Melt Myburgh wen vanjaar die Ingrid Jonker Prys vir Afrikaanse poësie met sy digdebuut, oewerbestaan (Protea, 2010). Heilna du Plooy, Loftus Marais en Bernard Odendaal was die beoordelaars.

Een van die beoordelaars wys daarop dat die bundeltitel die deurlopende motief van Myburgh se debuut verwoord – “’n bestaan aan die kant van die rivier, letterlik met verwysing na Upington en die Garieprivier, maar ook figuurlik as ʼn bestaan wat bewus is van grensgebiede, [...] van oorgang en buitestanderskap.” Myburgh is geprys vir sy sterk visuele beelde en sensitiewe waarneming wat sonder sentimentaliteit in goed afgeronde verse tot uitdrukking kom.

Volgens ’n ander beoordelaar vermy Myburgh “die verleiding en slaggate van landelike poësie” met ’n bundel wat “op bedrewe wyse die landelike/liriese met die kritiese/kontemporêre laat rym”. Daar is ook waardering uitgespreek vir Myburgh se stembeheer en vaardige wisseling van toon: “Die elegiese verse wat eerlik en ontroerend is, die kontemporêre verse oor onderwerpe soos film en videospeletjies, die meer rasionele en selfbewuste metapoëtiese insigte, daar is ook ’n speelsheid wat deurslaan. Tog is alles variasies van een perspektief, een stem. Hierdie vlak van beheersdheid en eenheid is prysenswaardig in ’n debuutbundel.”

Die Ingrid Jonker Prys word jaarliks beurtelings aan ʼn Afrikaanse of ’n Engelse debuutdigbundel toegeken, die twee tale waarin Ingrid Jonker geskryf het.

Myburgh sal op 24 September, tydens hierdie jaar se Versindaba op Stellenbosch, die prys by die Lanzerac Hotel in ontvangs neem.

Danie Marais is die sameroeper van die Ingrid Jonker-komitee. Die ander lede van die komitee is Ronel de Goede, Diana Ferrus, Finuala Dowling en Leon de Kock.

Melt Myburgh wins the 2011 Ingrid Jonker Prize

Melt Myburgh has been named the winner of the 2011 Ingrid Jonker Prize for Afrikaans poetry. Myburgh receives the prize for his debut volume of poetry, oewerbestaan (Protea, 2010). The judges were Heilna du Plooy, Loftus Marais and Bernard Odendaal.

One of the judges comments that the volume’s title expresses a consistent motif in Myburgh’s  debut volume  – “an existence on one side of a river, literally, with reference to Upington and the Gariep River, but also figuratively as an existence which remains aware of border-zones [...] of transition and of being an outsider”. This judge praises Myburgh for the visual strength of his images and his sensitive observations, which are expressed in well-finished verse and without sentimentality.

Another judge writes that Myburgh avoids “the seduction and compromises of rural or pastoral poetry”. Myburgh’s volume “brings together the rural/pastoral and the lyrical on the one hand, and the critical and the contemporary on the other”. This judge expresses appreciation for Myburgh’s control of voice and his expert variation of tone: “There are elegiac poems, which are honest and moving; contemporary verses on subjects such as film and video games; more rational and self-conscious meta-poetical insights; and then there is a playfulness that also comes through. And yet all these moves remain variations on one perspective, one voice. Such a level of control and unity is praiseworthy in a debut volume of poetry.”

The Ingrid Jonker Prize is awarded annually, and in turn, to a debut volume of Afrikaans/English poetry, the two languages in which Ingrid Jonker wrote her poems.

Myburgh will receive his prize on 24 September at the Lanzerac Hotel, Stellenbosch, during this year’s Versindaba festival.

Danie Marais is the convenor of the Ingrid Jonker Prize committee. The other members of the committee are Ronel de Goede, Diana Ferrus, Finuala Dowling and Leon de Kock.