Aiyo! still available at Clarke's and The Commune

 

Pravasan Pillay's Aiyo! is still available at Clarke's in Cape Town - either order online or if you are in the area, pop into the shop in Long Street.

Copies are also available at The Commune bookstore in Braamfontein, Johannesburg. 

Coming soon from Graffiti Kolkata: Somewhere else by Gary Cummiskey

 

A new collection of 28 poems, Somewhere else, by Gary Cummiskey will be published in 2024 by Graffiti Kolkata, India. Cover art by British artist Paul Warren.

Watch this space!

Sometimes we dream true

 

A collage by British artist Paul Warren, inspired by an unpublished poem of mine called 'Sometimes', which will appear in a forthcoming collection of mine, provisionally titled Wet Tongue.

Drifting through the blue

 

Chatsworth available again at Clarke's Bookshop in Cape Town

 

Paravasan Pillay's debut collection of short stories, Chatsworth, is available again at Clarkes Bookshop in Cape Town. Either click here to order, or if you are in the area why not pop in and buy a copy in person!

Panel discussion on independent publishing at the African Women Writers Symposium

On Saturday 14 October I participated in a panel discussion on independent publishing at the African Women Writers Symposium in Newtown, Johannesburg. My fellow panelists were Flo Wellington and Dr Nkateko Masinga, and the faciltator was Shafinaaz Hassim.

Also at the symposium, Dye Hard Press author Arja Salafranca gave a workshop on the poetry and song of Leonard Cohen, with musician Siya Makuzani.

Glowing review of Who was Sinclair Beiles?

I found this glowing review of Who was Sinclair Beiles? on Goodreads today: I certainly could not have asked for more!

Thank you, Mat!

**************

An excellent 'festschrift' (or 'celebration'), rather than a strict biography, on the mysterious South African beat writer, Sinclair Beiles.

Beiles is probably most famous for helping Burroughs get Naked Lunch published at Olympia through Girodias, at a time when Burroughs was really strung out on paregoric and/or heroin. His most famous work in print is probably as one of the four contributors (Beiles, Burroughs, Corso & Gysin) of the now legendary cut-up compilation, Minutes to Go, published in 1960.

However, as this book illustrates, Beiles is [sic] quite a prolific poet and playwright and apart from the above two works, much of his writing has surfaced 'under the radar' and hasn't been the subject of much attention by either critics or fellow poets and writers. Beiles is someone whose quality of writing is as notoriously inconsistent as it is hard to track down and read his books in the first place.

One of his books of poetry, Yeoville, for example, was only published in a limitation of 4 copies.

What Beiles has in common with Burroughs is their meeting in Tangier and in Paris, an interest in drugs, an interest in experimental artists and writers and also, interestingly, a regular allowance from their families which allowed them both to focus much time on their writing.

I hope this book goes some way to revealing more about this great writer to the literary world. His poetry and plays have been criminally neglected and underrated and it is high time that his work is evaluated alongside many of the other great beat writers who are already firmly and undeniably well ensconced in the beat cannon and annals of history (in particular Burroughs, Kerouac and Ginsberg).

Gary Cummiskey and Eva Kowalska have done a terrific job of compiling these (mostly flattering) articles on Sinclair and his art. This is the best introduction to a little-known artist.

If you can obtain a copy, I recommend getting the second edition which is revised and expanded and contains an excellent bibliography-in-progress of Beiles' works in print.

Read the original post.

Gary Cummiskey in panel discussion on independent publishing

 Gary Cummiskey, publisher of Dye Hard Press, will be participating in a panel discussion on independent publishing, with Flow Wellington and Dr Nkateko Masinga, at the Market Photo Workshop on Saturday, 14 October. The discussion will be facilitated by Shafinaaz Hassim. The discussion is part of the African Women Writers Symposium. 

Dye Hard Press author Arja Salafranca presents workshop

 

Arja Salafranca, author of The fire in which we burn and Beyond touch, both published by Dye Hard Press, will present a workshop on the poetry and music of Leonard Cohen, together with musician and composer Siya Makuzeni, at the Market Photo Workshop on Saturday 14 October, as part of the African Women Writers Symposium.

International Exhibition of Surrealism anthology

 

Immensely honoured to have some poems included in this anthology!

Edited by: Mohsen Elbelasy

Part One: 468 pages

Issued from

La Belle Inutile Editions

Cover by La Sirena Surrealist Group

To order the book :

https://www.lulu.com/.../paperback/product-p2md56.html

This book brings together the textual contributions made on the occasion of the International Surrealist Exhibition in Cairo in February 2022. This exhibition brought together contributors from many countries in Europe, North America and South America, and most particularly from the Middle East and North Africa.

Edited by Mohsen Elbelasy

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Ce livre rassemble les contributions textuelles réalisées à l’occasion de l’Exposition Surréaliste Internationale du Caire de Février 2022. Cette exposition a rassemblé des contributeurs de très nombreux pays, et notamment du Moyen Orient et d’Afrique du Nord.

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Este libro reúne las contribuciones textuales realizadas con motivo de la Exposición Internacional Surrealista en El Cairo en febrero de 2022. Esta exposición reunió a colaboradores de muchos países de Europa, América del Norte y América del Sur, y en particular de Oriente Medio y el Norte de África.

With collective texts by

Maison André Breton - La Rose Impossible

La Rose Impossible

MENA Surrealist Group

LA Belle Inutile groupe La Belle Inutile Editions

La Sirena Surrealist Group

Sulfur "Surrealist Jungle"

Chrysopoeia international Surrealist Group /Union /Cooperative

KAREDAS Éditions � BELLEVILLE galaxie

Fresh dirt surrealist group

And individuals texts by individual surrealist poets and writers and artists

Index :

Penelope Rosemont (USA)

Will Alexander (USA)

Abdul Kader Al Janabi (France /Iraq)

Allan Graubard (USA)

Pierre Petiot (France)

Laurent Doucet (France)

Mohsen L Belasy (Egypt)

Michael Löwy (France)

John Welson (Wales)

Thomas Mordant (Belgium)

Ody Saban (France)

Ghadah Kamal (Egypt)

Heller Levinson (USA)

Michel the seer ميشيل الرائي ( Irak)

Stephen Kirin (ENGLAND)

Mitchell Pluto (USA)

Nelly Sanchez @(France)

Latif Yılmaz (TURKEY)

Miguel de Carvalho (Portugal)

Eva Nicky (France)

Amirah Gazal (Costa-Rica)

Argenis Herrera (Costa-Rica)

Dale Houstman (USA)

Doug Campbell (Scotland)

Rik Lina(Netherlands)

John Bradley (USA)

Philippe Bouret (FRANCE)

Craig S Wilson (USA)

Gary Cummiskey (SOUTH AFRICA)

J Karl Bogartte (USA)

David Nadeau (Canada)

Daniel O'Reilly (Spain)

LaDonna Smith (USA)

Dawn Juan (CANADA)

Ola Hussamo (SYRIA)

Fathi mhadhbi (TUNISIA)

Fariel Shafee (IRAN)

Mo’men Samir (EGYPT)

Reda Ahmed (Egypt)

Kent Johnson (USA)

Gregg Simpson (USA)

Tim White (AUSTRALIA)

Richard Misiano-Genovese(USA)

Willem Den Broeder (NEANDERTHALS)

Darren Thomas (WALES)

Taya King (England)

Giorgia Pavlidou (USA/GREECE)

Moheeb Barghouti Moheeb Bargotiuy (PALATINE)

Magdalena Benavente (CHILE)

Zazie /Evi Moechel (AUSTURIA)

Verónica Cabanillas Samaniego (PERU)

Catherine Belkhodja (FRANCE)

Uche Nduka (USA)

Hoda Hussein (EGYPT)

Ammar Abdel Khalek عمار عبد الخالق (IRAK)

JD Nelson (USA)

RW Spryszak (USA)

Naoual Charif نوال شريف (MOROOCO)

James Sebor (USA)

Cristina Botta (Italy)

Salah Faik (Irak)

Hager Youssef (EGYPT)

Daniel Y. Harris (USA)

Irene Koronas (USA)

Final artwork by Janice Hathaway (USA)

When we went to visit him last night ...

 

Two copies of Graeme Feltham's With the Safety Off still available ...

 

It’s Yeoville in the mid-1990s. Enter Fig, a copywriter with a penchant for living on the edge – staying up all night, having casual sex and snorting cocaine. Drifting from seedy clubs to grotty flats, Fig continues his aimless odyssey … until the day he falls asleep in a client presentation and is fired.

Nine months later Fig is hooked on heroin and turns to drug-dealing for survival. If his previous lifestyle skirted close to the danger zone, it’s now gloves off as he drops all pretence of respectability and descends into a world of syndicates and violence.

From now on, he’s living with the safety off.

A novel not for the faint-hearted ...

Graeme Feltham was born in 1965 and grew up in Uitenhage. He completed a degree in journalism at Rhodes University and moved to Johannesburg in the late 1980s. In addition to being a writer, he was an experimental composer and performance artist. His novella One Hundred Naked Beers was published by Brevitas in 2002. His work also appeared in literary journals such as New Coin and donga. Feltham died in December 2017.

With introductions by Luke Feltham and James de Villiers.

220 pp.

ISBN 978-0-9869982-6-3
Available directly from Dye Hard Press for R260, including courier to your door..
South Africa only.

Paul Warren: You’re absorbing the images through mass media, so how can they not filter into your work

Paul Warren is an artist and illustrator with an interest in surrealism and abstract art. He works in a variety of different mediums, including collage. Paul's work has been published by Dumpster Fire Press, The Odd Magazine and Word Vomit Zine.  He has online galleries at Deviant Art and Instagram. He lives in Daventry, England.

You live in the town of Daventry, Northamptonshire, in England. What is the art scene like in England these days? What is the support for visual art? Is there a fair bit of regionalism?

I think the art scene in England is pretty staid these days. It only exist in most people’s lives when Banksy sprays something on a wall somewhere.  All of the big exhibitions are London-based, with a corporate sponsor. From time to time something interesting will pop up in an independent gallery away from the capital. I usually find out about these after the event. National media focus only on the big exhibitions: Monet or Hockney, for example. Living here these things easily pass you by! So yes, I think there is some regionalism. There have been attempts to revive the Art Lab idea in some areas, including Northampton. There are people creating art locally but few opportunities.

Thankfully I have a day job. I would never make a living out of art, wouldn’t want to, it’s far too precarious. I also have the freedom to produce what I want. Read more.

Save me (she said)

 

Outside the cave is still available from Dye Hard Press

 

Outside the cave, the selected poems of Gary Cummiskey, is still available from Dye Hard Press. 162 pages of poetry from 1990 to the present.

Here is one wee poem from the collection:

ORPHANS

No more moms in fancy dress

walking by the side of the river

No more dads poking holes

                        in the night sky

making the stars redundant

The cost of Outside the Cave is R280, including courier to your door (SA only). Email cummiskeyg@gmail.com to order.

What are we doing here?