Semansky's stories, poems, and essays appear regularly in literary journals. In the following essay, Semansky analyzes the way Gordimer uses descriptions of her characters' bodies to explore their emotional landscapes.

In the introduction to Conversations with Nadine Gordimer, the editors quote Gordimer as saying that politics and sex constitute the "two greatest drives in people's lives." Discussing the sexuality of one of her characters, Gordimer says,

I think there may be a particular connection between sexuality, sensuality, and politics inside South Africa. Because, after all, what is apartheid all about? ... It's about black skin, and it's about woolly hair instead of straight, long blond hair, and black skin instead of white skin. The whole legal structure is based on the physical, so that the body becomes something supremely important. And I think maybe subconsciously that comes into my work too.

The physical is everywhere in Gordimer's short...