About the Book
In this selection of poems, Age is a Beautiful Phase, James Matthews, dissident poet, approaches ageing and death as an odyssey, a journey or pilgrimage. Yet there is no sentiment or waivering, but courage, sanctuary and contentment. He discusses loneliness, ‘winter’s sun’, memories and friendship. These poems lift the veil on ageing, and provide a rare intergenerational bridge. Matthews’ poems leave the reader with new insights and dispel the negativity usually associated with ageing. This edition forms part of the JBF’s ‘Pass on the Word’ series, a series for youth.
About the Author
James Matthews, poet, writer and publisher, has produced five books of poetry, a collection of short stories, a novel and an anthology of poetry, which he edited. Most of his work was banned under the apartheid government and was translated and published overseas. For 13 years he was denied a passport and was placed in detention from September to December 1976. James Matthews waged a struggle against this agenda with the one weapon the jailers couldn’t take away from him – his ability to turn words into poems.
In 1980 Matthews participated in the Frankfurt Book Fair, and in 1982 he participated in the Cultural and Resistance Conference in Gaborone. He was awarded a Fellowship at Iowa University, U.S.A., was the founding member of the Vakalisa Art Association and founding member and Patron of the Congress of South African Writers.
James Matthews is the first black person to have established a publishing house (BLAC Publishing House 1974 -1991). The publishing house closed in 1991 due to constant harassment by the apartheid government. Matthews is the recipient of numerous local and international awards, including the Woza Afrika Award (1978), Kwaza Honours List – Black Arts Celebration, Chicago, U.S.A.(1979), the Freeman of Lehrte and Nienburg, Germany (1982), more recently the National Order of Ikhamanga and Honorary Doctorates from the Universities of the Western Cape and the University (Currently Known as) Rhodes.
