Four Poems from: The Woman at the Skylight

Like a halo; In memoriam Jacques Swale; Prayer concerning oxen; If death were not

Authors

  • Denis Hirson

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18422/79-2809

Abstract

four poems by Denis Hirson

Author Biography

Denis Hirson

Denis Hirson was born in England in 1951 and brought up in South Africa, where he lived until the age of 22. He has been in Paris since 1975, working there as an actor before becoming a lecturer in English at the École Polytechnique. He has written nine books, almost all of them at the frontier between prose and poetry and concerned with the memory of South Africa at the time of apartheid. These include the novel The Dancing and the Death on Lemon Street, the fragments of memory contained in I Remember King Kong (the Boxer) and We Walk Straight So You Better Get Out the Way, the book of poems Gardening in the Dark, and the extended essay White Scars. All these books were published by Jacana, as was his memoir My Thirty-Minute Bar Mitzvah, which came out in 2022. It was published in the UK and USA by Pushkin Press in 2024. Hirson has also produced several anthologies of South African writing in both English and French, including The Lava of this Land, South African Poetry 1960-1996 and In the Heat of Shadows: South African Poetry 1996-2013. His book of conversations with William Kentridge, Footnotes for the Panther, was published in 2017, the same year in which his book in French, Ma langue au chat, tortures et délices d’un anglophone à Paris, came out.

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Published

2026-09-24

How to Cite

Hirson, Denis. “Four Poems From: The Woman at the Skylight: Like a Halo; In Memoriam Jacques Swale; Prayer Concerning Oxen; If Death Were Not”. New American Studies Journal: A Forum, vol. 79, Sept. 2026, doi:10.18422/79-2809.

Issue

Vol. 79 (2026): Paris Anglophone Writing: a Special NASJ Issue

Section

Poetic Resonances in Paris: Language and Lyricism

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Göttingen University Press, Göttingen

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