Douglas Livingstone was a South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

n poet.

He was born in Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur is the capital and the second largest city in Malaysia by population. The city proper, making up an area of , has a population of 1.4 million as of 2010. Greater Kuala Lumpur, also known as the Klang Valley, is an urban agglomeration of 7.2 million...

, but his family moved to Natal after his father was taken prisoner during the Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese invasion of Malaya

British Malaya

British Malaya loosely described a set of states on the Malay Peninsula and the Island of Singapore that were brought under British control between the 18th and the 20th centuries...

. He attended Kearsney College

Kearsney College

Kearsney College is a private boarding school for boys in Botha's Hill, a small town that lies between the provincial capital of Pietermaritzburg and Durban, the largest city of KwaZulu-Natal, a province in South Africa.- History :...

 and in 1964, he started work as a marine biologist in Durban

Durban

Durban is the largest city in the South African province of KwaZulu-Natal and the third largest city in South Africa. It forms part of the eThekwini metropolitan municipality. Durban is famous for being the busiest port in South Africa. It is also seen as one of the major centres of tourism...

. He gained two doctorates from the University of Natal

University of Natal

The University of Natal was a university in Natal, and later KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, that is now part of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. It was founded in 1910 as the Natal University College in Pietermaritzburg, and expanded to include a campus in Durban in 1931. In 1947, the university...

; one for his scientific work and an honorary one for his poetry.

Poetry

• The Skull in the Mud (1960)
• Sjambok and Other Poems from Africa (1964)
• Poems (with Thomas Kinsella and Anne Sexton, 1968)
• Eyes Closed Against the Sun (1970)
• A Rosary of Bone (1975)
• The Anvil's Undertone (1978)
• Selected Poems (1984)
• A Littoral Zone (1991)
• Giovanni Jacopo Meditates on the High-IQ Haiku (1995)
• A Ruthless Fidelity—Collected Poems of Douglas Livingstone (2004)

Translations

• Eight Shona Poems (with Phillipa Berlyn)
• Wilson Chivaura (with Phillipa Berlyn)
• Gentling a Wildcat

Plays

• The Sea My Winding Sheet (1964)
• A Rhino for the Boardroom (1974)
• The Semblance of the Real (1984)