Poetry and art by Gary Cummiskey at Poetry Pacific

Six poems and seven artworks by Gary Cummiskey at Poetry Pacific, a Canadian-based poetry blogzine.

Visual poetry II

Visual poetry

That certain smile

As the fish failed to fathom the depths of non-knowledge

Challenged by the sun

We did not know what was happening

Once upon a time in a landscape

The Lost Fire Brigade by Spike Hawkins

A gem from the British Poetry Revival. 

Published by Fulcrum Press, London, in 1968, it sold for 10/6.

Illustrated book covers: Burning Bright by John Steinbeck

Published by Pan Books, London, 1973

Entering the dream

Standing in the doorway looking for her

Out there

Review of Arja Salafranca's Beyond Touch, by Kate Turkington

Published in City Press, 9 August 2015. Arja Salafranca's Beyond Touch is published by Modjaji Books and Dye Hard Press.

I have noticed the other children are not like me

Launch of Bilakhulu by Vonani Bila

Deep South Publishers & David Krut Bookstore invite you to the launch of BILAKHULU! Longer Poems by Vonani Bila

Johannesburg Tuesday 28 July at 6pm
David Krut Bookstore, 151 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parkwood
Enquiries 011 880 5648 or 071 686 6128

Vonani Bila's voice in Bilakhulu! is as buoyant and direct as ever; his emotional range is broad, incorporating humour and lament. These seven narrative poems, ranging from 3 to 35 pages in length, are grounded in the poet’s family and village, at the same time making visible the wider forces that impinge on rural life.

Bila is a driving force in South African poetry – founding editor of Timbila poetry journal, publisher of Timbila Books and founder of Timbila Writers’ Village. He is the author of five books of poems in English and eight story-books for newly literate adult readers in English, Sepedi, and Xitsonga. Vonani Bila teaches in the Department of English Studies at the University of Limpopo, and in the MA in Creative Writing at Rhodes University. He lives with his wife and three children in Shirley Village, Elim, Limpopo.

Bila was also the previous editor of New Coin.

ISBN: 978-0-9870282-5-9
96 pages 205 x 140 mm
Price R120
Cover art by Colbert Mashile

My first published poems, in Staffrider, Volume 10, Number 1, 1992

New Coin, June 2015

Features poems by Haidee Kruger, Stephen Symons, Kyle Allan, Kerry Hammerton, Medzani Musandiwa, Diana Bloem, Kelwyn Sole, Alan Finlay, Kirsten Holmes, Tania Haberland, Lucas Delisa Zulu, Lezel van den Berg, Vanessa-Lynn Neophytou, Jennifer Lean, Sindiswa Busuku-Mathese, Sandhya Mathura, Elizabeth Trew, Kobus Moolman, Khulile Nxumalo, Anton Krueger, Catfish McDaris, Gerard Rudolf, Raphael d'Abdon, Bruno Sourdin, Denis Hirson, Silke Heiss, Richard Fox, Mbongeni Khumalo, Phillippa Yaa De Villiers, Dawood Mahmood Gabru, Azola Dayile, Yuan Changming, Ian C Smith, David Wa Maahlamela, Musawenkosi Khanyile, Subhankar Das and Mark Espin. There is an interview with Ari Sitas and reviews by Denis Hirson and Raphael d'Abdon.

Cover art by Lionel Murcott.

Published by the ISEA, Rhodes University, Grahamstown.

Wow: poems by Ted Joans, with drawings by Laura Corsiglia

Wow, poems by Ted Joans, with drawings by Laura Corsiglia. Quicksilver Chapbook #2, published by Quartermoon Press, Mukilteo, Washington, USA, 1999.

Sinclair Beiles, le poète excentrique du Beat Hotel, by Bruno Sourdin

Né en 1930, le poète sud-africain Sinclair Beiles a vécu à Paris dans les années 50. Il travailla pour Olympia Press, la maison d’édition de Maurice Girodias, qui publiait en anglais des livres sulfureux et subversifs, à la fois des récits érotiques (dirty books) et des oeuvres interdites aux Etats-Unis (parmilesquelles Sexus d’Henry Miller, Lolita de Nabokov et Naked Lunch de William Burroughs). Sinclair lui-même a édité un roman érotique, Houses of Joy, sous le pseudonyme de Wu Wu Ming. Read more

Photos from the launch of Arja Salafranca's Beyond Touch at Love Books, Melville

Invite to the launch of Arja Salafranca's Beyond Touch

Forthcoming from Modjaji Books and Dye Hard Press: Beyond Touch by Arja Salafranca

Arja Salafranca's third poetry collection, Beyond Touch, will be published by end of May 2015.

How: a Dye Hard Interview with Joan Metelerkamp

Joan Metelerkamp reading in Grahamstown, July 2014

Joan Metelerkamp is the author of several books of poems, including Stone No More, Requiem, carrying the fire and Burnt Offering. Her poems have been widely published in local and international anthologies, and she has taken part in readings and literary festivals in South Africa, Europe and America. She edited the South African poetry journal New Coin for some years and has also written poetry reviews and essays. She lives on a farm near Knysna. 

Joan’s eighth collection of poetry, Now the World Takes These Breaths, was  published by Modjaji Books in 2014. She was interviewed by Alan Finlay...Read more

Sinclair Beiles: Poet of Many Parts and Places

Dye Hard Press has re-issued Who Was Sinclair Beiles? in a revised and expanded edition. I posted an item about the first edition when it was published five years ago. It’s hard to believe so much time has passed. As I wrote then, Beiles was best known for his association with the Beats. He collaborated on Minutes to Go with William Burroughs, Brion Gysin, and Gregory Corso, and helped to shepherd Burroughs’ manuscript of Naked Lunch into print at the Paris-based Olympia Press, where he worked as an editor. “Best known” is a questionable term, though. If he was known at all, it was only among a certain segment of avant-garde expatriate writers and artists living in Tangier, Paris, London, Rotterdam, Athens, and other far-flung places, where he spent many years scraping by in various capacities....Read more

Forthcoming title from Modjaji Books and Dye Hard Press: Beyond Touch, poems by Arja Salafranca

Beyond Touch is Arja Salafranca's third poetry collection and is scheduled to be published by Modjaji Books and Dye Hard Press in April 2015.

C'est la vie

Cummiskey Avenue

New Coin December 2014, edited by Gary Cummiskey

Published by the ISEA, Rhodes University, Grahamstown. With over 200 pages, this bumper edition contains poems by Alan Finlay, Moira Lovell, Arja Salafranca, Mxolisi Nyezwa, Abigail George, Rethabile Masilo, Khulile Nxumalo, Bernard Levinson, Kobus Moolman, Angifi Dladla, Genna Gardini, Medzani Musandiwa, Nedine Moonsamy, Kyle Allan, Kelwyn Sole, David wa Maahlamela, Natalia Molebatsi, Dashen Naicker, Nazlee Arbee, Joop Bersee, Diana Bloem, Dawn Garisch, Sindiswa Busuku-Mathese, Raphael d' Abdon, Gerard Rudolf, Mick Raubenheimer, Saaleha Indrees Bamjee, Unathi Slasha, Vonani Bila, Lesego Rampolokeng, Gail Dendy, Jim Pascual Agustin, Jeannie Wallace McKeown, Brett Beiles, Hans Pienaar, Colleen Higgs, Mphutlane wa Bofelo, Erica Glynn Schofield, Robert Berold, Lionel Murcott, Marike Beyers, Denis Hirson, Lee-Mari Gower, Elme Vivier, John Simon, Justin Joseph, Leslie Howard, Damain Garside, Haidee Kruger, Julian de Wette, Linda Ndlovu, Tim van Niekerk, Tony Ullyat, Mbongeni Khumalo and Allan Kokski Horwitz.

The issue also contains a symposium on the state of SA poetry, with contributions from Mxolisi Nyezwa, Kobus Moolman, Kelwyn Sole, Dashen Naicker, Raphael d'Abdon, Colleen Higgs, Denis Hirson, Haidee Kruger, Lesego Rampolokeng and Allan Kolski Horwitz.

There are book reviews by Kelwyn Sole and Tlhalo Sam Raditlhalo, and a tribute to Mafika Gwala by Robert Berold.

New from Dye Hard Press: Who was Sinclair Beiles?, revised and expanded edition

Available from Dye Hard Press at R150 per copy, including postage (South Africa only). Email dyehardpress@iafrica.com.  For overseas orders, price will vary according to increased postal rates - please enquire with publisher.

Lonely boys