Epiphanie Mukasano

Epiphanie Mukasano, a Rwandan poet living in Vrygrond, Cape Town, is the first recipient of a grant from the Live Writing fund. 


The financial assistance from  Live Writing will  pay for Epiphanie's poetry to be edited by Gabeba Baderoon, a highly acclaimed South African poet. In addition to this, Live Writing has looked at more practical ways of providing assistance, sourcing a second-hand computer and flash drive so that Epiphnaie does not have to work on her drafts by hand, or spend too much time or money in an internet cafe. Many thanks go to Compubitz, a Cape Town based computer shop, who gladly donated a computer to Live Writing. Kilimanjaro on my Lap, a first collection of poetry by Epiphanie Mukasano (working title) will be published by Women's Writing Workshops towards the end of 2009.


An excerpt from  'Mount Kilimanjaro' by Epiphanie Mukasano (a working draft)


Epiphanie, who graduated from the University of Rwanda with a Masters degree in English Literature, fled from Rwanda in 1994 with her husband and children. In the almost 10 years that she and her family have lived in Cape Town,  Epiphanie has worked in a series of part-time jobs to supplement the income that her husband, formerly a school principal in Rwanda, earns as a car guard.  They have moved from house to house, and although life has never been easy, Epiphanie's oldest son is now at university on a scholarship with his brother looking set to follow his example. Epiphanie started writing again with Anne Schuster in 2006 and took part in the workshops which resulted in the publication of Living on the Fence - poems by women who are refugees from various countries in Africa. Epiphanie has also been published in Just keep Breathing, and Writing the Self.


Epiphanie's writing often and unerringly presses on that  place in our hearts which makes us stop and see the ordinary, the everyday and the expected in extraordinary and unexpected ways.


Excerpt from 'Ink Stains' by Epiphanie Mukasano (a working draft)

Available from Women's Writing Workshops	Available from Women's Writing Workshops