Coming soon: Outside the cave: selected poems by Gary Cummiskey

 

Busy checking the proofs of Outside the cave: selected poems by Gary Cummiskey. Poems from 1990 to 2019, selected and introduced by Kobus Moolman.

168 pages.

ISBN 978-0-9869982-8-7

Looking back

 

With the safety off ... just three copies left!

There are just three copies left of this controversial novel by the late Graeme Feltham. Email dyehardpress@iafrica.com for order details.

 

Don't fall down

 

In the world

 

Gus Ferguson's rich contribution to poetry, by Gary Cummiskey

Gus Ferguson reading in 2016. Photo: Louis Reynolds 

With his sense of humour, generosity and humility, the late poet, cartoonist and publisher inspired and mentored others to assume the mantle of getting poems out to readers.

I can’t remember how I first heard about the late Gus Ferguson, or got hold of his work number at the Pharmaceutical Society of South Africa in Cape Town. I had no idea that he was a director there. As an aspiring poet, with two published poems and eager to get a full collection out, I had assumed the number was for the poetry publisher Snailpress. This was mid-1993. 

Far from being furious about my calling him at his employer, Gus immediately sounded warm and friendly. He explained that Snailpress was a small, home-publishing venture and that he already had several books in the pipeline. However, he mentioned that he did publish a small poetry magazine called Slugnews. More.

 

The universe is listening

 

Remembering Electric Juice

 

Electric Juice, published by Dye Hard Press in 2000, contained work by, among others, the late Gus Ferguson, who passed on last month.

Thunder on the highway in Kolkata

 

Thunder on the highway has finally reached poet and publisher Subhankar Das in Kolkata, India - that certainly makes me feel more hopeful about the other copies I sent overseas months ago!

Summer alternative

 

She-bird dances

 

Back from the moon

 

Portrait of Pravasan Pillay

A photo of Pravasan Pillay, the author of Chatsworth, when we met for lunch at the Hare Krishna temple in Chatsworth in December 2014. The first time we met was at Poetry Africa in Durban in 2008. 

Little girl blue

 

Putting the work together: an interview with Michael Wilson

Michael Wilson is an assemblage artist who has always been heavy on technique using artifacts and disassembled objects from an era long gone. He avoids plastics to make his assemblages look as though they were antiques themselves. Stuff from the dustbin, collected up and transformed. A solid piece needs to have electricity and some of them literally do. That's when a viewer’s responses can be very strong. 

How did you come to be an artist? How did you come to work in assemblage, and where do you find your materials?

Growing up In the 1960s I was influenced by my father's art and love of jazz. He was a well-known animator and artist, so I grew up in an environment that proved a lifelong Influence. Another big influence was André Breton.  More

RIP Gus Ferguson 1940 - 2020

RIP Gus Ferguson. He was one of the first to publish me and he encouraged me in my writing. He encouraged me when I started up Dye Hard Press in 1994. I published a small selection of his poems called Icarus Rising and he published my chapbook When Apollinaire Died in 1996. Our views about poetry often differed considerably, and over the past 20 years we drifted apart, but there was never any animosity and we always respected each other. Without Gus Ferguson I wouldn't be where I am today, and Dye Hard Press would have probably never existed.