Kruiper-Crawler

Kruiper-Crawler is a bold and original poetry collection by Shane van der Hoven, offering a powerful exploration of identity, place and belonging. This groundbreaking collection presents each poem in both Afrikaans and English, with the translations doing far more than simply mirror one another—they shift, challenge and sometimes even contradict the original, creating a rich dialogue between the two languages.

Drawing on the image of the biblical "crawler"—the often misunderstood creatures that inhabit the earth and scrubland—Van der Hoven explores themes of queerness, otherness, memory and survival. Set against the backdrop of South Africa's sprawling Lowveld and decaying urban landscapes, Kruiper-Crawler is an evocative and thought-provoking collection that pushes the boundaries of contemporary poetry.