Published in 1994, this was the first title by Dye Hard Press (out of print).Monday, 21 January 2008
The Secret Hour - Gary Cummiskey
Published in 1994, this was the first title by Dye Hard Press (out of print).Friday, 18 January 2008
Monday, 14 January 2008
Sunday, 13 January 2008
Green Dragon 3
Published by Dye Hard Press in 2005, with poetry and prose by Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore, Kelwyn Sole, Tania van Schalkwyk, Abdul Milazi, Allan Kolski Horwitz, Kobus Moolman, Ingrid Andersen, Michelle McGrane, Vonani Bila, Silke Heiss, Arja Salafranca, Richard Fox, Bernat Kruger, Khulile Nxumalo, Gus Ferguson, Liesl Jobson, Gertrud Strauss, Joop Bersee, Alan Finlay, Paul Grillo, Lesego Rampolokeng, Philip Hammial, David wa Maahlamela, Colleen Higgs and Gary Cummiskey. (Out of print)Thursday, 10 January 2008
Green Dragon 1
Published by Dye Hard Press in 2002. Poetry and prose by Kobus Moolman, Kay Benno, Alan Finlay, Thachom Poyil Rajeevan, Michael Vines, Keith Gottschalk, Gus Ferguson, Michael Cope, Maria Petratos, Philip Hammial, Roy Blumenthal and Arja Salafranca. (Out of print)
Green Dragon 2
Published by Dye Hard Press in 2003. Contains poetry and prose by Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore, Allan Kolski Horwitz, Paul Wessels, Sumeera Dawood, Kobus Moolman, Gus Ferguson, Richard Fox, Aryan Kaganof, Alan Finlay, Philip Hammial, Joop Bersee and Arja Salafranca.
Amazingly, some copies are still in stock and are available at R20 per copy (including postage) from Dye Hard Press, Po Box 783211, Sandton 2146.
Wednesday, 09 January 2008
Romancing the dead
The meeting takes place at Unit 305 at 2am. It’s a funeral ceremony and all the sleeping relatives sit on the floor of the bedroom around the bed where the corpse is laid. Once the sleepers have been given the pills to swallow, this will allow them to communicate with the dead who will feel their bodies rejuvenating and may even emerge from their winding sheets and float up to the ceiling.
An area of concern is that the pills may cause the sleepers’ minds to drift onto other matters, when they should be focused on the newly departed. Also, in some rare cases, the pills are known to cause the sleepers to start spouting what they consider to be beautiful lines of poetry but which sound like the trumpets of hell to the dead, terrifying them into remaining laid where they are and closed off to any contact.
It is also important not to draw attention from the police about this newly discovered but actually very ancient operation. A few years ago, the police did hear rumours of such activities, but getting their facts mixed up, tried instead to create a homunculus.
There is also the fear that policemen allowed access to the ceremony may take advantage of the situation and sodomise one or even several sleepers.
An area of concern is that the pills may cause the sleepers’ minds to drift onto other matters, when they should be focused on the newly departed. Also, in some rare cases, the pills are known to cause the sleepers to start spouting what they consider to be beautiful lines of poetry but which sound like the trumpets of hell to the dead, terrifying them into remaining laid where they are and closed off to any contact.
It is also important not to draw attention from the police about this newly discovered but actually very ancient operation. A few years ago, the police did hear rumours of such activities, but getting their facts mixed up, tried instead to create a homunculus.
There is also the fear that policemen allowed access to the ceremony may take advantage of the situation and sodomise one or even several sleepers.
Sunday, 06 January 2008
The Red Laughter of Guns in Green Summer Rain - Philip Zhuwao & Alan Finlay
Published by Dye Hard Press in 2002 (out of print).
Head - Gary Cummiskey and Roy Blumenthal
Published by Dye Hard Press in 1998, cover design by Roy Blumenthal (out of print).
Reigning Gloves - Gary Cummiskey
Published by Dye Hard Press in 2001. Cover design by Roy Blumenthal (out of print).
Saturday, 05 January 2008
Thursday, 03 January 2008
Dye Hard Press - an argument for independent publishing
Dye Hard Press was launched in 1994 almost by accident and on a shoestring budget. For some time I had been frustrated by the lack of poetry publishing outlets in South Africa, whether in journal or book form. South Africa has always suffered from a lack of outlets for poetry, a situation Lionel Abrahams once described as being more destructive than censorship.
In the early 1990s journal outlets for poetry consisted of New Coin, New Contrast, Sesame and Staffrider. A major obstacle to publishers then – as now – was the high cost of production and lack of capital. Funding could be obtained from the National Arts Council but even then funds were limited and allocation committees understandably cautious about funding individuals or ventures lacking a credible track record.
One publisher who worked his way around this scenario was Gus Ferguson who, apart from publishing numerous poetry collections under his imprint Snailpress, produced 30 issues of a monthly poetry journal Slug News, which was produced relatively cheaply – photocopied rather than printed – and distributed free of charge.
Slug News made me realise that a poetry journal did not have to be a glossy production and could be produced cheaply. This example was followed shortly by Roy Blumenthal, whose Barefoot Press printed poetry pamphlets by the thousands and then distributed them via bookshops throughout the country.
This encouraged me to start my own independently published poetry journal called The Magazine With No Name. In retrospect, the venture was doomed from the start but back then I couldn’t see it. Being able to produce something cheaply was not enough, and one of my main problems was that I did not have the credibility of “a name”. If The Magazine With No Name had been published by an Abrahams or Serote, it would have probably been an instant success – but not when it was being published by an unknown named Gary Cummiskey.
My solution was to get a small collection of my own poetry in circulation so people would see I was in earnest. I brought together 20 poems, typed them up on my computer at work, produced a simple cover, photocopied about 100 A4-sized copies, stapled them down the side, and there I had my first collection of poems, The Secret Hour, ready to hit the streets.
I had thought of stating that the collection was privately published, but then considered thinking up a crazy publishing-press name for a once-off production. Partly as a joke and partly as a reflection of my determination not to lay down and die after my plans for The Magazine With No Name collapsed, I decided to ascribe publication to Dye Hard Press.
Shortly afterwards I met Alan Finlay, who was starting up his own poetry journal, Bleksem. He suggested I continue publishing poetry collections by this method, as it was a quick and easy way to get poetry in circulation. If the high-gloss publishing route wasn’t working, all we had to do was ignore it and take over the means of production ourselves.
More titles from Dye Hard Press followed – Structured Space by JDU Geldenhuys, Burning Aloes by Alan Finlay, Icarus Rising by Gus Ferguson, Inside My Pocket by Robert Homem, more samples of my own work, plus others. I also started up a poetry journal called Atio, which ran to four issues.
There was, around this time, an explosion of new poetry publishing ventures, big and small. This period saw the emergence of Botsotso, Carapace, Guter 3, ImPrint, Something Quarterly and Sun Belly Press, to name a few. There was talk of a poetry renaissance and these ventures were generally received with enthusiasm. There were readings at public venues and on radio and TV. As Karen Press perceptively pointed out in New Coin, this sudden burst of activity was undoubtedly linked to the wave of optimism experienced in South Africa in the aftermath of the first democratic elections in 1994.
By 1996, however, a good deal of the initial energy behind the renaissance began to wane. For myself, I became swamped with manuscripts of poetry, stories, novels and plays, mostly of poor quality. I would conscientiously provide feedback to writers on their submissions, but eventually felt unable to keep my head above water. The effort of managing the process from collecting about 20 submissions per week from the mailbox to distributing pamphlets to the bookshops became too much for me. At the end of 1996, after publishing Roy Blumenthal’s Brutal Syrup, I decided to call it a day. Soon afterwards ImPrint stopped appearing, as did Something Quarterly, Sun Belly Press and Guter 3. There were, of course, diverse reasons for these closures, and they were not necessarily linked to my experience.
Old habits die hard, however, and after two years’ break I produced a small poetry anthology called Mad Rains. Unlike previous publications by Dye Hard Press, Mad Rains was A5-size, which made bookshelf storability a good deal easier. Toward the end of 1998, Roy Blumenthal and I collaborated on Head, which was designed by Roy and printed on better-quality paper with a cardboard cover. Roy had also designed a Dye Hard Press colophon for the collection and I have retained the colophon to this day.
Four more titles have followed since then - another anthology called Electric Juice, Arja Salafranca’s The Fire In Which We Burn, Reigning Gloves, Bog Docks and April in the Moon-Sun by myself, The Red Laughter of Guns in Green Summer Rain by Philip Zhuwao & Alan Finlay, and most recently Kobus Moolman's Full Circle.
I also published five issues of the annual literary journal of poetry and prose Green Dragon from 2002 to 2007.
Dye Hard Press is now recognised as a bona fide independent press and has a distribution agent. While originally Dye Hard Press was self-funded, publications are now sometimes dependent on funding.
The lesson behind Dye Hard Press is that print publishing need not be an expensive affair. No one will become a millionaire (or even earn a living) through publishing poetry, so there is little point in bankrupting oneself in the process.
(The above is an updated version of a piece than originally appeared on donga online. It was also published as Dye Hard Press newsletter 12.)
In the early 1990s journal outlets for poetry consisted of New Coin, New Contrast, Sesame and Staffrider. A major obstacle to publishers then – as now – was the high cost of production and lack of capital. Funding could be obtained from the National Arts Council but even then funds were limited and allocation committees understandably cautious about funding individuals or ventures lacking a credible track record.
One publisher who worked his way around this scenario was Gus Ferguson who, apart from publishing numerous poetry collections under his imprint Snailpress, produced 30 issues of a monthly poetry journal Slug News, which was produced relatively cheaply – photocopied rather than printed – and distributed free of charge.
Slug News made me realise that a poetry journal did not have to be a glossy production and could be produced cheaply. This example was followed shortly by Roy Blumenthal, whose Barefoot Press printed poetry pamphlets by the thousands and then distributed them via bookshops throughout the country.
This encouraged me to start my own independently published poetry journal called The Magazine With No Name. In retrospect, the venture was doomed from the start but back then I couldn’t see it. Being able to produce something cheaply was not enough, and one of my main problems was that I did not have the credibility of “a name”. If The Magazine With No Name had been published by an Abrahams or Serote, it would have probably been an instant success – but not when it was being published by an unknown named Gary Cummiskey.
My solution was to get a small collection of my own poetry in circulation so people would see I was in earnest. I brought together 20 poems, typed them up on my computer at work, produced a simple cover, photocopied about 100 A4-sized copies, stapled them down the side, and there I had my first collection of poems, The Secret Hour, ready to hit the streets.
I had thought of stating that the collection was privately published, but then considered thinking up a crazy publishing-press name for a once-off production. Partly as a joke and partly as a reflection of my determination not to lay down and die after my plans for The Magazine With No Name collapsed, I decided to ascribe publication to Dye Hard Press.
Shortly afterwards I met Alan Finlay, who was starting up his own poetry journal, Bleksem. He suggested I continue publishing poetry collections by this method, as it was a quick and easy way to get poetry in circulation. If the high-gloss publishing route wasn’t working, all we had to do was ignore it and take over the means of production ourselves.
More titles from Dye Hard Press followed – Structured Space by JDU Geldenhuys, Burning Aloes by Alan Finlay, Icarus Rising by Gus Ferguson, Inside My Pocket by Robert Homem, more samples of my own work, plus others. I also started up a poetry journal called Atio, which ran to four issues.
There was, around this time, an explosion of new poetry publishing ventures, big and small. This period saw the emergence of Botsotso, Carapace, Guter 3, ImPrint, Something Quarterly and Sun Belly Press, to name a few. There was talk of a poetry renaissance and these ventures were generally received with enthusiasm. There were readings at public venues and on radio and TV. As Karen Press perceptively pointed out in New Coin, this sudden burst of activity was undoubtedly linked to the wave of optimism experienced in South Africa in the aftermath of the first democratic elections in 1994.
By 1996, however, a good deal of the initial energy behind the renaissance began to wane. For myself, I became swamped with manuscripts of poetry, stories, novels and plays, mostly of poor quality. I would conscientiously provide feedback to writers on their submissions, but eventually felt unable to keep my head above water. The effort of managing the process from collecting about 20 submissions per week from the mailbox to distributing pamphlets to the bookshops became too much for me. At the end of 1996, after publishing Roy Blumenthal’s Brutal Syrup, I decided to call it a day. Soon afterwards ImPrint stopped appearing, as did Something Quarterly, Sun Belly Press and Guter 3. There were, of course, diverse reasons for these closures, and they were not necessarily linked to my experience.
Old habits die hard, however, and after two years’ break I produced a small poetry anthology called Mad Rains. Unlike previous publications by Dye Hard Press, Mad Rains was A5-size, which made bookshelf storability a good deal easier. Toward the end of 1998, Roy Blumenthal and I collaborated on Head, which was designed by Roy and printed on better-quality paper with a cardboard cover. Roy had also designed a Dye Hard Press colophon for the collection and I have retained the colophon to this day.
Four more titles have followed since then - another anthology called Electric Juice, Arja Salafranca’s The Fire In Which We Burn, Reigning Gloves, Bog Docks and April in the Moon-Sun by myself, The Red Laughter of Guns in Green Summer Rain by Philip Zhuwao & Alan Finlay, and most recently Kobus Moolman's Full Circle.
I also published five issues of the annual literary journal of poetry and prose Green Dragon from 2002 to 2007.
Dye Hard Press is now recognised as a bona fide independent press and has a distribution agent. While originally Dye Hard Press was self-funded, publications are now sometimes dependent on funding.
The lesson behind Dye Hard Press is that print publishing need not be an expensive affair. No one will become a millionaire (or even earn a living) through publishing poetry, so there is little point in bankrupting oneself in the process.
(The above is an updated version of a piece than originally appeared on donga online. It was also published as Dye Hard Press newsletter 12.)
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