Kyle Allan appointed editor of New Coin

Well-known KZN poet Kyle Allan will edit the poetry journal New Coin from January 2019.

Kyle lives in Himeville in the southern Drakensberg area of Kwa-Zulu Natal. His poetry has been widely published in South African literary journals, and he is the author of two books of poems: House without walls (2016) and The space between us (2018). He performs his poems with musicians from different genres including jazz, kwaito, and maskandi. He has read and performed in most South African poetry festivals and has himself organised some local arts festivals and literary events.

About his plans for New Coin, Kyle says: “I will build on the strong work done by the two most recent editors, Gary Cummiskey and Dashen Naicker, who have published a vigorous range of poetry and have shown themselves to be unafraid of diverse and experimental work. A South African literary journal has to recognise our landscape for its pluralities.

'I want to be open to the unexpected.” Kyle also plans to build a stronger media presence for New Coin; to feature forgotten or underrated poets from the past; and to publish poetry from other South African languages in English translation.

He will look for ways to present the intersections of the written and spoken word. “I’d like to ensure that New Coin has a presence at literary festivals and at popular spoken word events. This will bring the magazine to new audiences and introduce spoken word audiences to poets they might not have come across. At the same time I want to introduce New Coin readers to some of our strong spoken word voices, most of whom are underrepresented in print publications.”

New Coin, founded in 1965, is published twice a year by the Institute for the Study of English in Africa (ISEA) at Rhodes University.

To subscribe (R245 a year) email isea@ru.ac.za or call 046 603 8565.
To send poems to the editor: newcoin@ru.ac.za.

Forwarded as is from the ISEA

Dye Hard Interview: Kyle Allan: Poetry as physical intensity

Kyle Allan is a poet, performer, writer, recording artist and literary festival organiser living in Himeville in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands. He released a CD of poetry, Influences, in 2013 and his debut print collection of poetry, House without walls, was published by Sibali Media in 2016. 

His poems have been published in South African literary journals such as Fidelities, New Coin, New Contrast, Carapace, Kotaz,and Botsotso, and in literary journals in India and the USA. 

He has contributed writing to a variety of publications, including the Natal Witness, LitNet, Mindmapsa and potholesandpadkos. More here

Provocative flash fiction: a review of Off-ramp by Kyle Allan

"Off-Ramp, by recently appointed New Coin editor and poet Gary Cummiskey, offers a glimpse into everyday reality tinged with vivid hallucinatory possibilities and existential crises, embued with a powerful sense of the absurd. The stories reveal startling and often brutal juxtapositions of desire, violence, and power...."

Read more here

A visionary stare at reality: a review of Kobus Moolman's Left Over by Kyle Allan

Poetry that creates an interactive space: a review of Khulile Nxumalo's fhedzi, by Kyle Allan

fhedzi, subtitled iamgoingtoknowgwalopatterns, is the second volume of poetry published by innovative South African poet Khulile Nxumalo.

He continues in his craftsman’s ability to take words and syntax, and the process of language and the meaning attached to everyday symbols, and startlingly evokes fresh and potent perceptions of reality.

His technical ability to play with normal notions of time, space, the nature of the political and reality, reveals the sense of unease in contemporary existence. This encourages the reader to continue beyond the poem, to engage more critically with the larger text that is society.

It is a boldly pan-African voice that breathes in many iconoclastic continental influences. The words trumpet in an interactive space where language and reality make each other. The reader can visualise a restless electric choreography in the words. The subtitle comes from the decorative geometric Ndebele patterns and paintings known as Mgwalo, and this echoes the way the poems and their language encircle each other with meaning.

To understand fhedzi, you have to think of the words inhabiting an interactive space—much like the geometric drawings — which interact with culture, cosmology and the real world around them. They reflect patterns within reality — the order and disorder co-existing.The language both creates new patterns and destroys clichéd patterns of speech and belief through its ability to estrange even ordinary speech effectively.

The incorporation of different languages embraces the reality of poetry as a dialogue of culture, a process in which language itself evolves.The title is TshiVenda, meaning “only, but almost, nearly”, which is also a contraction of fhedzani, meaning “to complete”.

The language expands to both participate in reality and recreate perceptions of reality with its metaphors and poetic syntax. This is a highly skilled technicalwork that evokes the surrealism and interlocking process of South African society. It is a strong read, albeit probably heavy for the layman at first attempt.

(Published in The Witness, September 27, 2013) 

Graffiti Kolkata volume 1

Graffiti Kolkata, volume 1, a new poetry journal edited by Subhankar Das, in Kolkata, India. Includes work by poets such as Catfish McDaris, Henry Denander, Kyle Allan, Yanis Livadas, Jim Wittenberg, Mistry Rainwater Lites, Subhankar Das, Falguni Roy, Michael McAloran, Lynn Alexander, Sharmy Panday and Gary Cummiskey.
Cover artwork by Henry Denander.

To order, email subhankar.das45@gmail.com.