Debut poetry collection

 Francine Simon, a doctoral student at Stellenbosch University, will read from her debut poetry collection, Thungachi, in a show titled “Akka and Thungachi: a querying of familial history and identity” at the MacGregor Poetry Festival, which takes place in MacGregor from Friday August 25 to Sunday August 27. A part of Thungachi is to explore different aspects of the so-called South African Indian identity through the voicing of family. In reading poems from this debut collection, Ms Simon will discuss how familial identity intersects with personal history. Several of her poems have been published in South African literary journals, and her poetry has appeared in three volumes of the Sol Plaatje European Union Poetry Anthology. She launched Thungachi in March.