Caged: Poems of a Shattered Reality

A selection of poems relating a personal journey into darkness, despair and, finally, catharsis. A short collection consisting of 43 poems. South African author Emmylou Kotzé writes on the themes on mental health, isolation, and recognizing the self's inner darkness.

Hi! I'm Emmylou Kotzé, a poet, writer and editor from Mangaung, South Africa (which translates as "The Place of the Cheetah" from Sesotho). I'm not too hung up on genre, and my work spans literary, fantasy, sci-fi, and romance, with my main focus on three-dimensional characters with an inner life and the ways in which they relate to each other. In my stories, people like assassins, kinslayers and sex workers navigate their complex lives in magical worlds and fall in love – as often as not, queer love.
I have a long history of questioning everything: religion, sexuality, gender, history – and I strive to reflect that stance in my writing. The two themes that make me practically quiver in delight are feelings of otherness, and clashes of culture. I love narratives where things get messy and complex, and where it all comes with a heaping side of intense, gory pulp-style action.
Outside of writing, I did get that geoscience doctorate in the end, and I can confidently explain the terms "buttress" and "orogeny." I currently live on the border of Lesotho, with the sight of my favourite mountain range, the Malutis, in the distance.
You can find my free poetry at amphipolitan.com, or purchase a print book on Amazon. The revised edition of The Broken Knight is currently available as an ebook and paperback on Amazon, and will be available here in October. You can also find my story "What Makes A Man..." in the 2024 edition of Cloaked Press' Fall Into Fantasy, releasing on Amazon on 21 Sept.
I'm also the Editor-In-Chief at the brand-new webzine The Pink Hydra, free to read at thepinkhydra.com. We publish short stories and poetry with an unreal feel, with genres spanning SFF, romance, erotica, and literary.