Outside the cave in France again

This morning Benoit Delaune in France received his copies of Outside the cave and Thunder on the highway by Gary Cummiskey and published by Dye Hard Press.

Casting the eye of the mind

 

In the beginning of the womb

 

Claro!

 

Same here to you

 

Age of miracles and wonder - international mail received via the South African Post Office

 

Well, this is certainly the age of miracles and wonder, especially when you finally get international mail delivered via the South African Post Office, and it comes from Henry Denander, poet, publisher and master watercolourist. Thank you, Hank!

The Difficulty of Being - a collage by Bruno Sourdin

A collage titled The Difficulty of Being, by French poet and collagist Bruno Sourdin.
 

The empty horse will fill in the blanks

 

Just THREE copies left of The cactus of a bright sky

There are now just THREE copies left of Alan Finlay's chapbook The cactus of a bright sky, published by Dye Hard Press.

The cost for South Africa, including courier delivery to your door, is R140. For overseas mail, the cost will depend on your destination.

Please send an email to dyehardpress@iafrica.com.

Five poems published in Sulfur, 'Surrealist Jungle'

 In a bumper month or so, I now have had five poems published in the online journal Sulfur, 'Surrealist Jungle'.

Sulfur is published by the Egyptian and North African surrealist group.

The five poems are:

Out on the street

Snap

Cardboard kings

Still now

Nowhere rooms

and they can be read here.

Two poems published in BKO magazine

I have had two poems - 'Out of it in Athens' and 'At the stone wall' published in the latest issue of BKO magazine, which is a special edition focused on South African poet Don Mattera.

Looking on yesterday

 

Honoured to be published in Ons Klyntji again

Truly honoured to be published once again in Toast Coetzer's Ons Klyntji, one of the great small press/maverick journals still around - how long has Ons Klyntji been going for? I remember reviewing an issue for The Weekender around about 2010.

Anyway, Toast accepted one of my poems AND a drawing - thank you, Toast!

A review of Chatsworth, by Arja Salafranca

Chatsworth, the township, links the stories in this slim but powerful debut collection of short stories by Pravasan Pillay, who comes from the Durban-based area. This volume collects 11 short stories that highlight a range of characters from all age groups. Here’s a kaleidoscope view of people living, loving, being punished, growing, ageing and moving through the experiences we all do. Read more.

Just FOUR copies left of The cactus of a bright sky

The cactus of a bright sky is a small chapbook of seven poems by South African poet Alan Finlay, published by Dye Hard Press.

Limited to 50 numbered copies, there are just FOUR copies left.

The cost is R140, including courier to your door (South Africa only).

Please email dyehardpress@iafrica.com to order.

Christmas is coming, so why not buy a copy of Chatsworth as a gift?

 

Christmas is coming up soon, so why not buy a copy of Pravasan Pillay's wonderful collection of short stories, Chatsworth, as a gift?

All the stories in this debut collection are set in the sprawling Indian township of Chatsworth, Durban. They are populated mostly by working-class characters who all, in one way or the other, find themselves on the margins of their community. Pillay displays a remarkable ear for dialogue, and faithfully captures much of the nuance of Durban-Indian English.

You can buy a copy at Made in Chatsworth

Outside the cave arrives in Cape Town

 

Good to see that Bruce Ferraday's copy of Outside the cave arrived in Cape Town by normal post! It took a month - but it got there!

Outside the cave entered into the GBAS Book Cover Design Awards

 

Dye Hard Press has entered Outside the cave into the GBAS Book Cover Design Awards - the first time South Africa has had such awards!

Outside the cave was designed and laid out by Arja Salafranca.

Finalists will be announced on 15 November, and the winner on 1 December! I am keeping my fingers crossed!

Praise for Outside the cave from Paul Warren in England

 

Artist Paul Warren from Daventry, England, writes about Outside the cave:

This is a great collection. There is such a depth to your work, it's astounding. It is beautiful, disturbing, thought provoking ,humorous and shocking. You manage to jumble all of this up to great effect. I haven't read a collection as diverse and original as this for years. The imagery is mind-blowing.

All your life (you know)

 

Hey, you!

 

Each step backward erases each step taken - by Paul Warren

UK artist Paul Warren created this collage, titled 'Each step backward erases each step taken', inspired by my poem 'Mirror', which appears in my selected poems Outside the cave, published by Dye Hard Press.

 

Just five copies left of The cactus of a bright sky

 

Recently published by Dye Hard Press, Alan Finlay's The cactus of a bright sky is a chapbook of seven poems. 16 pages.

Limited to 50 numbered copies, and just five copies left!

Cost if R160, including courier, for domestic South African orders.

Please email dyehardpress@iafrica.com to order.

Outside the cave in England

Nice to see that artist Paul Warren, in Daventry, England, has received copies of Thunder on the highway  and Outside the cave - granted, one swallow doesn't make a summer, but at the same time I am praying that this means the South African Post Office is upping its game.

 

Outside the cave in France

French poet and collagist Bruno Sourdin has received his copy of Outside the cave, which was sent via the South African Post Office. This makes me feel optimistic that the postal service is returning to 'normal' and that overseas mail will get through more often than not (our postal service has never been the best)!

And so Outside the cave should soon start reaching overseas readers.

I am your fantasy

 

A Dye Hard Interview: Dimakatso Sedite: With poetry, there is nowhere to hide

Dimakatso Sedite was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa. Her poetry has appeared in Teesta Review, Brittle Paper, New Coin, Stanzas, Kalahari Review, BKO, Botsotso, Aerodrome, BNAP and elsewhere. She was the joint winner of the 2019 DALRO Prize. She holds an MA in Research Psychology from the University of the Witwatersrand. Yellow Shade (Deep South, 2021) is her first book of poems

Yellow Shade is your first collection, but I am curious about how long you have been writing for.

I have been writing intermittently for myself since I was about 19 years old, or even earlier, if the short story I wrote when I was 10 is anything to go by. I would write mainly short stories and some poems, throughout my 20s and 30s, but did not see myself as a writer by any stretch. It was only in 2016, 27 years later, that I decided to submit my work for publication in journals. So, in that way, I’m a bit of an anomaly. All poems in this book were written between 2016 and 2020. Read more.

The call

 

Outside the cave: selected poems by Gary Cummiskey

Outside the cave is a selection of Gary Cummiskey's poems from 1990 to 2019, chosen and introduced by Kobus Moolman.

164 pages.

ISBN 978-0-9869982-8-7

Outside the cave will be available from select bookstores. If you order directly from the publisher, the cost will be R280, including courier to your door.

I need to make a plan for overseas orders. The reliability of the South African Post Office is at an all-time low, worsened by delays due to Covid. For example, some Dye Hard Press books mailed to England and France last October have still not arrived. But keep watching this space!

In the meantime, for domestic orders, please send an email to dyehardpress@iafrica.com.

Sunday Invader

 

Paul Warren selects 'In chains' by Gary Cummiskey for National Poetry Day

UK artist Paul Warren selected the poem 'In chains' by Gary Cummiskey for National Poetry Day and posted the poem on Facebook.

The poem is as follows:

In chains

I leap down from the building

into the fire.

They women stand

with their breasts in chains.

I can't get to collect my curry supper.

The owl is going insane.

This a night of anxiety.

I'm on a flying island.

I'm singing, singing, but nobody hears.

A glove is stuck in my throat.

'In chains' was published in the collection Sky Dreaming, published by Graffiti Kolkata, India, 2011.

The hunt is on for the feathers of the lost bird

 

Behind the rain

 

Copies of Thunder on the highway still availilable

 

There are still seven copies left of Thunder on the highway, a chapbook of short poems by Gary Cummiskey. 24 pages.

ISBN 978-0-9869982-7-0

It is a limited edition of 50 numbered copies.

The South African Post Office is now delivering locally. For delivery by the post office the cost is R70. You will receive a tracking number and will have to collect it from your local post office.

Should you want it couriered to your door, with 24-hour delivery, the price will be R140.00.

Please send an email to dyehardpress@iafrica.com to order.

With head on fire

 

Answer the following

 

Exposed on the green

 

Illumination communion

 

Dye Hard Press in the Cape

 

A Facebook post by René Bohnen: I have come to love all couriers. Today's delight from Dye Hard Press. I had to start with the darling tiny chapbook. Gems in there! I still maintain that Gary Cummiskey comes up with some of the most brilliant titles: Outside the cave (conjuring up all sorts of intertextual images) and Thunder on the highway. I still have all the A4 size collections from those long-ago Braamfontein days too: I think the first one I got was When Apollinaire died. [a chapbook published by Gus Ferguson's Firfield Press]. I attended an Alan Finlay launch a few years ago somewhere in Queen Street, I think (it was pushing from the riverbank) Now happily reading these poets again! Also looking forward to the novel set in 1990's Yeoville.

Fish supper - a poem from Outside the cave: selected poems by Gary Cummiskey

Outside the cave: selected poems by Gary Cummiskey is published by Dye Hard Press. Email dyehardpress@iafrica.com to order.

 

Don't you want to share a pear?

 

Garden/struggling towers

 

'Come as you are' in The Odd Magazine

Read Gary Cummiskey's prose poem 'Come as you are' in the latest issue of the Kolkata-based Odd Magazine, here.

The latest issue of The Odd Magazine is out!

The latest issue of the Kolkata-based Odd Magazine, Oddity 22, is out now! The issue contains obituaries for Hungryalist poet Pradip Choudhuri and and artist and poet Stephen Poleskie, was well poetry and prose by Howie Good, Doug Mathewson, Kevin M Hibshman, Noshakare Collins, Louella Leste, Meg Pokrass, Jeff Friedman, Rus Khutoff and Gary Cummiskey, as well as art by Portuguese Dadaist artist Pere Sousa and Kevin M Marlon McClean.

Check it out here.

As the mad awaken/ Industrial debris

 

As the mad awaken/Industrial debris, a painting by British artist Paul Warren, inspired by my chapbook In Naked Field, published by Concrete Meat Press, Leicester, England.

Recently published: The cactus of a bright sky by Alan Finlay

 

Recently published by Dye Hard Press, Alan Finlay's The cactus of a bright sky is a chapbook of seven poems. 16 pages.

Limited to 50 numbered copies.

Cost if R160, including courier, for domestic South African orders.

Please email dyehardpress@iafrica.com to order.

Outside the cave: selected poems by Gary Cummiskey

Outside the cave is a selection of Gary Cummiskey's poems from 1990 to 2019, chosen and introduced by Kobus Moolman.

164 pages.

ISBN 978-0-9869982-8-7

Outside the cave will be available from select bookstores. If you order directly from the publisher, the cost will be R280, including courier to your door.

I need to make a plan for overseas orders. The reliability of the South African Post Office is at an all-time low, worsened by delays due to Covid. For example, some Dye Hard Press books mailed to England and France last October have still not arrived. But keep watching this space!

In the meantime, for domestic orders, please send an email to dyehardpress@iafrica.com.

Chatsworth by Pravasan Pillay

Just a reminder that Pravasan Pillay's excellent short story collection, Chatsworth, is still available for sale online at Made in Chatsworth.

How am I to know?

 

Tonight's the night - the Zoom launch of The cactus of a bright sky and Outside the cave

 

Tonight's the night!

Join us for the transatlantic, online Zoom book launch of Alan Finlay's The cactus of a bright sky and Gary Cummiskey's Outside the cave.

The poets will read from their books and there will be a Q&A afterwards.

Kobus Moolman will MC the event.

Zoom Room for the launch (Tue 27th, 18h30):

https://apc-org.zoom.us/j/89737152967

See you there!

Books received by Fox

 

Copies of Alan Finlay's The cactus of a bright sky and Gary Cummiskey's Outside the cave and Off-ramp received by Richard Fox.