Close to the edge

 

Chatsworth still available at Made in Durban

 

A reminder that you can still buy copies of Pravasan Pillay's much-acclaimed debut short story collection Chatsworth at Made in Durban. 

Just waiting for you

 

Translaed poems from Somewhere else to be appear in French poetry magazine

 

Five poems from Somewhere else have been translated into French by poet and collagist Bruno Sourdin and will be published in the French poetry journal Dierese in mid-2025!

Thank you, Bruno!

Somewhere else is published by Graffiti, Kolkata, the publishing press by the late Bengali poet Subhankar Das.

The cover design and cover art is by British artist Paul Warren. 

A review of He Said/ /She Said in New Contrast

 

The latest issue of literary journal New Contrast (vol. 52, issue 207) has a wonderful and insightful review of Kobus Moolman's He Said/ /She Said by Marike Beyers.

You can buy a copy of He Said/ /She Said from Clarke's Bookshop in Cape Town. Either visit the shop at 199 Long Street or order online.

Everybody knows

 

 

Just got the news that Pravasan Pillay's short story 'Girls', from his much-acclaimed debut collection Chatsworth, is to be used in a course called 'Reading and Writing about Language and Literatures' at the University of British Columbia!

You can buy Chatsworth at Clarke's Bookshop in Cape Town. Either pop into the store at 199 Long Street or order here.

He Said/ /She Said still available at Clarke's Bookshop

 

Kobus Moolman's He Said/  /She Said is still available at Clarke's Bookshop in Cape Town. You can order a copy here. Or, if you are in the area, why not pop into the store at 199 Long Street

Remember that this is a limited numbered edition of 120 copies, which is selling out fast!

They were linked together in her mind

 

Handwritten

 

A tribute to Subhankar Das: a spirit of creativity and generosity

I encountered Subhankar, just like I have encountered most of my international literary friends, on Facebook. It was in 2010. 

The previous year I had published Who was Sinclair Beiles?, a compilation of writings about the South African Beat poet, through my publishing press, Dye Hard Press, and was trying to get it stocked at bookstores overseas. One bookstore I had approached was City Lights in San Francisco. I had thought City Lights would be an obvious choice, since it had both stocked and published many of the Beat poets. I was astonished, therefore, to receive a response from City Lights stating that it did not stock ‘self-published’ books – which I thought odd, considering the first City Lights Books title was a collection of poems by its owner, Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

I told this news to the Greek poet Yannis Livadas, with whom I had become friends on Facebook. Yannis immediately posted something to the effect of ‘City Lights rejects Who was Sinclair Beiles?’, to which someone named Subhankar Das responded: ‘The old man [Ferlinghetti] is really getting old!’ I then sent Sub a friend request, which he accepted.

It was about this time that Graffiti had published the international anthology of indie art and writing, the stark electric space. I was intrigued by the title, since it clearly looked back at the Hungryalist poem ‘Stark Electric Jesus’ by Malay Roychoudhury, and decided I wanted to buy a copy. I messaged Sub via Facebook, and he said, sure, it costs whatever, just send a cheque in US dollars. I explained that as I was in South Africa, I could not write out a cheque in US dollars. So he said: ‘No problem, give me your address and I will send you a copy for free.’

And so it began – not only an online friendship but also a sharing of books – Sub would send books to me (such as the selected poems of Jibanananda Das and The Golden Gandhi Statue from America, short stories by Subimal Mishra) and I would send him copies of Dye Hard Press titles. It was during this early period of our friendship that Sub also couriered two videos to me – movies that he had produced, the most powerful being The lost lines of a beauty monster, directed by Shamy Pandey. I was both surprised and startled by some of the explicit sexual content of the film, and mentioned this to Sub, who replied:’ Yes, we ran into trouble showing that movie in some places.’ I was also now very curious about Falguni Roy. Sub explained that he was busy translating some of Falguni Roy’s work into English, and hoped to publish a book of translations soon. However, it was a project that was never realised.

But Sub was always busy with projects: I never knew him not to be busy writing, translating, publishing or organising events. Always creating – and always generous.

At the same time as I became friends with Sub, I also became friends with a US poet named Erik Vatne, and together with Yannis, I regarded us as the four musketeers of poetry on Facebook – Sub in India, Yannis in Greece, Erik in the US, and me in South Africa – we were certainly well spread, like an international network – an interconnected electric space of poetry. 

It was also about this time, early 2011, that I interviewed Sub for my Dye Hard Interviews blog, and I have always regarded my interview with Sub as having been one of the most enjoyable and enriching. In the interview he said: ‘For us Graffiti is a movement … Graffiti is a lifestyle … it’s a pathway of our dream … it’s a protest against the consumerism of thought … and now we have friends worldwide who also believe in this independence of thought and creation.’  Sub and I lived so far apart, and yet I felt we were so close in spirit.

At this time Graffiti was producing several beautifully designed broadsheets, and I was honoured when Sub not only invited me to submit poems for possible publication, but also accepted them. He also accepted some poems of mine for publication in various poetry journals that he was guest-editing.

But the most wonderful surprise came when, after Sub had published poetry chapbooks by Erik and Yannis, he approached me, wanting to publish a chapbook of mine too. And so Sky Dreaming was published by Graffiti towards the end of 2011. Sub had asked me to provide my own cover for the book, and so my friend Pravasan Pillay’s wife Jenny designed the cover. I can’t recall why, but Sub wanted to receive the cover printed out rather than emailed to him, and as luck would have it, Sub was on a trip to Europe at the time, and doing a poetry reading in Stockholm, where Pravasan and his wife lived – and so Pravasan was able to deliver the cover in person. Sky Dreaming sold extremely well in India and went into at least two printings. I have never understood why my poetry appealed so much to Indian readers – that’s a question I kept meaning to ask Sub but never got around to.

It was an exciting time for the ‘four musketeers’ and we were determined that one day we all should meet, at the same time at the same spot. We decided that same spot would be India, but could not decide on a time. As it turned out, the only one of our group that I’d meet was Yannis, in Paris in 2016.

In fact by early 2014 our group started to loosen: Yannis had moved to Paris and spent less time on Facebook and Erik left social media altogether. I started a new job that was very demanding plus I was appointed as guest editor of New Coin, one of South Africa’s most prestigious poetry journals, and during the three years that I was editor I had little time for Dye Hard Press or my own writing. I did, however, publish some of Sub’s poems in New Coin.

But while Sub and I communicated less often, I still followed what he was doing. Not only was he writing and publishing a huge amount of poetry, but he was also translating at a tremendous speed, notably work by Charles Bukowski and Richard Brautigan, as well as work by Patti Smith and the Russian absurdist Daniil Kharms.

In late 2019 I received the devastating news of Erik’s death. Sub also took it hard, and I remember him posting a lighted candle in Erik’s memory. 

And then there was the Covid-19 pandemic, with its lockdowns and victims, including the great Hungryalist poet Pradip Choudhuri. 

But like some survivor emerging from the ruins, Sub entered a new period of creativity – a furious burst of writing and publishing. He published his selected poems, and used an artwork by the French artist Pascal Ulrich on the cover and was corresponding with Ulrich’s friend Robert Roman in France about publishing translations of Ulrich’s poems into Bengali.

Sub also restarted Graffiti magazine around this time and had used some black-and-white drawings of mine for the covers. Then when he published an A4-sized edition of Graffiti with a full-colour cover, he used a collage of mine. Sub was overjoyed with the cover art and said all copies sold out at the Kolkata small magazine book fair.

It was at this time that I asked Sub if he would ever consider publishing another chapbook of mine – emphasising that there was no rush, and that I was simply enquiring. Sub replied almost immediately, saying yes, and could he have the manuscript in a month or so? I backed off – no, no, I didn’t have a collection ready, so please wait!

I held off for a full year before I was ready to send the collection to him, and so my second chapbook to be published by Graffiti, Somewhere else, was published in March 2024. About the same time Sub interviewed me for a Bengali literary magazine, Boier Duniya, about my poetry and Dye Hard Press, as well as my views on the Hungryalists, the Beats and others. It reminded me of my interview with Sub that we had done 13 years before. It was like a return to the early days. At the time he was also working on a book about his trip to Europe in 2011.

Then came the news that Sub had suffered a heart attack and was rushed to hospital. A few days later I was crushed to hear from Santanu Roy that he had passed. It was so sudden, unexpected, unforeseen and unthinkable.  

The last photo I saw of Sub was of him smilingly holding up a small artwork by Pascal Ulrich. And his widow Sabina has told me that the last song he listened to on his computer was Nina Simone’s Feelin’ good. That is so ironic and sad, but at the same time it makes me smile. 

As we say in South Africa, Hambe kahle (farewell) my friend. But the spirit of your creativity and generosity lives on. Graffiti will continue, and new voices will emerge.

Gary Cummiskey

This tribute was published in Graffiti, Kolkata, December 2024.

A highlight of 2024: Somewhere else, published by Graffiti, Kolkata

Another highlight of 2024 was the publication of Somewhere else, my second poetry collection to be published by Graffiti, in Kolkata, India. Unfortunately its publication was soon followed by its publisher, poet Subhankar Das, a great figure in comtemporary Bengali poetry and champion of independent publishing.

The cover collage is by UK artist Paul Warren, who is also designed the cover.

A highlight of 2024: Animal eyeball by Gary Cummiskey and Paul Warren

 

Animal eyeball is a free e-chapbook of seven cut-up prose poems accompanied by collages by UK artist Paul Warren, published by Dye Hard Press.

Special thanks go to Jenny Kellerman Pillay, who designed the book and made it a reality!

It won't cost you anything to read, but it may take your mind to where it has never been before!

To access the book on Issuu click here.

You can also access and download a PDF version here.

The presence was purely isolated

 

Ear today

 

Sunday could be Friday