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Annesu de Vos is a writer born August 5, 1964 in Johannesburg, South Africa. She fled to Canada at the age of 23 for political reasons during the State of Emergency in apartheid South Africa. While still a student at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, she was an active member of the End Conscription Campaign and other organizations affiliated with the United Democratic Front (UDF). She became a member of Siyakha, a theatre group involved in raising funds and awareness for the African National Congress (ANC) during the late eighties in Toronto, Ontario where she has lived since 1987.

At age 16 her first book, Gebed van 'n Groen Perske en Ander Verse (A Green Peach Prayer and Other Poems) was published by Tafelberg, a division of NB Publishers which is regarded as the most established and prestigious literary publisher of Afrikaans language works in South Africa. She was the youngest published poet in South African literary history, a publishing record previously held by Zindzi Mandela and Antjie Krog, whose first books were published at age 18 and 17 respectively. Her publishing record remains unbroken to date. She is the 1981 recipient of the Eugène Marais Prize for Literature awarded by the South African Academy for Science and Art. Her second Afrikaans book entitled Om Vry Uit te Stap (Walking Free) appeared in 1981.

De Vos is currently pursuing a career in screenplay writing among other creative endeavors, having completed a course in screenplay writing at the Toronto Film School in 2003. She completed her first screenplay, an adaptation of Voltaire's novella Candide, in 2007. Her current project is a screenplay entitled Ketchup for Armageddon which has been in development since 2009.

English Translations of Afrikaans Books

 * A Green Peach Prayer and Other Poems - Amazon, 2014

Afrikaans Books

 * Om Vry Uit te Stap - Tafelberg, Cape Town, 1981
 * Gebed van ‘n Groen Perske en Ander Verse - Tafelberg, Cape Town, 1980

Trivia
As a high school student she dated Hein Grosskopf who later became a Commander in Umkhonto WeSizwe, the military wing of the African National Congress. The poet pursued a career as a vocalist in her early years in Canada, and started a band by the name Bomb Scare Picnic. She recorded and performed her original material including her songs Black Umbrellas, The O. P. P. Song (which received radio airplay on CIUT), Ukraine, Ukraine, A Counterfeit Nirvana and others. She also recorded Bangakanani, a freedom song which won her a first prize in a singing competition at the Canadian National Exhibition accompanied by guitarist Zane Carim from Siyakha. Grosskopf received demo tapes containing her songs via the Toronto office of the African National Congress while he was in a secret location in Zambia, and stated in later years that her songs gave him courage to fight for freedom for the South African people.

The poet has two streets named for her in her country of origin: Annesu de Vos Circle in Orkney, Mpumalanga Province and Annesu de Vos Street in Vanderbijlpark, Gauteng Province.

The Mont du Toit Wine Cellar commissioned an Afrikaans quatrain from her among other notable South African writers, in 2006 as a fundraiser for Litnet, South Africa's premier literary web site, for a series of wine bottle labels with poems by notable authors. She chose the planet Pluto as a theme for her poem, and used it as a metaphor for a grape.

Litnet

Perspectives on modern Afrikaans Poetry

Kannemeyer, J. Afrikaans Literary History

Steenkamp, Conrad - quotes poet Annesu de Vos in online article The Science of Reality