British poet Adrian Manning on Outside the cave

English poet and publisher Adrian Manning writes on Facebook: 'Been reading this selected poems book by Gary Cummiskey again. I have to say it is a collection of amazing poems and some of the finest poems I have read in a while.'

After the surrealist poetry night reading at Dai Gallary, Zamalek, 14 December

With Saira Sheik, Mohsen Elbelasy, Ghadah Kamal

 

Surrealist poetry night at Dai Art Gallery, Zamalek, Cairo

 

Surrealist poetry reading in Cairo 14 December

 U

Another drawing in Ons Klyntji

 

Chuffed to have another drawing published in Ons Klyntji -- thank you, Toast Coetzer!

We have sat in judgement for so long

 

When the conference turns to dark ...

 

Launch of the June 2022 issue of New Coin at Love Books, Melville

 

Khosi Xaba reading from an interview she conducted in the June issue of New Coin.

Photo: Zodwa Mtirara

Garth Mason reading from his poem in New Coin.

Photo: Zodwa Mtirara

Gary Cummiskey reading three short poems from a recent issue of New Coin.

Photo: Zodwa Mtirara

Khulile Nxumalo reading his poem in the latest issue of New Coin.

Photo: Zodwa Mtirara

Zama Madinana reading his contribution.

Photo: Zodwa Mtirara

Sello Huma performing a poem.

Photo: Zama Madinana

Zodwa Mtirara reading from her collection. 

Photo: Zama Madinana

The June 2022 issue of New Coin, published by the ISEA, Rhodes University.

Photo: Zodwa Mtirara

Not being part of you is a crime

 

Launch of New Coin June 2022 issue

 Various poets, including Gary Cummiskey, will be reading their poems from recent issues of New Coin, one of South Africa's oldest and most respected poetry journals. RSVP Kate at Love Books, Melville, Johannesburg.

As the child spun out from the bird-mother

 

Raymond Foye writes about Who was Sinclair Beiles?

 

Burning the midnight oil with SINCLAIR BEILES, a wonderful poet who I always heard about, but knew very little about. A South African poet who lived at the Beat Hotel and was the editor of Naked Lunch + Samuel Beckett, at Olympia Press, followed by many years of mental illness which he often documented in his poems. Thanks to Gerard Bellaart for sending this book, full of essential information and many poems.

Originally posted on Facebook, 25 September, 2022.

The spider-witch is abusive

 

Patterns become automatic

 

After I returned on Sunday

 

Completely autonomous: an interview with Armando Fragale in The Odd Magazine 24

Armando Fragale is a multifaceted artist born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1985. He is a painter, illustrator, filmmaker, actor, musician, writer, poet, designer, and producer who works in various mediums. He developed the artistic technique called Drivage and founded the art movement Openism. He has shown his work all over the world and has also collaborated with a wide array of artists in various art forms. Notable exhibitions he has been involved in have been Cosmic Unity: Occult Art and Music in Latin America in New York, International Surrealism Exhibition in Cairo/Saint-Cirq-Lapopie and The Cabinet of the Solar Plexus: The Liminal and the Marvellous, in Dublin. He also runs a record label Wraith Productions, which he started in 2005. Read the interview here.

The wanderer at sunset

 Photo of Gary Cummiskey by Arja Salafranca

Five poems and collages by Gary Cummiskey published in Mitchell Pluto's artzine

 

You can read the poems and view the collages here.

A rave review of Off-ramp from way back when

 An excellent review of Off-ramp, which appeared in City Press, when the short story collection by Gary Cummiskey was published in 2013.

Off-ramp was runner-up for the Nadine Gordimer Short Story Award in 2014.

Copies are still available -- email dyehardpress@gmail.com for order details.

Looking in to say hello

 

Against all odds - Oddity 24 is out!

 Back with a Bing-Bong, after 2 rounds of COVID, nightmares and odd, odd times!

 Dig in to the one, the only, your nook of oddness hitting the mid-20's!

 ODDITY 24 !!

 You can also follow the link:  

https://theoddmagazine.wixsite.com/oddity-24

 

The Odd Magazine is honoured to present:

 Odd Poetry: Joan McNerney, Ken Pobo, and Tohm Bakelas

Odd Art: Cecilia Martinez, and Cynthia Yatchman

Odd Interview: Armando Fragale in conversation with Gary Cummiskey

Odd Shorts: Cheryl Snell, Doug Jacquier, Doug Mathewson, Fran Turner, and Michael F Cocchiarale

Cover Photography: Soham Gupta

 

Lightly come or lightly go

 

Chatsworth book-signing in Stockholm

If you have nothing to do today, and just happen to be in Stockholm, pop round to Lil'Lit Förlag's table at the Bokbordet Stockholm! Pravasan Pillay will be there from 14:00 to sign copies of the Swedish translation of his short short collection Chatsworth. Lil'Lit is an indie publisher and like all indie publishers they need support!

And if you can't make it to Stockholm today, or you can't read Swedish, well copies of the original English version of Chatsworth are still available for sale from madeindurban.co.za.

All those bits

 

At the top of the stairs

 

Gary Cummiskey's Off-ramp still ongoing ...

A finalist for the 2014 Nadine Gordimer Short Story Award, Off-ramp is the debut short fiction collection of Gary Cummiskey and consists of ten stories often characterised by a surreal eroticism. Set mainly in contemporary South Africa, the book opens with a young man’s hallucinatory encounter with a derelict in a Johannesburg street; there is a couple’s visit to a sinister Free State farm; an editor who reluctantly agrees to meet an aspiring woman writer at midnight; two young men who go out on a drinking spree as the country teeters on the edge of civil war; a restless teenager who stalks an unknown woman; and a middle-aged academic who engages in an obsessive, sadistic relationship with a prostitute.

The stories in this startling collection offer a vision of individuals who are slowly being devoured by paranoia and absurdity. Beyond the off-ramp lies a pervasive, heavy dread and an unnameable, perhaps unknowable fear. Cummiskey creates an off-kilter reality that is both disturbing and compelling.

Off-ramp is available at R200 per copy, by courier, for South Africa.

Overseas mail seems to have gone pear-shaped again, so regret no overseas orders at the moment unless you are prepared to pay for courier delivery.

Email me at dyehardpress@gmail.com for order details.

Pravasan Pillay's Chatsworth gets mention in review

Pravasan Pillay's Chatsworth gets a nice wee mention in Arja Salafranca's Media24 review of Terry-Ann Adams's debut short story collection White Chalk.

(Note: There is a paywall for the review.)

Spirit presence

 

Aztec elephant

 

Gary Cummiskey interviewed by Shafinaaz Hassim on BookBytes, Salaamedia

TV appearnce on BookBytes, Salaamedia

 

Gary Cummiskey being interviewed by Shafinaaz Hassim, on BookBytes, Salamedia, on Sunday 24 July, 2022. A wonderful, warm conversation about poetry, short fiction and publishing in South Africa. We chatted a bit about Outside the cave in particular and I read one poem from the collection. Chatsworth and The Edge of Things were also discussed, as single collections and anthologies published by Dye Hard Press.

On Bookbytes, with Shafinaaz Hassim

 

Some have called it shocking, obscene and offensive ....

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

I can have the book couriered to your door in South Africa within 24 hours (excepting weekends) for a total of R260.00.

Email dyehardpress@gmail.com to order!

Never a dull moment

 

It's only love

 

Eye see you two

 

Yet another drawing on the cover of Graffiti poetry magazine

 A third drawing to appear on the cover of Graffiti poetry magazine in Kolkata, edited by Subhankar Das.

A new chapbook coming soon from Dye Hard Press

 A new chapbook coming soon from Dye Hard Press: Aiyo!, three tales of terror by Pravasan Pillay – you’ll never look at a bunny chow the same way again! Watch this space.

Dust of this world

 

Shafinaaz Hassim receives Outside the cave

 

Author Shafinaaz Hassim receives her copies of Outside the cave and Off-ramp, both by Gary Cummiskey and published by Dye Hard Press.