I am honoured to have one of my poems appear opposite a drawing by French poet, artist and publisher Robert Roman in Santanu Ray's poetry journal Barnaperon, published in Kolkata, India.
There is also a reproduction of a Dada 64 cover by late French artist and poet Pascal Ulrich.
Pravasan Pillay is a master of storytelling.
The rare kind of writer who can write a thousand words about an innocuous potato chip and keep you hooked. There’s magic in his writing: deeply human, sharply observant, and often quietly profound.
His latest book, Curry and Bread, is now available at madeindurban.co.za.
If you’re the kind of reader who likes to “taste and buy,” here’s a delicious sample from one of the stories in Curry and Bread…
6 Things You Should Know About Eating a Crab Curry
1. A crab curry – given the per kilo price for crabs – is one of the most expensive Durban-style curries to make. It’s also an intimate dish that involves using your hands and mouth a lot, what with all the loud biting and crunching of shells and the sloppy chiselling out of crab meat with your thumb – i.e. it’s not exactly a first-date dish. So, if someone cooks this curry for you or invites you over to share one, you can be sure that they really like you and are super comfortable around you. You should probably marry this person.
2. Eating a crab curry is, apart from working on an oil rig, one of the messiest activities known to humankind. Crab juice and curry squirts everywhere, into your eyes, onto the person sitting opposite you. It dribbles down your chin, arms, and it stains your clothing. Crab curry stains are harder to get out than an in-form Hashim Amla, so it’s strongly advised that you purchase a special T-shirt, to be used only for eating crab curry. Of course, you could also use a bib or napkin but those items are best left for amateur crab curry eaters. After several years, your crab- eating T-shirt will be a beautiful patchwork of built-up curry gravy stains, a sort of abstract impressionist painting of poor table manners.
3. Warning: no matter how proud you are of your crab curry T-shirt, never ever show it to visitors to your home. It is not, as this author has sadly learnt, the conversation piece you think it is.
4. A perfect crab curry is brown-red in colour and its gravy is thin yet deeply rich in flavour, both sour and spicy at the same time. In fact, a good crab curry is so hot that it should cause your eyes to tear, your nose to run, and your scalp to sweat. Tip: if your wife, husband, or partner is emotionally distant, feed them crab curry every day and they will be bawling their eyes out in no time. That’s right, crab curry could very well save your relationship.
5. In terms of etiquette, it’s acceptable, and indeed expected, to stick a crab leg into your mouth and to loudly suck out the delicious, curried juices. However, it is not acceptable to blow into the crab leg, pretending that it’s a saxophone and that you are John Coltrane.
6. After you have eaten a crab curry, its gravy will have, crab T-shirt or not, left its mark and odour on your body. Thus, it is strongly advised that you take two showers. The first shower should be taken in conjunction with a powerful sheep dip as a disinfectant to get rid of any trace of the curry. Once dried off with a towel, you should take a second shower to rid yourself of the poisonous sheep dip which has now likely seeped into your skin. A little sheep dip poisoning is par for the course when eating crab curry, so ignore the retching and think fondly of your next crab feast.
Anivesh Singh
Good to see that Shafinaaz Hassim, currently in Polokwane, has received her copy of Pravasan Pillay's Curry and Bread, the latest title by Dye Hard Press.
Curry and Bread is available from Made in Durban and will soon be available from Clarke's in Cape Town as well as select Exclusive Books outlets.
Catastrophes choisies et autres poèmes -- selected poems of South African Beat poet Sinclair Beiles, translated into French by Bertrand Grimault, published by Monoquini, Bordeaux, France. Limited to 99 numbered copies.
The unwholesome visions of Emily Milner is the latest collage novella by UK artist Paul Warren, and the second title from new imprint Turquoise Press. It is avaulable as a flipbook on Heyzine.
It is also available as a PDF here.
Warren also collaborated with Gary Cummiskey on Animal eyeball, a free e-chapbook of seven cut-up prose poems, with Warren providing collages. To access Animal eyeball the book on Issuu click here. You can also access and download a PDF version here.
You can read a Dye Hard Interview with Paul Warren here.
Four of my poems from my latest collection Somewhere else that were translated into French by Bruno Sourdin have been published in the French literary journal Dierese.
Thank you, Bruno!
Great to see the first review/interview about Pravasan Pillay's new book, Curry and Bread, which is published by Dye Hard Press. The piece was published in The Post.
Curry and Bread is availabile from Made in Durban, and will soon be available from other bookstores such as Clarke's in Cape Town and select Exclusive Books branches.
You can buy a copy of Pravasan Pilay's debut book of short stories, Chatsworth, at Exclusive Books Online.
Good to see that Niren Toli is enjoying Pravasan Pillay's Curry and Bread! Curry and Bread is Pillay's latest title and is published by Dye Hard Press.
It is available at Made in Durban and will soon be available from Clarke's in Cape Town and at select Exclusive Books outlets.
Pravasan Pillay's Curry and Bread is now available on Made in Durban.
Thank you, Bruno Sourdin!
Somewhere else was published in 2024 by Graffiti in Kolkata, the publishing venue of the late Bengali poet Subhankar Das.
The cover art and cover design is by UK artist Paul Warren.
Kobus Moolman's He Said/ /She Said is still available at Clarke's Bookshop in Cape Town. You can order a copy here.
Or, if you are in the area, why not pop into the store at 199 Long Street, Cape Town.
Remember that this is a limited numbered edition of 120 copies, and Dye Hard Press is now out of stock.
Blending memoir, humour, lists, slices of life, and vignettes into a layered collage, Curry and Bread is Pravasan Pillay’s offbeat exploration of the food and foodways of working-class South African Indians – as well as his own food memories.
Curry and Bread is the latest title by Pravasan Pillay, published by Dye Hard Press.
Renegade eye is a selection of 18 collages by Gary Cummiskey, published by new imprint Turquoise Press. Renegade eye is available as a flip-book on Heyzine.
You can also download it as a PDF here.
.jpg)
French poet and collagist Bruno Sourdin has translated some poems from my collection Somewhere else (Graffiti, Kolkata), which will be published in the French literary journal Dierese.
I am looking forward to receiving a copy soon!
Watch this space!
On this day in 2021, Sreemanti Sengupta in Kolkata, India, received her copy of Thunder on the highway by Gary Cummiskey, published by Dye Hard Press.
Thunder on the highway was limited to 50 numbered copies.
Life is fragile. We are fragile.
Watch this space!
A reminder that you can still buy copies of Pravasan Pillay's much-acclaimed debut short story collection Chatsworth at Made in Durban.
I telephoned God, a 40-minute recording of Gary Cummiskey reading a selection of his poetry and released by Sloow Tapes in Belgium, is available for download on Bandcamp.
Respected and acclaimed South African poet Kobus Moolman calls Animal eyeball 'a fantastic visual and linguistic collaboration'.
Animal eyeball is a free e-chapbook of seven cut-up prose poems accompanied by collages by UK artist Paul Warren.
It won't cost you anything to read, but it may take your mind to where it has never been before!
To access the book on Issuu click here.
Outside the cave: selected poems by Gary Cummiskey, is still available from Clarke's Bookstore or directly from the publisher at cummiskeyg@gmail.com.
Selected and introduced by Kobus Moolman. 162 pages. Selected poems from 1990 to 2020.
