Biography
Name: Ingrid Jean Fiske
Professional Name: Ingrid de Kok
Email: ingrid.fiske@uct.ac.za
Place of Birth: Johannesburg, South Africa
Date of Birth: 4th June 1951
Ingrid de Kok grew up in Stilfontein, a gold mining town in what was then the Western Transvaal. When she was 12 years old, her parents moved to Johannesburg. In 1977 she emigrated to Canada where she lived until returning to South Africa in 1984. She has one son, Luke Fiske. Her partner is Tony Morphet.
Education and Qualifications
Matric: St Andrew’s School Bedforview, Johannesburg
1972: BA (English & Political Science), University of the Witwatersrand
1974: BA Honours (English), University of Cape Town
1984: MA (English), Queens’ University, Kingston, Canada.
Past Employment
January 1988 – March 2014: Centre for Extra-Mural Studies, based in the Centre for Higher Education Development, University of Cape Town. She took early retirement in 2014.
Ingrid is an Emeritus Professor and Fellow of the University of Cape Town.
Professional Activities
| 1987 – 2007: | Trustee of Buchu Press |
| 1998 – 2001: | Nominated “civil society” member of the Arts and Culture Council of the City of Cape Town |
| 2000 – present: | Member of PEN South Africa |
| 2000 – 2005: | Convenor of the Winter School, and member of the committee of the National Arts Festival, Grahamstown. |
| 2002: | Member of the Literature Committee for the City of Cape Town 2002 Festival |
| Sep 2007 – Mar 2009: | Member of the Literary Advisory Committee of the South African National Arts Council (NAC) |
| 2005 – 2012: | Chair of the South African Association of Canadian Studies |
Awards
Honours
| 2000: | Carapace/SnailPress poetry prize. |
| 2002: | Dalro Poetry Award. |
| 2003: | Herman Charles Bosman Award for English Literature for the volume Terrestrial Things. |
| 2007: | Seasonal Fires nominated for the University of Johannesburg Creative Writing Prize. |
| 2008: | Mappe del Corpo awarded Renzo Sertoli Prize for translator Paola Splendore. |
| 2012: | Poetry Literary Award, SALA in association with the Ministry of Arts and Culture, South Africa, for the volume Other Signs. |
Fellowships and Visiting Writer Positions
| Sep/Oct 1999: | Rockefeller Foundation Residency Fellowship, Study and Conference Centre, Bellagio, Italy. |
| Mar 2001: | Visiting Writer at the College of Charleston’s Writers’ Series. |
| Jun/Jul 2003: | Civitella Ranieri Fellowship at Civitella, near Perugia, Italy. |
| Mar/Apr 2004: | Visiting Writer at Capilano College, Vancouver, Canada. |
| Feb 2008: | Co-residency at Nirox Foundation Cradle of Humankind Artist’s Residency Programme. |
| Jul/Aug 2015: | Grantee of the Berliner Künstlerprogramm des DAAD (Artists-in-Berlin program of the German Academic Exchange Service). |
National & International Festivals
Participation in the following festivals:
| Oct 1987: | “Writers from South Africa: culture, politics and literary activity and theory in South African today”, Northwestern University, USA. |
| 1989: | IDASA Writers’ Conference, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. |
| Apr 1997: | Les Temps de Livres Festival, Djibouti. |
| Aug 1997: | “Language of Poetry: a multi-disciplinary conference”, Wits University. |
| Oct 1998: | “New spaces in South African Poetry”, Poetry International Festival, Rotterdam, Netherlands. |
| 1998 & 2002: | Poetry Africa, University of Natal, Durban. |
| 2000 & 2002: | Woordfees, University of Stellenbosch. |
| Jun 2002: | “Towards developing a National South African Literature”, National Arts Council National Writers’ Conference, Pretoria. |
| Oct 2003: | Chicago Book Festival, Chicago Public Library, USA. |
| Oct 2004: | Tradewinds Festival, Cape Town. |
| Jun 2005: | Poetry International Festival, Rotterdam, Netherlands. |
| Sep 2005: | Berlin Internationales literaturfestival, Germany. |
| Feb 2007: | Spier Poetry Festival, Stellenbosch. |
| Sep 2007 | ‘Gedigte in gesprek/poems in conversations’, Aardklop Festival, Potchefstroom. |
| Mar 2008: | “BoekJol” Festival, University of Pretoria. |
| Apr 2009: | Cuirt International Festival of Literature, Galway, Ireland. |
| Sep 2009: | Wits University Literary Festival: “Words on Water: South Africa and India in Conversation.” |
| Sep 2011: | Mail and Guardian Festival. |
| Apr 2012: | Memorial: Tribute, Reading, Celebration (Adrienne Rich), Columbia University. |
| May 2012: | Knysna Literary Festival. |
| May 2012: | Franschhoek Literary Festival. |
| Nov 2012: | Aldeburgh Poetry Festival. |
| May 2013: | Franschhoek Literary Festival. |
| May 2014: | “Dancing in Other Words”: Spier Poetry Festival. |
Lectures
| July 1995: | Keynote lecture at the Fourth International Conference on Adult Education and the Arts,St Andrews, Scotland. Title: “Memory and Representation: The Arts and Social Change in South Africa.” |
| Sep 1998: | Interstate Firehouse Cultural Centre Origins Lecture Series, Portland, USA. Title: “Home Truths: Growing up in black and white.” |
| Oct 2000: | University of Chicago Millennium Poetry Series. Title: “The Arts of Recovery: Writing in the transition.” |
| Mar 2004: | The Capilano Review Koerner Lecture Series. Title: “Verbs that move mountains: commitment and the lyric poem.” |
| Sep 2013: | University of Western Sydney. Poetic Craft and White Settler Colonialism: a workshop on Australian and South African Poetics Title: ‘”Why still imagine whole words, whole worlds” Between Parts of Speech and Body Parts.” |
Readings, Talks & Workshops
A selection of poetry readings, workshops and talks since 2000. (Also see Festivals)
| 2000/1: | University of Chicago; NYU; SUNY (Buffalo); Fordham, Brock, Concordia, McGill and Queens’ Universities; College of Charleston. |
| 2001: | “Generation without farewell, Wolfgang Borchert in Context”, Goethe Institute, Johannesburg. |
| 2003: | Northwestern and Fordham Universities. |
| 2004: | Indiana University; Fordham University; Dartmouth University, University of Massachusetts; Wake Forest University; Capilano College; Columbia University. |
| 2006: | Grand Valley University, Calvin College; New Letters Midwest Poetry Series, Missouri; University of British Columbia, Kelowna; Highline College; University of Maryland; The Open Society, Washington D.C; Queens’ University; McMaster University. |
| 2007: | University of Salzburg, Leopoldskron Castle, hosted by Litertuurhaus and the Salzburg Global Seminar; Universita degli Studi Roma Tre, Rome. |
| 2009: | Queens’ University, Canada. |
| 2010: | Barnard University, University of Utah, University of Minnesota, Brock University, John Cabot University, Rome. |
| 2010: | Busboys, Washington DC. |
| 2011: | Workshops in Bagni di Lucca, Italy, for the South African Cultural Project. |
| 2012: | Columbia University. |
| Sep 2013: | Reading at Glee Books, Sydney, Australia. |
| Sep 2013: | Reading at Wrench House, Cape Town, for Pirogue Collective |
| Sep 2013: | Reading at colloquium, Craft Wars: Comparative perspectives on Poetry ’74. |
Ingrid has given numerous short speeches at book launches and art exhibitions in South Africa.