Writing on the Margin from the Margin: Sinclair Beiles

From left: Gary Cummiskey, Michael Titlestad, Eva Kowalska, Fred de Vries.

Eva Kowalska and Fred de Vries


Eva Kowalska and Fred de Vries

Fred de Vries

Fred de Vries

Gary Cummiskey and Michael Titlestad

Gary Cummiskey and Michael Titlestad

Gary Cummiskey

Gary Cummiskey

All photographs courtesy of Arja Salafranca

Romancing the Dead: A Sharp Cunt Dripping Honey, by Aryan Kaganof

Pravasan Pillay’s Tearoom Books has published the chapbook of the year.

There’s no escaping it.

The moment you see Gary Cummiskey’s face you start screaming

because

there is fire in the enema of art

he put it there

poignantly

not yet free of the dream nor of the memory of when you came to me not wearing panties beneath your light summer dress

but the moment you got on top of me and you saw my face you started screaming

As far as South Africa is concerned a reason for Gary Cummiskey’s neglect may stem from the fact that he spent almost 20 years in Randburg, and by the time he returned to settle down in Sandton, the political situation had changed and so Cummiskey’s surrealist work seemed out of place. Thus Gary had become a marginalised figure as a result of both psychogeographical and cultural factors.

He writes in “European Writers” “Some people became poets after corresponding with European writers. I became a poet after sleeping on a razorblade.”

And this means that Gary is sharp.

He’s busy looking for a magic wand - no strings attached.

Another problem that may account for the relative obscurity of Gary’s work is the difficulty of placing it within the various ‘movement’ categorisations. While Romancing the Dead contains a number of poems dealing with the colonial city scene in Joburg, the rest of his work does not particularly reflect the social context in which it was created.

In the end it boils down to the “Painting”:

I am hungry and dirty.
My feet stink.
I want to brush my teeth.

However, it can also not be ignored that Cummiskey’s illness sometimes made him an extremely difficult person, and most publishers and editors were reluctant to deal with him. For this reason alone Pravasan Pillay must be commended. Despite there being no physical attraction Pillay liked Cummiskey as a friend.

Gary was aware of his outsider status, and openly declared that he did not wish to fit in with any particular group or category. But there is a difference between being an outsider and being marginalised to the point of neglect - and Cummiskey’s work is neglected. (Although Stephen Gray would probably not agree).

Romancing the Dead is a funeral ceremony and all Gary’s sleeping relatives sit on the floor of the bathroom around the bath where his corpse is laid. Once the sleepers have been given the pills to swallow when you left you took them out from your handbag and slipped them back on.

Some people become poets after sleeping with European writers.

Gary Cummiskey is a razorblade.

Very sharp.

Tearoom Books isbn 978-0-620-44717-1

First published on Kagablog

Writing on the margin from the margin: Who was Sinclair Beiles?

Dye Hard Press, in conjunction with WISER, invite you to

Writing on the margin from the margin: Sinclair Beiles

Who was Sinclair Beiles?, a compilation of writings about the South African Beat poet who died in 2000, was recently published by Dye Hard Press.

Co-editors Gary Cummiskey and Eva Kowalska, along with contributor Fred de Vries, will discuss issues about the book, such as:

· Why has Sinclair Beiles’s work been neglected in South Africa?
· Why has there previously been no serious attempt to evaluate his work, and why has it fallen to a small publisher to make the first attempt at doing so?
· What are the challenges involved in trying to evaluate a marginalised writer such as Beiles?
· What is the purpose and relevance now, in 2009, in writing about Beiles?

The panel discussion will take place in the Seminar Room at WISER, 6th Floor, Richard Ward Building, East Campus, Wits University on Monday, 9 November 2009, at 18:30


Copies of Who was Sinclair Beiles? will be on sale at the event

Mots souples

Couché près de toi
en silence pendant que

le vent frappe
le rideau à côté

traduit par Dionysos Andronis

(translation of 'Soft Words', from Bog Docks, Dye Hard Press, Johannesburg, 2005)

Portrait of Gary Cummiskey by Jenny Kellerman Pillay

Gary Cummiskey: Extreme Romantic

Aryan Kaganof, in a recent review of Gary Cummiskey and Eva Kowalska's Who was Sinclair Beiles?, drew an insightful parallel between Cummiskey and Beiles and, rightly, highlighted the scandalously fact that Cummiskey remains uncelebrated in South Africa....Read more here

Wrong side of the tracks?

For the past two years, an issue that has cropped up about the Cape Town International Book Fair has been the extremely high cost it involves for out-of-town publishers – and particularly small publishers - to participate in the event. In fact at this year’s fair the number of small publishers – whether from Cape Town or elsewhere in the country, was no more than a handful.

It was perhaps with this mind that independent Johannesburg-based Botsotso Publishing and NGO Khanya College teamed up to organise the Jozi Book Fair, which took place on August 8-9. Of course these two organisations did not have the benefit of two very powerful sponsors that the Cape Town Fair has – namely the Publishers’ Association of South Africa and the Frankfurt Book Fair – so it was obviously going to be on a far smaller scale – there were only 41 exhibitors – with fewer trimmings, bells and whistles.

Unlike the Cape Town fair, which takes place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, surrounded by plush hotels, the Jozi Book Fair took place at Museum Africa in Newtown in downtown Johannesburg. This difference in location was not only indicative of practical financial considerations, but also of cultural if not political considerations. Indeed, the catalogue to the Jozi fair states that the event “is open to publishing houses which are committed to a social justice agenda and who feature contemporary and cutting-edge writing internationally and regionally”.

The two-day fair also hosted a number of seminars, launches and readings, and was preceded by a two-day workshop looking at establishing alternative means of distribution for small publishers in Africa.

On the opening of the fair itself, however, things got off to a slow start with the crowds coming in only about 11am, although the fair had officially opened at 9am. A key problem – which I heard about continuously over the next two days – was that promotion and advertising had not only been sparse, but last minute. As one bookseller told me, if he had been aware of the fair a month in advance, he could have advertised on his newsletter to customers.

Another problem was that the fair was situated on the second floor of the museum, and so visitors still had to find it, whereas the ideal would have been a venue where visitors would simply walk through the main doors to be in the exhibition hall.

Nevertheless, it was great to meet up and chat with some of my fellow small publishers again. It was wonderful to see Modjaji Books’ Colleen Higgs, Kotaz’s Mxolisi Nyezwa, Botsotso’s Allan Kolski Horwitz, Timbila’s Vonani Bila, as well as Chimurenga, Wordsetc and distributor Stephen Philips. Mid-sized independent publisher Jacana was there, as was art-book publisher David Krut Publishing. It was also good to finally meet Robin Malan of Junkets Publishing. There were also quite a few NGO publishers, and one or two publishers from other African countries.

As I said, by 11am the crowds started pouring in and at one point I had about seven people around my stand, which I was sharing with Deep South. Sunday, however, had only a trickle of visitors. Some of the exhibitors – including Frank Talk Press – did not even pitch up on the Sunday.

Some of the Jozi Book Fair’s critics described the event as a damp squib, if not a disaster. I think this criticism is a bit harsh. Plus small independent publishers in SA have for some time been talking about the possibility of having a separate book fair, as opposed to the large-scale commercial Cape Town event, and it is only natural there would be teething problems.

But we have to get the public in and so publicity and promotion is crucial.

(Published in The Bookseller September 25, 2009)