Forthcoming from Dye Hard Press: the promise of ploughs

the promise of ploughs is the the debut poetry collection by Garth Mason, and will be published by Dye Hard Press in September. The volume also contains an essay on Buddhism and poetry.

Watch this space for further details!

 

Dreams of the May Queen

 

Going once, going twice, and SOLD!

New exquisite corpse collaboration between Gary Cummiskey and Paul Warren.

 

For our own occult reasons

 

The bogeyman is here!

The bogeyman by Gary Cummiskey, published by new imprint, Samizdat Press, is here! The bogeyman is a 28-page stream-of-consciousness-like story narrated by a small boy living in South Africa in the 1970s. He chats with an older friend about school, his naughty habit of breaking windows, his being barred from the local swimming pool, a hiding place he calls the cave, his dream of building a bamboo raft on which he will escape to the sea, but always, in the background, lurks a mysterious, menacing silent figure ... could he be the bogeyman?

The bogeyman is limited to 50 numbered copies and is available from the author at cummiskeyg@gmail.com for R190, including courier cost. Regret South Africa only.

Free your mind and stay weird: An interview with Bart de Paepe in The Odd Magazine

 

Bart de Paepe is a musician and artist living in Belgium. Since 2005 he has curated Sloow Tapes, which has released a substantial catalogue of music and poetry. Of his latest album, Zürahümnah, Forced Exposure says it  ‘is an immediate and immersive dive into solitary inner and outer worlds of light and darkness…. a mysterious journey through detached time and space.’

You have been influenced by psychedelia, and this is reflected not only in your own music and art but also in much of the music you have released under Sloow Tapes. What is the relevance of psychedelia in 2026?

Maybe now it’s more relevant as ever considering all those right-wing conservatives in power everywhere whose only interest lies in creating a control-freak environment of paranoid nationalism against civil liberties. Free your mind and stay weird, I say...
Read more.

Prose without borders

 

I am honoured to have had some prose poems accepted for this anthology, which is due to be published by Sulfur Editions in September 2026. Prose without Borders is edited by Mohsen L Belasy and Ghadah Kamal Ahmed.

Like sucking in the elixir

 

Chops chutney with curry and bread

The dish at the top is called Chops Chutney, which was also the title of one of the stories in Pravasan Pillay's debut collection, Chatsworth, which was published by Dye Hard Press in 2018. Dye Hard Press also published Pillay's most recent book, Curry and Bread, which is available from select Exclusive Books outlets, Love Books in Melville, Clarke's in Cape Town and madeindurban.co.za.

It will also be on sale at the upcoming Durban International Book Fair.  

The proof of The bogeyman has arrived!

The proof of The bogeyman, a narrative/novella/story by Gary Cummiskey, has arrived from the printer and it is looking wonderful! 

The bogeyman is 28 pages, and published by Samizdat Press. It will be available for R190, including courier cost, from the author at cummiskeyg@gmail.com.

Outside the cave: selected poems by Gary Cummiskey

Outside the cave: selected poems by Gary Cummiskey, is still available directly from the publisher. Outside the cave comprises work from 1990 to 2022, selected and introduced by renowned South African poet Kobus Moolman.

160 pages.

A sample of some poems from the volume is as follows:

Colours

Downtown, the colours are gone.

The people are gone.

There are no supermarkets,

no cars, no traffic lights,

no beggars.

There is only the darkness.

 

I’m searching for you

but can’t remember your name.

Immortal

Last night, feeling suicidal,

I leapt over the balcony

and landed flat on my back

in the garden below.

Lying there, I looked up

at the sky and saw how empty

it was, apart from a few

insignificant stars.

Now I know I am immortal.

What’s on today’s menu?

A cold-storage plant filled with naked underwear

A pocketful of razors

 

A pecan-nut pie found on a sewage heap

A half-burned steak gone rotten with global atrocities

 

A fish stunned into silence

 

A DVD played backwards on the neck of an astrologer

A cherry farm riddled with last year’s crack cocaine

A loaf of bread rejected by a slaughtered seal

A scrambled egg fried on the remains of Lorca

A can of baked beans farting its way to the White House

 

A frigate of onions marked HIV-positive

A bowl of soup seasoned with sinister suspects

A lasagne sold out in the name of petty politics

A pizza topped with the succulent massacre of penguins

 

A half-burned steak gone rotten with global atrocities

A fish stunned into silence

 

Wheelbarrow

 

He pushes the wheelbarrow

through the gardens, 7am.

He has to be rid of the

patients’ nightmares, that’s

what they pay him for

– so lay off, don’t bug him,

don’t run the poor man down.

 

Published by Dye Hard Press. The cost is R180, plus courier is R100 -- so R280 altogether, for South Africa only. To order please email cummiskeyg@gmail.com. 

 

 

 

Off to the land of the Incas

 

Dye Hard Intervew: Ramuntcho Matta: Expanding human capacity

Credit: Oona Matta

Ramunchto Matta is a French composer and interdisciplinary artist. He has worked with people such as Don Cherry, Brion Gysin, John Cage, Chris Marker,  and Robert Wilson. He has released 34 solo CDs and collaborated on about 20 other albums. He has exhibited his visual work in Paris, New York, London, Madrid, Barcelona, Tokyo, and Rome.

A book titled Hello Yes Hello: 30 Dialogues, containing conversations between Kathelin Gray and Ramuntcho Matta about Brion Gysin and William Burroughs, was published by Moloko Plus in 2025, and Ce que Brion m'a dit de Gysin (Marcel le Poney) in 2026.

Your father was the Chilean surrealist painter Roberto Matta, who knew writers and artists such as Andre Breton, Joyce Mansour, Max Ernst, and Robert Motherwell. I imagine your childhood must have been interesting, with many famous artists around you. What was it like?

Everything was normal.

It was “normal” to sleep in a closet with holes in the door to be able to breathe...Read more.

He Said/ /She Said ... by Kobus Moolman

Kobus Moolman's poetry collection, He Said/  /She Said, was published by Dye Hard Press in 2024 and was recently reprinted. You can order directly from the publisher at dyehardpress@gmail.com. 

Curry and Bread is still on the boil!

Pravasan Pillay's latest book, Curry and Bread, was published in 2025 by Dye Hard Press. It is still available from selct Exclusive Books branches, Clarke's in Cape Town, Love Books in Melville, and madeindurban.co.za.

 

We are all from somewhere else

Somewhere else, the latest poetry collection by Gary Cummiskey, was published in 2024 by Graffiti (Kolkata), and is still available from Clarke's in Cape Town.

It consists of 24 poems, and the cover collage is by UK artist Paul Warren.