Forthcoming from Dye Hard Press: Off-ramp by Gary Cummiskey

Gary Cummiskey's debut collection of short fiction, Off-ramp, is due to be published by Dye Hard Press in October 2013.

The million-dollar girl

Milwaukee: a memoir about the making of the film Beat by Gary Walkow

With an introduction by Iain Sinclair and published by Beat Scene Press, Coventry, UK.  

Let's hope

Khulile Nxumalo and Kobus Moolman to participate in the 2013 Poetry Africa International Festival

The 17th Poetry Africa – International Poetry Festival presented in partnership with the City of Durban and the KZN Department of Arts and Culture is proud to announce the festival line-up, which promises to be an exhilarating showcase of diverse voices and sounds. Organised by the Centre for Creative Arts (UKZN) to take place from 14-19 October, this festival is a critical platform for self-expression that offers a space for cultural exchange in the city of Durban.

The festival’s line-up features a ground-breaking poetry project – a 12 track recorded album entitled Insurrections – featuring poets and ethnomusicologists from India and South Africa. The project sees the rich sounds of the Indian music tradition blend with African instruments accompanying radical poetry from both continents. The Insurrectionsensemble will be performed by musicians Sumangala Damodaran (India), Jürgen Brauninger (South Africa), Neo Muyanga (South Africa), Pritam Ghoshal (India), Brydon Bolton (South Africa), Bettina Schouw (South Africa), Sazi Dlamini (South Africa) and Paki Peloeole (South Africa). The poetry contingent for Insurrections will comprise of Ari Sitas (South Africa), Malika Ndlovu (South Africa), Sabita TP (India) and Vivek Narayanan (India). The ensemble will perform on Thursday, 17 October.

Keeping with the musical theme of this year’s edition, the festival will feature five poets who also work as recording musicians. Kabomo Vilakazi is a singer, songwriter and actor who also features in South African poetry circles. Nominated four times for the SAMAs and a former editor of youth culture magazine Y-Mag, his credentials in the entertainment industry are indeed formidable. Kalawi Jazmee artist Busiswa Gqulu returns to Poetry Africa in the middle of her impressive reign on the music charts throughout Africa. She first graced the Poetry Africa stage as part of the all-women poetry collective Basadzi Voices in 2008 and has also performed solo in 2010. South African poet Natalia Molebatsi is also a writer, facilitator and programme director who recently founded a South African-Italian music project with the band Soul Making. Her poetry is published in the books We Are.(2008) and Sardo Dance (2009). Durban-born poet, performer and MC (Ashleigh La Foy) is well-known on Durban stages for both her poetry and her musical prowess. Having earned her stripes as a female rapper, she will indulge Durban audiences with her poetic oeuvre ahead of her much-anticipated debut album. Hailing from the Eastern Cape, Pura Lavisa is a writer, performer and poet whose musical arrangements incorporate percussion and African sounds. Lavisa will be presenting a collection of poems mostly in isiXhosa.

Returning to the Poetry Africa stage, well-respected Soweto-born dub-poet and writer, Lesego Rampolokeng, will deliver an infectious brand of poetry influenced by Black Consciousness and rooted in the lived experience of people on the margins. Also from Soweto, Khulile Nxumalo will present works from his first title ten flapping elbows, mamaand his latest collection fhedzi, published by Die Hard Press. Critically acclaimed, Nxumalo was twice named the recipient of the DALRO prize for poetry. Nigerian-born poet Kole Odutola will also be reading his latest work at the festival. Odutola teaches at the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures at the University of Florida and has published extensively both in academia and literature. Another participant with a background in teaching languages is Kobus Moolman, based at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Moolman’s latest collection Left Over is currently enjoying rave reviews in the press and his performance will allow an eager Durban audience a chance to celebrate his vast canon of works.

Johannesburg-based performance and slam poet Mandi Poefficient Vundla forms part of the Word n Sound collective and is featured on the online and print publications of Poetry Potion. Crowned ‘Queen of the Word and Sound Mic’ in 2012, she has graced numerous poetry stages including Arts Alive and Jozi Book Fair. Another young female voice featured in the line-up is Sanelisiwe Ntuli, a wordsmith from Hammersdale who writes and performs in isiZulu. Ntuli is a graduate of the Kwesukela Storytelling Academy and regularly features as a storyteller and voice artist on educational programmes of Ukhozi FM. Also writing in isiZulu is Professor Langalibalele F. Mathenjwa is holding a Doctor of Literature and Philosophy from UNISA. He is a published writer of isiZulu poetry, novels, short stories and folklore and has chair Usiba Writers Guild, South African Geographical Names Council, IsiZulu National Language Body and the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names-Africa South Division.

Four poets from the Irish poetry collective O’Bheal will present their work at the festival. This contingent consists of Paul Casey, Afric McGinchey, Billy Ramsel and American-born Raven. Completing the international line-up will be Ian Kamau (Canada), Barnabe Laye (Benin) and Raphael d'Abdon (Italy/ South Africa). Kamau is a writer, visual artist, hip hop and spoken word artist from Toronto, whose discography lists five collections, including the popular album One Day Soon (2011). He will be presenting additional workshops in advance of the festival. A poet and novelist, Laye has published a dozen books and is the recipient of the Nelligan Prize his lifetimes work. His most recent work is entitled Poems in Absent, a long wait (2010). D’Abdon is an Italian scholar, writer, editor and translator and a post-doctoral fellow in the English Studies Department at UNISA. As an editor, D’Abdon recently published Marikana - A Moment in Time, as well as an anthology of poetry about the massacre and his own collection, Sunnyside Nightwalk.

The festival’s community outreach programme will see poets visit over twenty community centres, campuses and tertiary education departments across Durban and beyond. In addition, participating poets will visit twenty schools to discuss reading, writing and the performance aspects of poetry.

Organised by the Centre for Creative Arts (University of KwaZulu-Natal), the 17th Poetry Africa is funded by the City of Durban and the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Arts and Culture. The Centre for Creative Arts is housed in the College of Humanities at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. The CCA is a special project of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Cheryl Potgieter, in the College of Humanities at UKZN.

Cape Town Launch of Left Over by Kobus Moolman

The Cape Town launch of Kobus Moolman's new poetry collection Left Over will be held at the Book Lounge, on Thursday September 26, 5.30pm for 6pm. Moolman will be introduced by Liesl Jobson who will also lead a brief Q&A afterwards. 

RSVP booklounge@gmail.com or 021-462 2425

Coded sleep

Launch of Kobus Moolman's Left Over in Pietermaritzburg

Entry to the zone

Obituary for US poet and collagist Paul Grillo

"Each night on the corner of Hammer & Nails Sts./

The words of the screech owl bleed over the pavements/

and echo down airshafts through the Milky Way...." 

This was the opening of a poem by Philadelphia poet, artist and teacher Paul Grillo about the death of his friend, Beat Generation poet Gregory Corso, in January 2001. The poem, "Midnight on the Gethsemane Local," provides a look at Paul's creative vision, an often far-out blend of surrealism and reality, coloured by the influences of rock 'n' roll, jazz, foreign films and the music of the street....Read more here

L'air de la route - Bruno Sourdin

L'air de la route, a new collection of poems from French poet and collagist Bruno Sourdin, published by Gros Textes, Chateauroux-les-Alphes, 2013

Kobus Moolman on Poetry International Web

Kobus Moolman is one of those South African poets whose work shows a consistent and powerful inclination to explore new ground in both its form and content. He cites as influences a wide range of contemporary cultural ideas and figures, among them Japanese Butoh, the Tanztheater of Pina Bausch, non-representational art and disability studies. Among the writers who influence his work he names Paul Celan, Anne Carson, Robert Kroetsch, Inger Christensen, Thomas Bernhard and the South African poet Karen Press...Read more here

At the launch of Haidee Kruger's The Reckless Sleeper, in December 2012

In conversation with Haidee Kruger about her poetry collection The Reckless Sleeper, published by Modjaji Books.

Love Books owner Kate Rogan does the intros at the launch.

Pietermaritzburg launch of Kobus Moolman's Left Over

The Pietermaritzburg launch of Kobus Moolman's Left Over will be on Sunday, September 8 at 11am at Café Tatham at the Tatham Art Gallery. RSVP Bryony.Clark@msunduzi.gov.za