Writer and poet, Sibulelo Manamatela is from Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu Natal and is currently based in Johannesburg, Gauteng.
Her poetry has been published in Vol. II of 20.35: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, Sol Plaatjie European Union Poetry Anthology Vol. VIII, Poetry Potion 13: Transformation, Best ‘New’ African Poets 2018 Anthology, Type/Cast Issue 5 and Poetry Potion.
She has also shared her poetry in various spaces since starting performance poetry in 2015, including the Standard Bank Joy of Jazz media launch (Johannesburg, May 2018), where she was commissioned to custom-write a tribute poem to the late Jazz legend Hugh Masekela, honour contemporary Jazz artists and celebrate the longevity and triumph of said festival.
The highlights of her career include co-writing and acting in an award-winning poetic short film about gender-based violence, titled The Aftertaste, directed by Kimi Msibi and Thula Zee Cube, writing and performing a one-woman poetry play, titled Grandma’s House, for the Current State of Poetry theatre festival, in Cape Town, 2015, which was directed by Mbongeni Nomkonwana.
Manamatela’s work explores the experiences of young, black South African women; as members in a society and in families, as individuals, and as mothers (through the vantage point of her own experience as such). Currently in her third year of studying towards a BA (Creative Writing), she is immersed in the theory of literature and even more so poetry; in the contemporary plain and in classic poetry, from which she draws great knowledge and inspiration.