The inaugural European Union Sol Plaatje Poetry Competition Anthology honours the spirit of the legendary intellectual giant, Sol Plaatje, the activist, linguist and translator, novelist, journalist and leader. This sparkling array of contributions from poets around the country will resonate with those who live in this country and those who love it from afar. Wicked and beautiful as ever it was while Plaatje observed the Boer War, translated Shakespeare, reflected on ‘Native Life’ and played with proverbs, so the poems in this anthology bring the depth and breadth of life in South Africa to a wider audience. Personal themes of identity, isolation and and intimacy are pitted against the politics property and personhood, loss and love. Family and music, traffic and weather, bodies and buildings form the backdrop for the particular and familiar of South African life. Individual voices in a range of languages bear witness to all that is gruesome, glorious and gleeful. There is hope for a country when its poets pay attention.