Phiti Ngcobo, from the publishing house, said they had received no poems from female writers in the three years of the project. Unless they can get more of a balance, they say the book won’t go ahead.
“Our project, which started in 2011, has progressed fairly well. We have about 70 poems, although our target is 100. We are asking for poems from women. To date, I have none. The publishers have made it clear that they are not in a position to publish poems from men only for obvious reasons,” said Ngcobo.
While the country has produced internationally-acclaimed female novelists, there have been few female poets. Men dominate the country’s literature scene.