Sheila Cussons


Sheila Cussons 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.
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, the Eugène Marais Prize, the WA Hofmeyr Prize three times, the CNA Prize, the Louis Luyt Prize, and the prestigious Hertzog Prize in 1983.
She died in 2004 at the age of 82, at Nazareth House, a Catholic institution in Vredehoek.

Volumes of poetry