Sunday, 29 December 2013

Aryan Kaganof's review of Off-ramp

the debt to raymond carver is obvious, nonetheless gary cummiskey forges territory that is all his own in this collection that, bejewelled as it is with his astringent surrealist prose, might well be described as a “gem” were it not for the final story, entitled “space”, that lends the collection a certain brownish pucker. this dark opening of a story is the book’s highlight, brilliantly chosen to end at the bottom so to speak. south african literary fiction has thirsted for a well-written poepgat, but now, having grown curious about gary cummiskey’s anus, our earlier revulsion withdraws into the background as the goal of penetrating and exploring the taboo of unknown darkness becomes foremost in our minds. the poepgat is central in understanding our collective national psyche here in africa south south (ass), where all who, after marikana, still believe in the rainbow mythology are well and truly assholes. bravo!

first published here 

Interview with Gary Cummiskey on Ppigpenn

Name? Gary Cummiskey

Age? 50.

Location? Johannesburg, South Africa.

How long have you been writing? I wrote my first short story, about Mary, Queen of Scots, when I was 11. I wrote my first poem, influenced by Fleetwood Mac’s Albatross, aged 14 – it was about a dying albatross. I have been writing ever since.

Do you have a specific writing style? Not really, but my main influences have been the surrealists and the Beats. These influences probably play a role in my approach to writing, rather than on style. Besides, as Proust said: “Style is a matter of vision, not technique.”

Read more here

Tuesday, 10 December 2013

Kobus Moolman's Left Over reviewed by Sheila Black

Left Over (Dye Hard Press, 2013) by Kobus Moolman is the kind of book that takes you by the scruff of the neck and shakes you. These are poems to wake you up. Well-known in his native South Africa, Kobus Moolman deserves to be better known and better read here. Lyric, vigilant, hyper-alert to the surfaces, textures and sensations of the physical world, the poems in Moolman's sixth collection are beautiful and dangerous, a meditation on the fraught and even perilous relationship of mind and body...Read more here

Saturday, 07 December 2013

Bob Dylan in Jack Kerouac's Lowell ...1975


Published by  Beat Scene Press, Coventry, England. Visit www.beatscene.net for more details. 

Friday, 06 December 2013

Thursday, 05 December 2013

William Burroughs/ Local Stop on the Nova Express


Published by Inkblot Publications, Rhode Island, USA. 
Contact Aftermath Books at orders@aftermathbooks.com for more information.