rory Carroll
"South African author accused of plagiarism"
''The Guardian'', 21 February 2006. In January 2011, Watson received the English Academy's

Thomas Pringle Thomas Pringle (5 January 1789 – 5 December 1834) was a Scottish writer, poet and abolitionist. Known as the father of South African poetry, he was the first successful English language poet and author to describe South Africa's scenery, nati ...

Award for a short story, "Buiten Street", published in ''New Contrast''. His poetry featured in the most recent edition of ''Poetry International – South Africa'', where further biographical information is available. Stephen Watson died on 10 April 2011 after suffering from cancer.

Poetry

* ''Poems 1977-1982''. Bateleur Press (1982) * ''In This City''. David Phillips Publishers (1986) * ''Cape Town Days''. (1989) * ''Return of the moon: Versions from the /Xam''. Carrefour (1991) * ''Song of the Broken String: After the /Xam Bushmen: Poems from a Lost Oral''. Sheep Meadow Press (1991) * ''Remembering the Night''. Turret Bookshop (1992) * ''Presence of the Earth: New Poems''. David Phillips Publishers (1995) * ''The Other City: Selected Poems 1977–1999''. David Phillips Publishers (2000) * ''The Light Echo And Other Poems''. Penguin Group (SA) (2007)

Other works

* ''Stephen Watson: Selected essays, 1980-1990''. Carrefour (1990) * '' Guy Butler: Essays and Lectures 1949-1991''. David Phillips Publishers (1994) * ''Critical Perspectives on

J. M. Coetzee John Maxwell Coetzee Order of Australia, AC Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, FRSL Order of Mapungubwe, OMG (born 9 February 1940) is a South African and Australian novelist, essayist, linguist, and translator. The recipient of the 2003 ...

'' (editor). David Phillips Publishers (1995) * ''A City Imagined: Cape Town and the Meanings of a Place'' (editor). Penguin Group (SA) (2006) * ''The Music in the Ice'', Penguin Group (SA) (2010)

References

External links

A City Imagined - Stephen Watson

(a collection of South African poetry)
Review of ''The Other City''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Stephen 1954 births 2011 deaths Academic staff of the University of Cape Town 20th-century South African poets Deaths from cancer in South Africa