DYE HARD PRESS

Through the naked eye (blind bird)

2012-01-22T22:09:00.000-08:00

Little Tragedies by Howie Good

2012-01-14T22:57:00.000-08:00

Little Tragedies by Howie Good is published by Graffiti Kolkata and consists of 22 surreal prose poems. One of them reads as follows:

Exit Visa

I woke up speaking another language. At the store I couldn't make myself understood. The aged stockboy backed away. The girl working the register shrugged. I started home, but cops were beating a man on the corner. It might as well have been the fall of France, or the day Sacco and Vanzetti were executed. The sky was the dismal gray of neglect. A street musician played the same song on his horn over and over. I also kept weeping. The border was near, sometimes in the guise of helpless firemen, sometimes in the guise of helpless fire.

Little Tragedies is available for $4 from Graffiti Kolkata.

With Revolvers Aimed ... Finger Bowls, by Claude Pelieu

2012-01-14T06:23:00.000-08:00

With Revolvers Aimed ... Finger Bowls, by Claude Pelieu, published by Beach Books, Texts and Documents, 1967. Translated from French by Mary Beach, presented by William Burroughs. Cover by Norman Mustill.

"I've read a lot (solitude & illness), I cannot quote the stars swollen like live pearls, but the savage weapons, the purest screams, bloody contradictions of those snatched from order cannot rot indefinitely in the oily sheets of re/actionary offenses - It really is about reaction, the worst blessing - Artaud, Crevel, Riguat, Duprey, Buskirk, Kaufman, Larronde offended people forever - Rimbaud & Lautreamont embracing in the dust - every seer wanders discoloured in the thistle basket of conformity."

Letter to a Dead Man

2012-01-13T22:33:00.000-08:00

Dye Hard Interview Mxolisi Nyezwa: a new dawn for poetry

2012-01-08T23:09:00.000-08:00

Mxolisi Nyezwa was born in 1967 in New Brighton, Port Elizabeth, where he still lives. He is the author of song trials (Gecko, 2000), New Country (University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2008) andMalikhanye (Deep South, 2011). His work appeared in the bumper poetry anthology Essential Things(Cosaw, 1992) and has been published in numerous literary journals. He is included in the selection of South African writing, Beauty Came Grovelling Forward, on the US-based literary website Big Bridge. He is the founding editor of Kotaz, a cultural journal....Read the Dye Hard Interview here

Hope Savage: Mystery Girl, by Kevin Ring

2011-12-25T00:41:00.000-08:00

The latest chapbook (No 32) from The Beat Scene, this title attempts to trace Gregory Corso's muse, Hope Savage, who disappeared in India in the early 1960s. While many regard Savage as long dead, others are convinced she is still alive. An anonymous blogger claimed to have met her in Iran, Pakistan and Nepal in the mid-1970s, and in her book A Blue Hand: The Beats in India ( Penguin, 2008) Deborah Baker even hints that she may know of Savage's (then) whereabouts.
A captivating, yet distressing essay on yet another 'minor character' in the Beat saga.
Visit The Beat Scene for order details.

The Spirit Goes To The Fire

2011-12-13T22:33:00.000-08:00

And we watch by Gary Cummiskey, translated into French (Et nous regardons) by Bruno Sourdin

2011-12-07T12:36:00.000-08:00

Et nous regardons

Et nous regardons les bébés phoques frappés à mort, un

coup de couteau dans l’estomac pour celui-là et le
lait de sa mère gicle de sa bouche

Et nous regardons le ministre de l’éducation réprimender des

écoliers du quartier de Mitchells Plain à Cape Town

qui avaient écrit des poèmes sur la pauvreté et le

crime, il leur suggère plutôt de composer des odes à

Table Mountain

Et nous regardons les corps nus de ces jeunes hommes sur le

bord de la route, qui ont reçu une balle en pleine tête

Et nous regardons la femme filer à toute vitesse en hurlant

qu’elle ne peut pas comprendre pourquoi son mari a

été enlevé

Et nous regardons cette bande du township se jeter sur une

lesbienne, ça la guérira et lui apprendra à apprécier

une bite

Et nous regardons les sociétés d’aide humanitaire signer des

contrats de milliards de dollars en Afghanistan et en

Irak

Et nous regardons ce garçon de douze ans dans une chambre

d’hôpital avec les bras et les jambes arrachés

Et nous regardons dans la rue des policiers à la panse pleine

de bière frapper une pauvre vieille femme à coups

de pied

Et nous regardons la maman ivre et folle de douleur, pendant

qu’elle se faisait baiser derrière la buvette, son enfant

a été sacrifié et démembré pour confectionner le muti

le médicament de magie noire

Et nous regardons ce restaurant vietnamien qui ressemble

à un magasin d’animaux

Et nous regardons des chiens déchiqueter des singes pour le

plaisir du jeu et du fric

Et nous regardons la torture et les bastonnades perdurer

à Harare

Et nous regardons le corps mutilé retiré de la carcasse

d’une voiture piégée

Et nous regardons la fille dans l’arrière-boutique enfoncer

une aiguille à tricoter dans le vagin

Et nous regardons les chômeurs errants des parcs devenir

de plus en plus désespérés de plus en plus affamés

et de plus en plus détraqués

Et nous regardons le perroquet aux grands yeux

vides crevés avec un tournevis

Et nous regardons

(2008)

Traduit par Bruno Sourdin

Fishy

2011-12-06T22:07:00.000-08:00

French translations of four of Gary Cummiskey's poems, by Bruno Sourdin

2011-12-06T11:59:00.000-08:00

Gary Cummiskey est un poète d’Afrique du Sud, né en Angleterre en 1963. Il est journaliste. A Johannesburg, il a publié plusieurs recueils de poésie. Il est le fondateur des éditions Dye Hard Press et d’une revue littéraire, Green Dragon. Il est aussi l’auteur d’un ouvrage consacré à Sinclair Beiles, le poète sud-africain qui a vécu au Beat Hotel de Paris dans les années 60, et qui a signé avec William Burroughs, Gregory Corso et Brion Gysin, le livre légendaire dédié au cut-up, Minutes du go.

Poème

Je suis très heureux d’apprendre que tu as réalisé ton rêve

un mari

une maison

une petite fille

En fait, tout ce que tu as toujours demandé !

Et moi ?

Bien… moi…

Ah, eh bien

je suis toujours

dehors dans le

jardin

à minuit

et j’essaie toujours

de manger

les étoiles

(1996)

Ce qu’ils font

Ils lui ont mis la main dessus

la fille aux cheveux en bataille

et aux yeux pétillants

ils feront de leur mieux pour l’anéantir

Ils le feront

parce qu’elle est

si remarquablement heureuse

quand elle crie

fort

à travers ses dents blanches et pointues

et qu’elle fait des grands signes de la main

jubilante et joyeuse

elle est si clairement amoureuse

elle ne cherche rien d’autre que la paix

et la liberté

Mais comme une caméra de télé l’a filmée

ils ont enregistré

son image

ils pourront la retrouver

et quand ils l’auront fait

ils l’enlèveront

la battront

lui arracheront les ongles

lui fracasseront le crâne

l’éventreront

disperseront ses intestins

sur le pavé

puis enverront les restes

aux parents et aux amis

comme un avertissement

Ils feront tout ça

parce que

c’est leurs affaires

(2005)

Jardin de l’esprit

SACRIFICE

Destruction de l’homme

Crucifix fou

Bretelle d’accès vers le Soleil

Chien violet

Blazer rouge-bleu

Improvisation sur un thème inconnu

L’ultime leçon du Zen

Surréaliste chocolat

Fabriqué au Japon

Des roues dans l’arbre

Le studio de cristal

Langue de l’univers

Le nombre du repas sacré est Un

Joie du chaman

Tête éphémère

Des singes se bouchent les oreilles sur le terrain de Nulle part

C’est une blessure de lunes

Et des danses hopies

Où le croisé de l’ombre

Rencontre

Le guerrier de la liberté

Nous ne pouvons pas renaître

NOUS NE POUVONS PAS RENAITRE

à ce mythe éternel

Nulle part est le chemin

Rue féérique

Sommeil de l’esprit de la nuit

La porte du merveilleux

(2005)

Plus tard

Ce matin-là lorsque je suis allé te voir

dans ton appartement de luxe

j’avais à peine franchi la porte

que nous nous sommes retrouvés à baiser contre le mur

avant de passer

dans la chambre à coucher.

Plus tard, tu m’as lu

un extrait de Don Quichotte.

J’ai pris une douche

alors que tu étais à la cuisine

et je me tracassais pour mon portefeuille plein à craquer

laissé dans mon pantalon

dans la chambre.

Plus tard, on a pris un café

sur le balcon qui domine la ville

en discutant

des prix de l’immobilier.

Puis j’ai dû partir au boulot,

on s’est embrassés

et dit au revoir.

C’est la dernière fois

que l’on s’est vu.

(2009)

Traduit par Bruno Sourdin

Always Something Happening

2011-11-29T12:32:00.000-08:00

The Powers of the Word by Rene Daumal

2011-11-26T06:51:00.000-08:00

The Powers of the Word: Selected Essays and Notes 1927 - 1943, Rene Daumal.

Translated and introduced by Mark Pollizzotti, published by City Lights, 1991.
Rene Daumal was a French poet and essayist, 1908-1944. He was also the author of the satire A Night of Serious Drinking and the unfinished novel Mount Analogue.
The cover photograph is of Daumal at the age of 15, experimenting with 'paroptic' vision.

Deeper and Down

2011-11-24T02:01:00.000-08:00

Perhaps writers are actually readers...

2011-11-24T01:57:00.001-08:00

"Perhaps writers are actually readers from hidden books. These books are carefully concealed and surrounded by deadly snares. It is a dangerous expedition to find one of these books and bring back a few words." - William Burroughs, introduction to Alexander Trocchi's Man at Leisure.

But The Snake Poised Like A Sword Watches Me

2011-11-15T12:53:00.000-08:00

The Accidental Navigator by Henry Denander

2011-11-12T22:30:00.000-08:00

The Accidental Navigator by Henry Denander, published by Lummox Press, San Pedro, California 2011

120 pages of new and selected poems from Stockholm poet and artist Denander. Drawing on his background as a financial manager in the music industry, some of the poems focus on musicians such as Chet Baker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Keith Jarrett and Bob Dylan. Others are concerned with writers such as Henry Miller, Erica Jong, Haruki Murakami and Charles Bukowski. Some of the poems deal with Denander's sojourns on the island of Hydra, where the presence of Leonard Cohen is often lurking.

The volume also contains the excellent surreal story The Poetry of Mr Blue.

ISBN: 978-1-929878-88-8

The Accidental Navigator is available from www.lummoxpress.com

Against the tide

2011-11-09T01:54:00.000-08:00

Review of The Edge of Things, in Wordsetc

2011-11-08T12:24:00.000-08:00

An edge is the most exhilarating point for a story to place itself. Ask any reader. We don’t need cliff-scrabbling above a literal precipice; masters (and mistresses) of the form can hollow out spaces of mystery and risk beneath the most prosaic inner or outer landscape. But what we do ask, as readers, is that the threshold matter somehow and that we are surprised and, perhaps, even changed when the story crosses it.

The Edge of Things, then, is an enticing title and a flexible one too, stretching to cover all manner of brinks. Characters cross the endlessly fascinating boundary between innocence and experience, naivety and self-knowledge, one sharing his first kiss at the company picnic, another beheading her first chicken.

What would infidelity look like? one story wonders, while another shows us what looks like cheating but turns out, in the flick of a needle, to be bridal branding instead. Worlds collide: matter-of-fact house renovations clang against soul-exchanges in one story while in another an empty house invites a range of intruders, from teenage lovers to lowering-the-tone buyers to symbolic creatures, recalling District 9, that challenge notions of inside and out.

Liesl Jobson’s “tips for super pics” apply with wit and pain to parent-child relationships, tracing shifts that the photographer protagonist catches out of the corner of her eye while her lens is trained elsewhere. Beatrice Lamwaka writes about a schoolgirl who wants to win a race on sports day. She has, after all, trained hard, fleeing rebel soldiers who abducted her. “I outran them so that’s an A+ for me. If anyone needs more practice in athletics, I’m sure it’s not me.”

Sometimes, an edge is sharp enough to draw blood. Then there’s literary edginess, fun with texts, intertextuality. Iconoclasm (“I don’t like Coetzee”) meets homage, for example, in Jeanne Hromnik’s exploration of new-South-African father figures both lecherous and pathetic. Perd Booysen amuses himself, and us too, with the device of the discovered journal, inadmissible as historical evidence because of its fictional finesse.

In David wa Maahlamela’s playful bus ride across the fiction/non-fiction frontier, we meet both Wordsetc and its editor, Phakama Mbonambi. In the optimistic view of the narrator, also called David, writers who describe lived experience “know exactly the impression they are intending to give their readers”. But this is perilous terrain for less adept scribes.

An event that bit your heart for real needs just as much construction on the page as a situation you make up from scratch. You can’t refer to that day, you must weave it, as Bernard Levinson does in “Tokai”. We have no idea whether the story draws on his life or his imagination or some alchemical meld of the two. What matters is that he shapes place, time and action so fully, so deftly that, like the narrator, we are moved by the mysterious intensity of the last scene.

The Edge of Things is in every sense a mixed bag. Alongside Levinson’s story, gems include Salafranca’s unforgettable image of a mother in an iron lung and Pravasan Pillay’s characters, dialogue and spicy small-canvas family drama.

Silke Heiss’s “Don’t Take Me for Free”, arguably Best in Show, nimbly outstrips our expectations. Like its trucker-clown narrator, Vonny, the story “was built to change”.

In Vonny’s extended appeal to her lover, “All-I-Have, Azar”, the language is as elating as the ride across ostrich and canola country in a bright-eyed van “with its massive, roaring heart and load continuing to doer ’n gone”.

The collection’s subtitle – South African short fiction – proposes that we read the stories as a kind of national sampler. (In a one-off slip, the introduction makes an unwarranted claim to be presenting writing “on our continent”.) Clearly, South African fiction has moved beyond the imperative to be earnest, political or even particularly South African. Mischief is now acceptable story territory, while Fred de Vries’s chilling tale could take place in almost any big city and Aryan Kaganof’s junkies claim that Amsterdam may as well be Durban, “there’s no fucking difference. Bars are the same everywhere. Drugs are the same everywhere.” But it is also true that, as per Hromnik, “the past is hungry”.

Several stories tackle a mix of race and privilege, either head-on or obliquely. In “Telephoning the Enemy”, for instance, Hans Pienaar crosses the “what if ?” line for an intriguing revisit of apartheid-era violence.

Solitude, as Salafranca notes in the introduction, features in many of the stories. We glimpse various anxious, closed, self-referential worlds. A man sits at a café table in the last story, telling himself consoling untruths and inking “NARCISSIST” into his crossword puzzle as he fends off contact.

What feels like a limitation, though, looking back over the collection, is neither inner landscapes nor low spirits (excellent fiction fodder) but rather a sense of stasis in some of the stories, a single note struck and held, Act 1 from curtain up to curtain down.

For these writers and for all the rest of us, Jenna Mervis’s story offers advice. Her protagonist “mentions nothing of … the fingernails of trees that have begun to tear at her corrugated roof in the night”. She looks for “a sign that … that the dangers outside have become manifest”. But by the end (and this won’t spoil it for you), she steps off the edge of the deck and plunges into the veld. Why not, writers? Instead of tamping down tension, why not let it explode? Approach the edge. Plunge. Leap.

REVIEWER: A Zimbabwean filmmaker and writer, Annie Holmes has published short stories in the US and Zimbabwe and a short memoir, Good Red, in Canada. She co-edited, with Peter Orner, Hope Deferred: Narratives of Zimbabwean Lives.

(Published in Wordsetc, Third Quarter 2011)

The Call of the Wild by Jack London

2011-11-05T05:48:00.000-07:00

The Call of the Wild, by Jack London, published in 1903.
This edition was published by The MacMillan Company, New York in 1931, for the Every Boy's Library.
There is a foreward by the chief scout executive of the Boy Scouts of America.

Voila! chatroom: an interview with Arja Salafranca, by Nikki Temkin

2011-11-04T23:37:00.000-07:00

Arja Salafranca selected the short stories for The Edge of Things, a compilation of South African short stories. I chatted to her.

NIKKI: What were the criteria for selection for The Edge of Things?
ARJA: Firstly, a story had to move and touch me, make me feel something, reflect on some aspects of life and our experiences here. Secondly, I was looking at excellence in terms of telling a story, well-crafted stories that begin with something deep inside and move readers because these were tales that just had to be told.

N: What was the inspiration for this book?
A: The book was initially meant to be an edition of the literary journal, Green Dragon. I received nearly 100 submissions and then selected the 24 stories that make up the anthology. It was too large for a journal, so I suggested that it become a special short fiction edition. I decided to do it because of my own love of the short story – as both a short story writer and as a prodigious reader of the genre.

N: Can you tell us about some of the themes of the book?
A: Some of the stories centre on solitude – and the ramifications of that, from loneliness, to a sense of fulfilment that also results from time spent alone, some centre on relationships experienced, some are about the outsider from society. Some of the stories explore the mother-daughter bond, some look at childhood experiences, some reach deep into South Africa’s past, looking at how those experiences have shaped those in the stories. Others look at identity issues in post-apartheid South Africa, and my own story deals with polio and the mother-daughter bond.

N: What do you think of South African writing currently?
A: It’s extremely vibrant and healthy – certainly in terms of the volume of fiction being produced, and we have some world-class writers, both established as well as emerging. South Africans are now so much more receptive to reading local literature – and there’s also such a range – from literary, to science fiction to crime thrillers and more.

N: Who are some of your favourite local authors?
A: I love Damon Galgut’s fierce, spare, almost uncompromising vision; David Medalie’s collection of short stories The Mistress’s Dog as well as Henrietta Rose-Innes’s Homing. I also love the poetry of Eva Bezwoda Royston (sadly she committed suicide in the 1970s). It’s personal, confessional poetry full of rich, dark and vivid imagery.

(Published in Voila!, Issue Number 8, 2011)

A Separate Reality by Carlos Castaneda

2011-10-31T23:04:00.000-07:00

A Separate Reality: Further Conversations with Don Juan, by Carlos Castaneda, published 1971.
This edition, by Simon & Schuster Pocket Book editions, was published in 1975.

A lucky 7 for poet, by Graeme Shackleford

2011-10-30T00:01:00.000-07:00

Parkhurst resident Gail Dendy has had her seventh poetry collection published by Dye Hard Press.

Entitled Closer Than That, Dendy' latest work "transports the reader into the world of glittering magical realism".

Married, with cats instead of children, Dendy is a research librarian for an international law firm by day. At night, she writes poetry. Drawing inspiration from nursery rhymes, myths, fables, and biblical and Shakespearean characters, Dendy personalises the world around her.

"My poetry is quite domestic - it's about a woman's environment - and it is always personalised", she said.

The first draft is always handwritten, then she types it onto her computer and begins the editing process."Editing a poem can take days, weeks, or years. It's true that poetry is one percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration. You know when a poem is finished - it just clicks," she said.

Dendy said poetry begins with raw talent and cannot be taught. "You have to have the basic talent for poetry. Teachers can help with various styles, but the danger is that the student starts to copy the teacher. That kills your creativity, your own voice", she said.

Her first poetry collection was published in the United Kingdom in 1993, while she was living in London. Nobel prizewinner for literature Harold Pinter was instrumental in the publication of Assault and the Moth, a limited edition.

Since then, Dendy's work has been published in America, South Africa and Austria.

When asked about her future plans, she said: "I've started on my next poetry collection. I've earmarked some poems, but I don't know what shape or form it's going to take."

(Published in the Rosebank Killarney Gazette, October 21 2011)

Which way is the summer?

2011-10-29T12:52:00.000-07:00

In the mythology of blue

2011-10-29T12:51:00.000-07:00

Gedigte in die Goudstad: Melville Poetry Festival by Rene Bohnen

2011-10-24T00:46:00.000-07:00

Op Saterdag 15 Oktober was gedigte in die Goudstad gratis. Veel liefliker nog: hulle was ook vry.
Die Melville Poetry Festival het afgeskop op die hoek van Sewende Straat en Vierde Laan. Op soek na parkering toe ek daar aankom, het luide gejuig en lewendige tromspel aangekondig dat die gees reeds hoog loop. Die strate is nie afgesper nie; motors en voetgangers het ewe gemoedelik en behendig die ruimte gedeel. Die sonnige weer het bygedra tot ’n atmosfeer van spontaneïteit en vrolikheid. Ek sien nie dikwels dat ’n gehoor handeklap en saamsing op hulle eie wysies om te harmonieer met gedigte nie. Maar in Mellies vandag gebeur dit: die digters word aangemoedig, toegejuig – daar is suiwer plesier in die lug...Read more here

Malikhanye by Mxolisi Nyezwa

2011-10-22T23:40:00.000-07:00

Malikhanye is the third collection

by South African poet Mxolisi Nyezwa,
published by Deep South, 2011.

"Nyezwa's poems are both violent and tender,
with an immediacy of language that strikes
the reader like a cry, or note of music."

978-0-9584915-9-4

all i can make of my country

is a sulphurous compound

a black room with two gigantic stars

as thoroughly silent as corpses

and during the many storms in my life

what happened?

what really happened?

during those nights

what did I really see?

The book is available from bookstores, or order directly from Deep South. Contact r.berold@gmail.com for order details.

The Melville Poetry Festival October 2011

2011-10-22T23:17:00.000-07:00

Gail Dendy and Selwyn Klass at the launch of Closer Than That

Marie-Lais Emond and Eleanor Di Pasquale (back to camera) in the doorway of the launch venue

From inside the launch venue, looking out on the street

Gail Dendy talking at the launch of Closer Than That

Gail Dendy reading at the launch of Closer Than That

The marching brass band for the festival

The brass band's banner announcing the festival

Crowd watches the brass band playing; Allan Kolski Horwitz and Siphiwe ka Nywenga at extreme left

Bernat Kruger

Kobus Moolman

Khulile Nxumalo

Alan Finlay

Arja Salafranca

Robert Berold talks at the launch of Rosamund Stanford's The Hurricurrent and Mxolisi Nyezwa's Malikhanye

Mxolisi Nyezwa

Rosamund Stanford

Mxolisi Nyezwa

Gary Cummiskey

Books for sale at the festival

Gary Cummiskey talks at the panel discussion 'The Ghost of Wopko Jensma'

Hans Pienaar introduces the panel discussion 'The Ghost of Wopko Jensma'

Run Through The Sun

2011-10-18T00:01:00.000-07:00

Eclectic mix of local short stories, by Janet van Eeden

2011-10-13T02:00:00.000-07:00

Book of the Week: The Cream of South African Writers
The editor of this eclectic collection of short stories, Arja Salafranca, sifted through over 100 submissions before she chose stories from the cream of South African writers. There was no theme as such, but it seems as if the stories chosen examine people who are in extreme situations,emotionally or physically.

For example, Arja Salafranca’s moving story about a woman forced to live in a restrictive apparatus in “Iron Lung” is a million miles away stylistically from Aryan Kaganof’s tale of decadence and debauchery on a night out in Durban in “Same Difference.” What is similar, though, is both stories deal with someone in extremis. The narrator of Kaganof's story is the edge of the emotional abyss. The young woman watching her mother in "Iron Lung" is too. There is no easy way to contemplate a happy future when someone you love is crippled in this way.

There are many gems in this sparkling collection. The enjoyment comes not only from the juxtaposition of many different writers, but also from reading stories with such a variety of subjects.

For example, Liesl Jobson’s “You Pay for The View: Twenty Tips for Super Pics” is a series of verbal snapshots of pivotal moments of a mother trying to find a connection with her children. It is written with poignancy and deep longing. “Doubt” by Gillian Schutte is a study of how passion can seep out of a marriage once the chase is over and when feelings of irrelevance grow due to being part of a couple.

Jenna Mervis’s “The Edge of Things” explores paranormal paranoia in a tangible way and examines the valid fear women feel on a daily basis.

The eternal clash with “the other” is explored in Gail Dendy’s “The Intruders”. Perd Booysen’s “Sinners and Sinkholes” is a delightful modern-day Hermann Charles Bosmanesque tale of ghost towns and gullibility in the arid wasteland of the Karoo.

There are too many stories to mention individually, and some lend themselves to rereading many times. This is the beauty of the colection: there is something to appeal to all astes. And, fortunately, the real star of The Edge of Things is the genre of the short story itself.

(Published in The Witness, October 12, 2011)

Miss the rugby already? The Melville Poetry Festival Showcase kicks off this Saturday….

2011-10-12T23:09:00.000-07:00

Date: Friday October 14^th and Saturday October 15^th 2011.

Venue: 7^th Street, Melville, Johannesburg

The first Melville Poetry Festival Showcase is happening this Friday and Saturday, with an exciting line up of poets writing in all languages set to read and perform their work.

Over 30 poets will be gathering for the festival, with readings, panel discussions, exhibitions, book launches and music taking place at different venues in 7^th Street and 4^th Avenue. Poets participating include Angifi Dladla, Keorapetse Kgositsile, Robert Berold, Kobus Moolman, Arja Salafranca, Ike Muila, Uhuru Waga Phalafala, the Botsotso Jesters, Toast Coetzer, Loftus Marais, Charl-Pierre Naudé, Johann Lodewyk Marais and Rene Bohnen.

The festival kicks off on Friday 14^th October at 9.30am at the old Koffie Huis in 4^th Avenue with the Jozi Spoken Word poetry writing and performance workshop where poets young and old can hone their skills under the guidance of established poets and writing teachers.

On Saturday book launches by Dye Hard Press and Deep South Publishing start the day, before the festival’s official opening at 1.30pm with Ron Smerczak, Yoliswa Mogale, and the Botsotso Jesters. In a creative collaboration entitled ‘Digkyk/Eyepoems’, Naudé, Peter Fincham and Hans Pienaar will mount an exhibition of images integrated with poetry, while a theatre projection called ‘Angels and Stones’ will be narrated by Lionel Murcott.

Panel discussions include a talk on the influence of Wopko Jensma (‘The Ghost of Wopko Jensma’) and one called ‘Into Poetry: How to Get Young People to Enjoy Wordplay’, facilitated by Pamela Nichols from the Wits Writing Centre.

Readings and exhibitions carry on throughout the afternoon, with the day wrapping up with a music festival (Andries Bezuidenhout , Planet Lindela Jazz Trio, Riku Latti & Les Javen, and Lithal Li) which will also be used to showcase up-and-coming slam poets.

“The festival offers a great opportunity to listen and engage with South African poets writing in all languages – and for poets to meet and talk to each other, which doesn’t always happen,” says Alan Finlay, a poet who will also be reading at the event. “I think the panel on Wopko Jensma raises a question about the spirit of South African poetry that’s worth exploring.”

Allan Kolski-Horwitz, a Botsotso Jester who, together with the Wits Writing Centre, has run Jozi Spoken Word for several years, feels that the idea of intimate readings at cafés and shops in Melville is a unique one. "The blending of students and local residents with a wide range of poets should make for a very stimulating exchange," he says.

"The plan is to hold a national festival next year, and then to grow it from there – and already several sponsors have shown an interest,” explains Eleanor Koning, one of the organisers of the festival. “That’s why we’re calling this festival a ‘showcase’ – we want to build on it in the future, inviting more poets from around the country and even internationally to take part.”

“We also need to develop real public festivals – a festival where everyone is welcome and heard and we can together develop our new multicultural, multi-faceted literature,” adds Nichols. “We hope the workshop on Friday will contribute to developing the new South African poetry and we believe that Melville with its bookshops and coffee shops and restaurants and wandering poets is the perfect place to incubate a new and creative literary culture.”

Books will be on sale at the venues. Come support South African poetry, or just browse around, catching snippets of poems and song, while visiting the local book and coffee shops that line the streets.

Entrance to all readings, panel discussions and the Friday poetry workshop is free. The slam event and music in the evening costs R15 for students and R30 for adults. To see the full programme for the event, visit The Melville Poetry Facebook Page.

***

The Melville Poetry Festival Showcase is a collaboration between Marie-lais Edmond, Alan Finlay, Allan Kolski-Horwitz (Botsotso Publishing), Eleanor Koning (Melvilla Guest House), Pamela Nichols (Wits Writing Centre) and Hans Pienaar.

For more information on the festival, please speak to Eleanor Koning on 082 386 4688 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 082 386 4688 end_of_the_skype_highlighting or e-mail her at eleanor@melvilla.co.za

To participate in the Jozi Spoken Word poetry workshop, please contact Pamela Nichols at Pamela.Nichols@wits.ac.za

***

Featured artists, in order of appearance, include Gail Dendy, Robert Berold, Rosamund Stanford, Mxolsi Nyezwa, Hans Pienaar, Charl-Pierre Naudé, Peter Fincham, Ron Smerczak, Leti Kleyn, Gary Cummiskey, Michael Gardiner, Uhuru waga Phalafala, Vuyo Seripe, Angifi Dladla, Elza Botha, Botsotso Jesters, Farouk Asvat, Yoliswa Mogale, Lionel Murcott, Peter Horn, Ahmed Patel, Frank Meintjies, Mike Alfred, Toast Coetzer, Andries Bezuidenhout, Corne Cotzee, Alan Finlay, Arja Salafranca, Kobus Moolman, Bernat Kruger, Khulile Nxumalo, Johann Lodewyk Marais, Heidi Marais, Rene Bohnen, Loftus Marais, Itumeleng Magope, Chistophe Van Staden, Ellipsis, Rennie Alexander, Rantoloko, Mak Manaka, Thando, Sebilo, Emmah, Flo, Quaz and the bands Planet Lindela Jazz Trio and Lethal Lee. For the full programme see the Melville Poetry Festival facebook page.

Ask The Dust by John Fante

2011-10-12T00:29:00.000-07:00

This novel, written by the relatively little-known John Fante and published in 1939, was a strong influence on Charles Bukowski, who wrote the introduction for this edition, published in 1998 by Canongate, Edinburgh. The novel concerns Arturo Bandini, a young, struggling writer staying in a seedy LA hotel and his strained, and ultimately tragic, relationship with a waitress named Camilla Lopez. A must-read for any serious admirer of Bukowski's work.

Programme for the Melville Poetry Festival, October 15, 2011

2011-10-09T23:04:00.000-07:00

The Melville Poetry Festival 2011

2011-10-08T23:31:00.000-07:00

Just some events at the Melville Poetry Festival on Saturday October 15 include the launch of Gail Dendy's Closer Than That, a panel discussion on 'The Ghost of Wopko Jensma', and poetry by Gary Cummiskey, Arja Salafranca, Victor Khulile Nxumalo, Kobus Moolman, Rene Bohnen, Bernat Kruger and Alan Finlay. Deep South will also be launching new titles by Mxolisi Nyezwa and Rosamund Stamford.

Pick Up All The Flowers (Demolish The Forests)

2011-10-05T03:08:00.000-07:00

Gail Dendy in conversation with Janet van Eeden about her poetry collection Closer Than That

2011-10-02T00:00:00.000-07:00

Gail Dendy’s new collection, Closer Than That, is full of delicate observations about the human condition, as are many anthologies, but these poems are crafted with the utmost skill and imbued with the musical soul of a dancer.

The poetry lilts and dances in rhythmic metre and one can almost imagine Dendy’s feet keeping time to the words, as if they were notes on a musical score...Read more here

Still on the Road

2011-09-29T00:04:00.000-07:00

Sam Shepard on Bob Dylan and myth

2011-09-24T10:02:00.000-07:00

"Myth is a powerful medium because it talks to the emotions and not the head. It moves us into an area of mystery. Some myths are poisonous to believe in, but others have the capacity for changing something inside us, even if it's just for a minute or two. Dylan creates a mythic atmosphere out of the land around us. The land we walk on every day and never see it until someone shows it to us."

Sam Shepard, Rolling Thunder Logbook, Penguin, 1978.

They Fish

2011-09-20T23:53:00.000-07:00

Last Man Standing ... Al Hinkle: an interview by Stephen D. Edington

2011-09-16T10:04:00.000-07:00

Published by Beat Scene Press in the UK, Last Man Standing... is a fascinating interview with Al Hinkle, on whom the character of Ed Dunkel in Jack Kerouac's On The Road was based. Recalling his friendship with Neal Cassady from 1946 until up to Cassady's death in 1968, this interview offers testimony from yet another "minor character" in the beat saga.
Visit http://www.beatscene.net/ for order details.

CBLQ R80

2011-09-14T14:08:00.000-07:00

100 Thousand Poets for Change Organises Largest Poetry Event in History

2011-09-11T23:27:00.000-07:00

Number of Participants Worldwide Growing Daily

650 events in 450 cities and 95 countries will take place on September 24 to promote environmental, social, and political change. Poets, writers, artists will create, perform and demonstrate in their communities, and decide their own specific area of focus for change within the framework of peace and sustainability, which founder Michael Rothenberg stated, “…is a major concern worldwide and the guiding principle for this global event.”

Bob Holman and Margery Snyder, in a recent article on About.com said, “the beauty of the concept of 100 Thousand Poets for Change is that it is completely decentralized and completely inclusive.” All those involved
are hoping, through their actions and events, to seize and redirect the political and social dialogue of the day and turn the narrative of civilization towards peace and sustainability.

Poetry demonstrations are being organized in political hotspots such as Madison, Wisconsin and Cairo, Egypt. Poetry and peace gatherings are planned in strife-torn Kabul and Jalalabad.

In Mexico there are over 30 events, with 18 poetic actions in Mexico City, where poets as well as environmental and political activists are hoping to encourage reflection and creative responses against systemic violence through the written and the spoken word with day long street events, readings and workshops. More than a third of these events are organized by collectives actively working towards a non-violent approach to solve the country's most pressing problems.

To date there are over 260 events in the United States. There are 20 events statewide in North Carolina where teacher/poets have mobilized to protest cuts in education funding. And along the Platte River near Omaha, Nebraska, poets will be demonstrating against TransCanada’s planned Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. More examples of events can be found at the 100 Thousand Poets for Change www.100TPC.org. Each event organizer has an Event Location blog page on the website for posting, poetry, artwork, photos, and video to document this global mega-event across national borders.

Immediately following September 24th all documentation on the 100TPC.org website will be preserved by Stanford University in California, which has recognised 100 Thousand Poets for Change as an historical event, the largest poetry reading in history. They will archive the complete contents of the website, 100TPC.org, as part of their digital archiving program LOCKSS.

Founder Michael Rothenberg is a widely known poet, editor of the online literary magazine Bigbridge.org and an environmental activist based in Northern California.

For information contact: http://www.100TPC.org
Contact: walterblue@bigbridge.org
Phone: 305-753-4569

Ons Klyntji, August 2011

2011-09-10T02:06:00.000-07:00

The latest issue of alternative culture journal Ons Klyntji has been published and contains poetry, prose, interviews and artwork from a wide variety of names including Allan Kolski Horwitz, Aryan Kaganof, Diane Awerbuck, Koos Kombuis, Kai Lossgott, Stacy Hardy, Kleinboer and notably - from my point of view - Fred de Vries's piece on Sinclair Beiles, 'The First Man in Space was a South African'.

Contact Toast Coetzer at info@toastcoetzer.com for details.

In Flight

2011-09-06T23:30:00.000-07:00

Apollinaire/Apple in Air - a collage by Bruno Sourdin

2011-09-02T12:48:00.000-07:00

Original collage received from French artist and poet Bruno Sourdin

Gail Dendy: dancing in verse

2011-08-30T23:23:00.000-07:00

Gail Dendy is the author of seven poetry collections, the latest being Closer Than That, published by Dye Hard Press. She was first published by Harold Pinter in 1993, with her subsequent collections appearing in SA, the UK and the US. Her poetry and, more recently, short stories, are regularly published in journals and anthologies. An internationally trained dancer, she helped pioneer Contemporary Dance in SA between the late 1970s and the early 1990s. Other passions are environmental- and animal-rights issues. She lives in Johannesburg with her husband, pets, a law library, and a huge rock ’n roll collection.... Read more at The Dye Hard Interviews

Tornado Alley by William S Burroughs

2011-08-28T02:55:00.000-07:00

Illustrations by S Clay Wilson, published by Cherry Valley Editions, 1989.

Little Prajna

2011-08-28T00:37:00.000-07:00

Watercolour of a cat by Henry Denander

2011-08-27T00:49:00.000-07:00

Henry Denander is a Swedish poet and artist. He is the author of, among others, The Poetry of Mr Blue and The Loulaki Bar and other poems from Hydra.

Zen Buddhism and Psychoanalysis by DT Suzuki, Erich Fromm and Richard De Martino

2011-08-25T14:24:00.000-07:00

"...the average person, while he thinks he is awake, is actually half asleep. By 'half asleep' I mean that his contact with reality is a very partial one; most of what he believes to be reality (outside or inside of himself) is a set of fictions which his mind constructs. He is aware of reality only to the degree to which his social functioning makes it necessary. He is aware of his fellowmen inasmuch as he needs to cooperate with them; he is aware of material and social reality inasmuch as he needs to be aware of it in order to manipulate it. He is aware of reality to the extent to which the goal of survival makes such awareness necessary.... The average person's consciousness is 'false consciousness', consisting of fictions and illusion, while precisely what he is not aware of is reality. .." Erich Fromm

Zen Buddhism and Psychoanalysis, by DT Suzuki, Erich Fromm and Richard De Martino, Grove Press, 1960.

Hangin' On

2011-08-21T00:17:00.000-07:00

New publication from Dye Hard Press: Closer Than That by Gail Dendy

2011-08-15T13:49:00.000-07:00

ISBN: 978-0-9869982-0-1

Gail Dendy is one of South Africa’s most unmistakable and unique literary voices. The singing quality of her poetry soars and swoops, transporting the reader into a world of glittering magical realism. In this book a moon ripens in the window ‘whole and lemony once more’, mothers express longing and love, the sun and moon argue, there are gypsy women, and a fantasy piece with Shakespearean characters. This book is truly alive, presented in language that ‘rings like a gong from here to the far end of the world’.

Gail Dendy has grown in stature as a poet … Her poems are intriguing and at times playful, and she is in complete control of her subtle lyrical gift and delicate technique. Gus Ferguson

Gail Dendy moves across the landscape of a remembered past, and fictionalises into imagined other lives … An important voice in South African poetry, Dendy’s words are delicately polished jewels. Arja Salafranca

Gail Dendy’s seventh collection is elegant, sensuous, intelligent and sensitive. Michelle McGrane

I was delighted to publish your poems … Harold Pinter

Perfect bound, 72 pages.

Soon to be available in bookstores countrywide, estimated retail price R105, or available directly from the publisher at R85, including postage.

All Riot on the Western Front: The Montage Art of Winston Smith, Volume 3

2011-08-13T12:28:00.000-07:00

Published by Last Gasp, San Francisco, 2004

The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge by Carlos Castaneda

2011-08-13T12:24:00.000-07:00

Short story form challenges and inspires writers: a report by Leila Bloch on the Cape Town launch of The Edge of Things

2011-08-12T00:23:00.000-07:00

For an anthology of short stories, The Edge of Things includes both depth and scope, with several writers who seem (to varying degrees) unafraid of entering new literary territory. Published by Dye Hard Press, selected and edited by Arja Salafranca, these 24 stories are a special fiction edition of the literary journal Green Dragon.

At the launch, facilitated by Salafranca, a predominantly female group of writers clustered around a podium and steered the familiar how-and-why, question-and-answer session towards more spontaneous conversation. During the evening writers explained how they found inspiration while also skilfully adapting their writing to the short story format...Read more here

Bookmark reproduction of Man Ray's Juliet

2011-08-09T00:39:00.000-07:00

Postcard reproduction of Glass Tears - Man Ray

2011-08-09T00:33:00.000-07:00

The Majoon Traveller by Ira Cohen

2011-08-09T00:24:00.000-07:00

CD of poetry by Ira Cohen, who reads poems such as 'Imagine Jean Cocteau', 'Song to Nothing', 'Tokyo Birdhouse' and 'From The Moroccan Journal 1987'. Includes music by Angus Maclise, Don Cherry, and Ornette Coleman. There is also a recording of the Master Musicians of Joujouka made by Paul Bowles and Brion Gysin in 1961.

The CD is dedicated to the memory of Brion Gysin.

Arja Salafranca reports on the Cape Town launch of The Edge of Things

2011-08-03T23:39:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday night saw the Cape Town launch of The Edge of Things, an anthology of South African short fiction selected by me and published by Dye Hard Press. This followed a month after the Jozi launch at Love Books in Melville.

Hosted by The Book Lounge, the launch was a chance for me to meet some of the Cape Town writers with whom I’d previously only had email dealings, as well as a chance to catch up with writing friends...Read more here

The Hurricurrent by Rosamund Stanford

2011-08-02T00:41:00.000-07:00

The Hurricurrent is a new collection of poems by Rosamund Stanford, published by Deep South.

"Living in comparative isolation helps me free the tide of feelings that's swept me to my present place. My editing skills desert me when I look at my unruly lines, as if my poems are afraid of my often stony eye."

ISBN: 978-0-9584915-8-7

Available from Deep South, email r.berold@gmail.com to order

Brain Damage in Oklahoma City

2011-08-02T00:37:00.000-07:00

CD of recordings by musician and poet
Angus MacLise (1938-1979). An early friend of Piero Heliczer (who published MacLise's first poetry collection), MacLise worked with Le Monte Young and was the original drummer for the Velvet Undergound. He also worked with Daniel Moore in the Floating Lotus Magic Opera Company in Berkeley, late 1960s, eventually living in Kathmandu, where Ira Cohen published his works such as Subliminal Report and The Cloud Doctrine.

Pphoo - 1988

2011-07-31T00:25:00.000-07:00

Pphoo is a trilingual (English, French, Bangla) literary journal published by Kolkata-based poet Pradip Choudhuri. This 1988 issue includes writers such as Charles Plymell, Claude Pelieu, George Dowden and FA Nettelbeck. The cover art is fragmented ink by Theo Green, who also contributes a piece about visitng Brion Gysin, as well as a prose reverie about Tangier. There is also a sizeable section devoted to "Le Mythe Kerouac".

Travel/Writing by Philip Hammial and Ania Walwicz

2011-07-29T22:53:00.000-07:00

Published by Angus & Roberston Publishers, Australia, 1989.

Black Alephs by Jack Hirschman

2011-07-24T22:59:00.000-07:00

Jack Hirschman's Black Alephs: Poems 1960-1968, published by Trigram Press, London, 1969. Cover and inside art by Wallace Berman.

Dancing on the sun

2011-07-24T22:47:00.000-07:00

Gail Dendy's Closer Than That on Peony Moon

2011-07-21T23:30:00.000-07:00

Closer Than That by Gail Dendy

ISBN: 978-0-9869982-0-1

Soon to be published by Dye Hard Press, Closer Than That will be available from bookstores countrywide at an estimated retail price of R105.

A sample of poems from the collection appear on Peony Moon.

Podcast of Arja Salafranca interviewed about The Edge of Things

2011-07-21T23:16:00.000-07:00

Arja Salafranca was interviewed by Sue Grant-Marshall about The Edge of Things on the Reading Matters programme for Radio Today on July 14th. You can listen to the podcast of the interview here.

Kate Turkington reviews The Edge of Things

2011-07-20T23:38:00.000-07:00

Short stories, as any writer knows, are possibly the most difficult literary form. In the space of a few pages, the storyteller must condense the thoughts, feelings and actions of his or her characters and then come to a conclusion.

The Edge of Things (Dye Hard Press) edited by Arja Salafranca, herself an award-winning poet and short storyteller, gives us the best of contemporary South African writers. There are many themes with many twists.

The title story The Edge of Things by Jenna Mervis marries stark everyday South African reality to a wondrous fantasy. Arja’s own story The Iron Lung reminds us that imprisonment is not only physical but emotional and spiritual. The Company Christmas Party by Hamilton Wende is about that tender first love, and Mr Essop by Pravasan Pillay tells the story of a charming old Indian pensioner who rents a cottage on a friend’s property with unforeseen circumstances. The stories are dazzlingly diverse: funny, sad, thought-provoking and relevant. Keep them by your bed or in your bag for those school lift waits.

Published on http://www.joburg.co.za/ here

Invite to the Cape Town launch of The Edge of Things, at The Book Lounge, July 28th

2011-07-18T23:34:00.000-07:00

Detroit by Philip Hammial

2011-07-18T23:26:00.000-07:00

Detroit - the latest collection of poems by Australian poet and artist Philip Hammial, published by the Island Press Co-operative, New South Wales, 2011.

Tongue

2011-07-18T23:19:00.000-07:00

Loneliness a recurring theme in this collection: a review of The Edge of Things, by Gwen Podbrey

2011-07-14T01:14:00.000-07:00

The short story has come back into its own over the past few years, possibly because time-strapped readers find them easier to manage than a lengthy novel.

This collection includes contributions from a remarkably diverse range of writers, including Gail Dendy, Jenna Mervis, Gillian Schutte and Jayne Bauling.

If there is one central theme to the book, it is alienation (or, to use real name, loneliness). The stories capture encounters and experiences which tilt us over into the cracks between the crevices of contemporary life: those dark, uncharted spaces where needs are failed by niceties, and pain and perdition walk hand in hand.

Pick of the crop – by a long way – is Bernard Levinson’s superb “Tokai”, which recounts his delivery of an Afrikaans couple, the Bezuidenhout’s, baby in the dead of night. But the birth is complicated and the womb goes into violent contractions, forcing him to manually secure it and staunch its gushing of blood.

For hours he sits, his hand in the uterus of his semi-comatose patient, feeling this incubator of life convulse, enfold his fingers and relay to him its arcana.

“There was a slight shift of tempo. I listened with the fingers of my fist. Unmistakably, I heard the womb flutter and shift itself minutely over my fist... It stretched and gripped. Stretched again and squeezed my fist firmly. I inched my hand out. A secret dialogue between my hand and the womb. My blunt fist - mute and solid. The womb excited, chattering and intimately pressing and caressing my hand.”

Witnessing the drama of this birth - like the primordial one and, indeed, all births - Kleinman Bezuidenhout is engulfed in agony as acute as his wife’s. The next morning, Levinson - preparing to leave - sees him engaged in a ritual which matches, in every detail, the intensity and power of the previous night’s crisis.

The story is an unforgettable glimpse into the soul of the healer, whose patients’ trust in him can crucify as often as it coronates, and whose brief role in their lives - as an outsider, observing and intervening, but never sharing - carries a unique loneliness.

Later, in Liesl Jobson’s “You Pay for the View: Twenty Tips for Super Pics”, we enter the alienation of a compulsive photographer unable to fully engage with her life, and attempting instead to capture its essence through her lens “because the camera never lies”.

Yet it does, for it lacks the vocabulary to capture the truth of locations and individuals, how they imbed themselves in the DNA of the soul and remain there forever, a testimony to life and loss. These are not within the province of pixel and resolution, but of another documenting medium altogether.

The third exceptional story in the collection, Pravasan Pillay’s “Mr Essop”, recounts the arrival of a seemingly kindly, placid lodger at his parents’ home. The author, still a child, notes the growing friendship between the boarder (Mr Essop) and his father - both lonely men - and their mutual pleasure at discovering the values they have in common. But when Essop suddenly shows a brutal side to his nature, shock is added to disappointment.

Aryan Kaganof’s “Same Difference” explores yet another kind of alienation: that of drug users, whose subculture and exclusion from mainstream society force them to band together, unwillingly recognising in each other kindred tortured spirits and putting on a show of bravado to conceal their desperation.

In this ugly, treacherous world, the only allegiances which matter, last as long as it takes to shoot up a crystal meth hit.

“The upstairs toilets are for blowjobs and the schnarf sessions. The outside toilets are for quick shags and schnarf sessions … Tretchikoff girls clustered on the walls and in the mirror. Looking down serenely on the useless lives of all the pastel customers. Useless, all of it. Useless.”

As the narrator ends yet another all-night session with his gang of users in the fetid, filthy basement of a nightclub, and the sun announces the break of yet another unwelcome day, he reflects: “I’m frightened. I’m lonely. Sometimes I feel close to death. But at least I scored tonight… There is no reason to stay alive. But I refuse to bribe the reaper to come and take me.”

Hans Pienaar’s contribution, Telephoning the Enemy”, makes a brave, but failed, effort to explore the alienation of white, apartheid-bound South Africans on the verge of political change. As bombs hidden in sidewalk garbage cans claim one civilian victim after another during the early 1980s, racist beliefs are heightened and the gap between terrorist and victim appears unbreachable.

Not all the stories have the gravitas or compositional skill to sustain the reader’s interest. Angelina N Sithebe’s cumbersome, melodramatic and poorly structured “Sepia”, for example, features characters who are utterly implausible, while Rosemund Handler’s “Clueless” exhumes a stale, clichéd story line: white, lonely madam coming on to a man across the colour bar, followed by a delicious explosion of eroticism and new awareness of each other as human beings. Hardly groundbreaking stuff.

Still, with 22 out of 24 stories offering piercing insights and showcasing a range of exciting writing talent, the collection is one of the best to emerge in recent years. Salafranca’s eloquent and moving foreword whet one’s appetite for the feast to come and the contributors’ profiles at the back of the book give perspective to the voices on the pages, which demand - and deserve - an audience.

(Published in SA Jewish Report, July 8, 2001)

Short but rich South African view - a review of The Edge of Things by Jane Rosenthal

2011-07-12T00:42:00.000-07:00

Two collections of short stories illustrate why the genre continues to garner accolades for the country

The Edge of Things: South African short fiction, selected by Arja Salafranca, Dye Hard Press

African Pens 2011, Jacana

Though they may have been somewhat neglected in recent years, there is a long tradition of short stories in South African fiction. Some of the most famous writers are Pauline Smith, Can Themba and Dan Jacobson; more recently Ivan Vladislavic, David Medalie and Zoe Wicomb spring to mind. Practitioners of this form were hard at work last year if one judges by the two collections reviewed here. As with literary awards for fiction, it's a matter of some chance as to what appears in any given year and 2010 seems to have been particularly good.

Arja Salafranca originally intended The Edge of Things to be a special short-fiction edition of the journal Green Dragon, but as she had so many submissions, it became a full-length book. This interesting and wide-ranging selection reflects the richness of the South African experience. It begins with several pieces that delineate the complexities of personal relationships, including mothers and daughters, dysfunctional marriages and the interior lives of women - all situations in which the protagonists seem to be sailing close to the edge of things.

The title piece, The Edge of Things by Jenna Mervis, is a particularly fine story about a woman and her dog, alone in a remote place, which is beset by fear and fantasy.

Other strong but even darker pieces include Tokai by Bernard Levinson, a brooding, sexualised and masculien take on birth; Telephoning the Enemy by Hans Pienaar recounts the effects of a bomb on a conservative Pretoria community; and in Solitude Dan Wylie an isolated coffee-drinker who enjoys crossword puzzles observes the lives of others from the periphery. Margie Orford's The Gift is an erotic and original meditation on freedom and commitment. Its contrast to these, Hamilton Wende's The Company Christmas Party evokes adolescents careening uncertainly but cheerfully into adulthood.

Pravasan Pillay's Mr Essop is a precise cameo of language and life in Chatsworth, in which the protagonist at first appears to be the perfect tenant.

Although there are a few less felicitious inclusions, the standard is remarably sustained. Most memorable would probably be Silke Heiss's Don't Take Me for Free, narrated by Vonny, a woman whose hold on her job as a furniture-van driver, and on her sometimes man, Azar, is extremely tenuous. This unusual story asserts the humanity of the homeless, poor and underemployed. For Vonny and Azar the stabilising symbol of their lives is a carved piece of cedar wood. This item,made by Azar, is as abitrary as fate but is seen as a spine and a road that helps to hold them. Poetic and deep, Vonny's strange existence imprints itself on the reader's mind.

The 500 stories originally submitted for African Pens 2011 were read and shortlisted to 21 by variuous volunteers (PEN readers and an editorial board) before being judged by JM Coetzee. Although Coetzee considers the standard of this year's entries to be "generally higher", he said that "the kind of short story writer we are all hoping that an award of this magnitude will attract - the newcomer with naked talent, a feel for language and a fresh vision of the world - stubbornly fails to arrive".

I thought this a little stringent - there is plenty of "naked talent" and "feel for language" - and even considerable "fresh vision". Stories that particularly show "fresh vision" would include Claremont Park (Bobby Jordan), Pinch (Martin Hatchuel) and Evolution (Jayne Bauling).

Jordan's story takes one deep into the experience of people on the fringes of Cape Town society in a lyrically light and accepting way not seen by this reader before. Pinch could be a sidebar to Deneys Reitz's great classic about the South African Anglo-Boer War, Commando, with an entirely unexpected flare, both tender and brutal. In Evolution Bauling takes the reader to a place where our existence as the dominant primate species is challenged, perhaps deservedly so. In these three we have fresh visions of the present, past and future.

The winning story, The Story, by James Whyle, is a gem. Set in Pringle Bay, it has more than one narrative layered into its cleanly written pages and concerns a man, his driver's licence, a cop, a baboon and several "whatifs". In second place is Heatwave by Beth Hunt, in which a woman, surrounded by love and good fortune, examines her conscience when a lover dies.

Of the 21 stories I considered 15 to be very good - and the rest to be almost as good. Names that are already known to readers include Liesl Jobson, with her intense, perceptive style, and Sarah Lotz, whose The Pigeon Fancier is funny as well as sad.

Both these collections of short fiction are not to be missed and contain stories that will join the ranks of the established tradition.

(Published in Mail & Guardian, July 8 2011)

Showcase for SA short fiction by Maureen Isaacson

2011-07-10T23:45:00.000-07:00

Published ahead of the South African Short Story Day is The Edge of Things: South African short fiction, selected by Arja Salafranca, the editor of Sunday LIfe.

It is a special edition of the literary journal Green Dragon, which Salafranca, says has been published annually since the early 2000s. Salafranca said she suggested that this particular edition, dedicated to the short story, serves “to highlight the importance of this genre, increasingly coming into its own in this country”.

The result is 24 pieces, “some of which qualify as short stories, others more like prose poems and descriptions of emotional experiences”, according to the Cape Times.

The book includes the stories of a range of writers, some well known, including Margie Orford, Liesl Jobson, Karina Magdalena Szczurek, Rosemund Handler, Hamilton Wende, Aryan Kaganof, Hans Pienaar and Salafranca herself, as well as those new to their craft, including Beatrice Lamwaka.

Salafranca’s debut short story collection The Thin Line was published by Modjaji Books last year. She has published two collections of poetry, A life Stripped of Illusions and The Fire in Which We Burn. Her poetry is also collected in Isis X (Botsotso).

Salafranca received the 2010 Dalro Award for poetry and has twice received the Sanlam Award, for fiction and poetry.

The Edge of Things, published by Dye Hard Press, costs R185.

(Published in The Sunday Independent, June 26, 2011)

Many births

2011-07-09T23:34:00.000-07:00

Forthcoming publication from Dye Hard Press: Closer Than That by Gail Dendy

2011-07-09T03:03:00.000-07:00

Closer Than That

a new collection of poems

by Gail Dendy

ISBN: 978-0-9869982-0-1

Gail Dendy has grown in stature as a poet … Her poems are intriguing and at times playful, and she is in complete control of her subtle lyrical gift and delicate technique. Gus Ferguson

Gail Dendy moves across the landscape of a remembered past, and fictionalises into imagined other lives. … An important voice in South African poetry, Dendy’s words are delicately polished jewels. Arja Salafranca

Gail Dendy’s seventh collection is elegant, sensuous, intelligent and sensitive. Michelle McGrane

I was delighted to publish your poems … Harold Pinter

Closer Than That is scheduled for publication at the end of July 2011 and will be available from bookstores throughout South Africa. Estimated retail price R120.

Transit No 24

2011-07-08T00:55:00.000-07:00

The latest issue of Transit: a little magazine of America's Beat Generation, published by Beat Scene in the UK. This issue contains writings by or about Barry Gifford, Sam Charters, Michael McClure, Gael Turnbull, Dianne di Prima, William Burroughs, Jack Hirschman, Jack Kerouac and Dan Propper.

Quiet Days in Clichy by Henry Miller

2011-07-08T00:42:00.000-07:00

First published by The Olympia Press in 1956, this edition was published by Evergreen in 1987.

Johannesburg launch of The Edge of Things, at Love Books, Melville

2011-07-02T00:34:00.000-07:00

From left: Sandy Golding, Marion Sher, Kay Robinson

From left centre: Hans Pienaar, Hamilton Wende; at top centre: Fred de Vries, Arja Salafranca and Jayne Bauling

Peter Sullivan and Jo-Anne Richards

Love Books owner Kate Rogan

From left: Hans Pienaar, Hamilton Wende; top: Fred de Vries

From left: Arja Salafranca, Jayne Bauling, Gail Dendy, Gillian Schutte, Bernard Levinson

Fred de Vries

Arja Salafranca

From left: Arja Salafranca, Gail Dendy

Arja Salafranca

Jayne Bauling

Hans Pienaar

Hamilton Wende

Gillian Schutte

Gail Dendy

From left: Jayne Bauling, Kate Rogan, Gillian Schutte

Touched by your presence

2011-07-02T00:05:00.000-07:00

Lunar Caustic by Malcolm Lowry

2011-07-01T23:52:00.000-07:00

Penguin Books gets a thumbs-up from me on their latest small-format series of short(ish) fiction. Lowry's posthumously published novella Lunar Caustic has been out of printed for quite a few years so its reprint in this Penguin series is certainly welcome.

What happened to Jackson - Jeff Nuttall

2011-06-30T05:02:00.000-07:00

A bizarre and disturbing crime novella from the author of Bomb Culture, published by Aloes Books, London. No publication date stated, but a Wikipedia entry on Nuttall gives it as 1978.

Dye Hard Interview with Pravasan Pillay: humour me

2011-06-27T23:39:00.000-07:00

Pravasan Pillay was born in 1978 in Durban. He has published a chapbook of poetry, Glumlazi (2009), and a collection of comedic short stories, Shaggy (2011), co-written with Anton Krueger. Pillay's poetry and short stories have appeared in numerous books and journals and on websites. His short story 'Mr Essop' appears in The Edge of Things, an anthology of South African short fiction published by Dye Hard Press...Read more here

Deliria

2011-06-26T12:34:00.000-07:00

Invite to the Cape Town launch of The Edge of Things, at The Book Lounge, July 28th

2011-06-22T00:08:00.000-07:00

Extracts from The Edge of Things on Peony Moon

2011-06-21T23:57:00.000-07:00

The Edge of Things (Dye Hard Press, 2011) consists of 24 South African short stories selected by Arja Salafranca. The contributors are Jayne Bauling, Arja Salafranca, Liesl Jobson, Gillian Schutte, Karina Magdalena Szczurek, Jenna Mervis, Jennifer Lean, Fred de Vries, Margie Orford, Aryan Kaganof, Bernard Levinson, Hamilton Wende, Pravasan Pillay, Beatrice Lamwaka, Hans Pienaar, Rosemund Handler, Tiah Beautement, Angelina N Sithebe, Jeanne Hromnik, David wa Maahlamela, Perd Booysen, Gail Dendy, Silke Heiss and Dan Wylie...
Read more here

Landscape 2

2011-06-18T07:29:00.000-07:00

Shaggy

2011-06-17T02:08:00.000-07:00

Fourteen Rather Amusing Rambles
by Anton Krueger and Pravasan Pillay

Published by BK Publishing

“But listen to me rambling on! I’m sure you must be dying to rush home to feed your cat.”

Fourteen monologues by creeps, losers and an idiot.

Prepare yourself for a cast of some of the most manipulative, ingratiating, disillusioned, egotistical, inauthentic, spiteful narcissists operating in contemporary SA. Within these pages you will encounter fourteen first-hand shaggy stories told by a rogues gallery of scheming misanthropes whose speeches are full of sound and fury, signifying very little. These hilarious blowhards will make you snigger, cringe and wish your cousin had rather given you Spud 5 for your birthday.

EAN: 9780620504584
Price: R135

To order a copy, please write to: andrea@alookaway.co.za

Janet van Eeden of LitNet reviews The Edge of Things, and chats to Arja Salafranca and other contributors about their stories

2011-06-16T00:26:00.000-07:00

The Edge of Things is an eclectic collection of short stories traversing a vast distance emotionally and intellectually.

For example, Arja Salafranca’s moving story about a woman forced to live in a restrictive apparatus in “Iron Lung” is a million miles away stylistically from Aryan Kaganof’s tale of decadence and debauchery on a night out in Durban in “Same Difference.”

As with all anthologies, some stories will resonate with each reader more than others...Read more here

Jeanne Hromnik's review of The Edge of Things

2011-06-16T00:09:00.000-07:00

There are 24 pieces here, some of which qualify as short stories, others more like prose poems and descriptions of emotional experiences. Relationships are central, aloneness integral and fictional reality

flexible.

The collection displays a variety of writing styles. It includes pieces by some of South Africa’s well-known writers, but also some gems from lesser knowns, including Beatrice Lamwaka’s prize-worthy Trophy and Dan Wylie’s tour-de-force, Solitude.

Interesting reading for those who are curious about the advance of short fiction in the local publishing market and, for all, comfort food for the soul. Jeanne Hromnik

(Published in Cape Times, June 10, 2011)

Houses of Joy

2011-06-11T01:04:00.000-07:00

Invite to the Johannesburg launch of The Edge of Things

2011-06-08T00:19:00.000-07:00

Invite to the Johannesburg launch of The Edge of Things

2011-06-07T05:16:00.000-07:00

Dye Hard Press and Love Books

invite you to the launch of

The Edge of Things

South African short fiction selected by Arja Salafranca

Award-winning author Arja Salafranca will be in conversation with contributors Jayne Bauling, Gail Dendy, Bernard Levinson, David wa Maahlamela, Hans Pienaar, Gillian Schutte, Fred de Vries and Hamilton Wende about their stories and about the genre, which is clearly enjoying a resurgence in South Africa.

When: Thursday June 30th, 5.30pm for 6pm

Where: Love Books, The Bamboo Centre, 53 Rustenburg Road, Melville, Johannesburg

GPS Co-ordinates: 26º 10’ 27,64” S, 28º 0’ 49, 66” E

RSVP: info@lovebooks.co.za or 011 726 7408

Collage

2011-06-06T13:59:00.000-07:00

Sinclair Beiles in Beat Scene

2011-06-03T07:00:00.000-07:00

Beat Scene No 64, features articles about Diane de Prima, William Everson, Jay Landesman, Anne Waldman, Janine Pommy Vega, Gary Snyder, William Burroughs, a slightly shortened version of the eponymous chapter of Who Was Sinclair Beiles? by Gary Cummiskey, and more. Visit Beat Scene for details.

Talking with Ginsberg: an interview by Jim Burns

2011-06-03T00:39:00.000-07:00

Number 30 in the Beat Scene Press Pocket Book Series, chapbooks by or about Beat figures such as Philip Lamantia, Wallace Berman, Lew Welch, Jack Kerouac and Charles Plymell. Visit Beat Scene to order.

Carnival

2011-05-28T07:23:00.000-07:00

Sky Dreaming on Peony Moon

2011-05-25T23:58:00.000-07:00

I am searching for André Gide and have been told he is staying with Sinclair Beiles, so I go to Sinclair’s house in Raleigh Street, Yeoville. It’s been years since I have been out this way, but even so, after I knock on the door, Sinclair answers quite friendly and says, ‘Gide doesn’t live here anymore. I think he’s staying at a flophouse – he went loony, you know’...Read more here

Incwadi - Autumn 2011 issue

2011-05-23T23:34:00.000-07:00

The latest issue of online poetry journal Incwadi features work by poets such as Gail Dendy, Ingrid Andersen, Arja Salafranca, Kelwyn Sole, Fiona Zerbst, Gary Cummiskey, Kerry Hammerton, Sarah Frost, Michelle McGrane, Anton Krueger, Crystal Warren and Tania van Schalkwyk.

Kobus Moolman: defending the value of poetry

2011-05-23T13:10:00.000-07:00

Kobus Moolman has published several collections of poetry, including Time Like Stone, Feet of the Sky, 5 Poetry (with others), Separating the Seas, and most recently, Light and After (Deep South). He has also published two volumes of drama: Blind Voices and Full Circle. He has been awarded the Ingrid Jonker prize for poetry, the PANSA award and the DALRO poetry prize. He lives in Pietermaritzburg and teaches creative writing at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

You can read the Dye Hard Interview here

Independent publishers: how do they survive? Janet van Eeden interviews Deep South's Robert Berold

2011-05-22T23:53:00.000-07:00

Janet: Robert, can you tell us a bit about your publishing house? What did you set out to achieve when you started publishing and how long have you been going?

Robert I started Deep South with Paul Wessels in 1995. At the time I was editing New Coin. Seitlhamo Motsapi, whose brilliant poems had been appearing in New Coin, told me he couldn’t find any publisher to take on his work. I was so outraged that I went to Paul and said we have to go into publishing. Our next book, Ari Sitas’s Slave Trades, was published a whole five years later. So in a way we only started in 2000. From 2003 I ran Deep South on my own...Read more here