Coetzee has been writing poetry and singing since he was a child, spurred on by his mother's readings to the family of action-driven narrative poems and by his two older sisters' enthusiasm about reading to him. He has won the 2022 Ingrid Jonker Prize for poetry.

When Jacques Coetzee's debut book of poetry was selected for publication in 2020, his publisher diplomatically suggested that the book was partly about disability too, a fact that should be mentioned in marketing materials.

"Ten, 15 years ago, I would have been irritated if people spoke about my work in relation to disability. But by the time the book came out, it was fine. It's important that the book is in Braille and I'm happy that there is a copy of the book in Braille at the school I went to. That means something," Coetzee said in an interview after hearing on Monday, 18 July 2022, that he'd won the 2022 Ingrid Jonker Prize for a debut poetry collection written in English.

Apart from the usual print run, 25 books were published in Braille so that every school for the blind and library for the print-disabled in South Africa would have one. The book...