Joan Hambidge is Afrikaans poet, renowned for her out-of-the-closet style of writing.

Although she discovered her muse when she was young, it was while she was a lecturer at the University of the North , Limpopo Province, South Africa, that she blossomed as a writer.

She was awarded one of the most coveted prizes, the Eugene Marais prize for literature . She later moved to Cape Town, and joined the Department of Afrikaans and Nederlands (Dutch) at the University of Cape Town.

Although she writes in Afrikaans, she has translated some of her poetry into English, as has an erstwhile colleague of her's, Jo Nel , and a close friend, Johann de Lange (who is himself a poet).

Works include:

• Die anatomie van melankolie
• Die somber muse