Lionel Murcott reading in February 2017

The late Lionel Murcott reading at the launch of the December 2016 issue of New Coin  at David Krut Bookstore in February 2017. Lionel's work was published in a few issues of Green Dragon, published by Dye Hard Press, as well as in New Coin, which I edited from 2014 to 2016.

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

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.

A Dye Hard Interview: Richard Fox: Engaging with language

Richard Fox was born in Cape Town in 1975. He lives in Johannesburg and runs the T-shirt company T-Shirt Terrorist. His first collection of poems, 876, was published in 2007, and his second collection, otherwise you well?, was published by deep south in 2021. He has had poems published in journals such as New Coin, Ons Klyntji, Carapace and donga, and in the anthologies it all begins and glass jars among trees.

otherwise you well? is your second collection. Your first, 876, came out in 2007. I remember you had stopped writing for a while, and it was around 2013 that you started up again. Was there any reason for that period of silence?

I did take a hiatus; I think it was around 2002 though, and it lasted until 2006/2007, just before the release of 876. This was a difficult period for me. I was ‘going through changes’. The poetry in 876 was written between 1997 and 2001, most of that body in the last six months of 2001. This was the year I cancelled my corporate subscription with the world – I resigned from my job and holed out in a garden cottage at the back on my parent’s property, stayed up late, did all kinds of weird stuff, and wrote .. More.

RIP Lionel Murcott

Lionel Murcott performing his poetry at the Melville Poetry Festival, 2013.

This morning I read on Facebook about the passing of South African artist and poet Lionel Murcott, a truly gentle, creative soul. I had published his work in various issues of my literary journal Green Dragon, and also in a small anthology called Electric Juice. When I was the editor of New Coin, from 2014 to 2016, he allowed me to use his artwork for the covers, free of charge. He also read and performed his work at various venues, such as James de Villiers's Gallery 111 in Kensington, Johannesburg, and at the Melville Poetry Festival in 2012 and 2013.

Our condolences to his family.

Coming soon from Dye Hard Press and altoviolet: With the Safety Off by Graeme Feltham

It’s the mid-1990s. Yeoville, along with the rest of South Africa, is in the midst of change. 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. There is no going back, but Fig doesn’t care.

From now on, he’s living with the safety off – no matter where it leads him.

At once harrowing and humourous, despairing and cynical, Graeme Feltham’s stark novel With the Safety Off plumbs the depths of mid-1990s South Africa, capturing both the exhilaration of freedom and the insecurity that comes with change.

216 pp 

ISBN 978-0-9869982-6-3

Jointly published by Dye Hard Press and altoviolet.

Pricing to be confirmed.

Cover art (provisional): James de Villiers

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. Graeme took his own life in December 2017.

Kyle Allan appointed editor of New Coin

Well-known KZN poet Kyle Allan will edit the poetry journal New Coin from January 2019.

Kyle lives in Himeville in the southern Drakensberg area of Kwa-Zulu Natal. His poetry has been widely published in South African literary journals, and he is the author of two books of poems: House without walls (2016) and The space between us (2018). He performs his poems with musicians from different genres including jazz, kwaito, and maskandi. He has read and performed in most South African poetry festivals and has himself organised some local arts festivals and literary events.

About his plans for New Coin, Kyle says: “I will build on the strong work done by the two most recent editors, Gary Cummiskey and Dashen Naicker, who have published a vigorous range of poetry and have shown themselves to be unafraid of diverse and experimental work. A South African literary journal has to recognise our landscape for its pluralities.

'I want to be open to the unexpected.” Kyle also plans to build a stronger media presence for New Coin; to feature forgotten or underrated poets from the past; and to publish poetry from other South African languages in English translation.

He will look for ways to present the intersections of the written and spoken word. “I’d like to ensure that New Coin has a presence at literary festivals and at popular spoken word events. This will bring the magazine to new audiences and introduce spoken word audiences to poets they might not have come across. At the same time I want to introduce New Coin readers to some of our strong spoken word voices, most of whom are underrepresented in print publications.”

New Coin, founded in 1965, is published twice a year by the Institute for the Study of English in Africa (ISEA) at Rhodes University.

To subscribe (R245 a year) email isea@ru.ac.za or call 046 603 8565.
To send poems to the editor: newcoin@ru.ac.za.

Forwarded as is from the ISEA

Editor needed for New Coin

ew Coin

New Coin is looking for a new editor to begin work in January 2019 (first issue: June 2019).

The editor should have a good sense of the range of genres and sub-cultures in South African poetry today, and be willing to engage constructively with new writing and writers.

The main responsibilities would be:

·         selecting and compiling material for each issue

       (two issues a year – typically 50 poets submit work to each issue)

·         selecting cover art for each issue

·         identifying and selecting new books to review, and finding knowledgeable reviewers

·         corresponding with poets, notifying them of acceptances and rejections, as well as making constructive editorial suggestions

·         appointing a judge for the annual DALRO Prize

·         liaising with the designer of New Coin on production matters

·         proofreading

·         maintaining the New Coin page on Facebook

·         promotion of New Coin

·         liaison on administrative matters with the publisher – the Institute for the Study of English in Africa (ISEA) at Rhodes University in Grahamstown.

The editor can be based anywhere in South Africa. He or she will have the support of an editorial advisory board appointed by the ISEA. A small stipend is paid for the work.

If you’re interested, please send a letter of motivation spelling out your vision for the future of the journal, together with a short CV, to isea@ru.ac.za before 31 October 2018.

Dye Hard Interview: Kyle Allan: Poetry as physical intensity

Kyle Allan is a poet, performer, writer, recording artist and literary festival organiser living in Himeville in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands. He released a CD of poetry, Influences, in 2013 and his debut print collection of poetry, House without walls, was published by Sibali Media in 2016. 

His poems have been published in South African literary journals such as Fidelities, New Coin, New Contrast, Carapace, Kotaz,and Botsotso, and in literary journals in India and the USA. 

He has contributed writing to a variety of publications, including the Natal Witness, LitNet, Mindmapsa and potholesandpadkos. More here

Three years' editorship of New Coin

For the past three years I have edited New Coin, one of South Africa's oldest and most prestigious poetry journals. New Coin is published twice a year by the Institute for the Study of English in Africa (ISEA) at Rhodes University in Grahamstown. I have now handed over the reins to Dashen Naicker, who will edit the journal from 2017. All cover art for the issues under my editorship was by Lionel Murcott.

Dashen Naicker appointed New Coin editor

South African writer, publisher and critic, Dashen Naicker, has been appointed editor of poetry magazine New Coin from 2017.

Naicker, founder and editor of the South African poetry e-journal The Park Bench, is a poet who has read and performed at festivals in South Africa, Sweden, and France. His own work has been published in international and local magazines, including New Coin, where he was one of the Dalro prizewinners in 2012. He is also a performance poet and three-time winner of the Poetry Africa SlamJam.

Dashen Naicker writes: “Since 2014, New Coin has achieved considerable reach and range under the committed stewardship of Gary Cummiskey. With his guidance the journal has made varied voices visible, even in the shifting sands of South Africa in the 21st century. My aim is to continue, and construct from, this investment in South African poetry.

“Beyond this, I would like to bring into the journal extended interview pieces that engage with the craft and concerns of South African poets. This will take the form of a series of conversations in which young South African poets interview established writers who have influenced or inspired them in some way, highlighting the sense of community and history that is a part of South African poetry.

“I hope to achieve these aims by drawing on my skills and experiences as a poet, academic, and editor, in consultation and conversation with poets and poetry lovers of South Africa. I want to ensure that New Coin journeys into and through spaces aware and appreciative of the multiple modes and varying voices that characterise life and poetry in this country.”

New Coin was founded in 1965 by Guy Butler and Ruth Harnett and is published twice a year by the Institute for the Study of English in Africa (ISEA) at Rhodes University. Naicker will work with an editorial board of poets and former editors.

Subscribe now to get both the June and December 2016 issues of New Coin for R200.

For subscriptions and information, email isea@ru.ac.za or call 046 603 8565.

New Coin, June 2015

Features poems by Haidee Kruger, Stephen Symons, Kyle Allan, Kerry Hammerton, Medzani Musandiwa, Diana Bloem, Kelwyn Sole, Alan Finlay, Kirsten Holmes, Tania Haberland, Lucas Delisa Zulu, Lezel van den Berg, Vanessa-Lynn Neophytou, Jennifer Lean, Sindiswa Busuku-Mathese, Sandhya Mathura, Elizabeth Trew, Kobus Moolman, Khulile Nxumalo, Anton Krueger, Catfish McDaris, Gerard Rudolf, Raphael d'Abdon, Bruno Sourdin, Denis Hirson, Silke Heiss, Richard Fox, Mbongeni Khumalo, Phillippa Yaa De Villiers, Dawood Mahmood Gabru, Azola Dayile, Yuan Changming, Ian C Smith, David Wa Maahlamela, Musawenkosi Khanyile, Subhankar Das and Mark Espin. There is an interview with Ari Sitas and reviews by Denis Hirson and Raphael d'Abdon.

Cover art by Lionel Murcott.

Published by the ISEA, Rhodes University, Grahamstown.

New Coin December 2014, edited by Gary Cummiskey

Published by the ISEA, Rhodes University, Grahamstown. With over 200 pages, this bumper edition contains poems by Alan Finlay, Moira Lovell, Arja Salafranca, Mxolisi Nyezwa, Abigail George, Rethabile Masilo, Khulile Nxumalo, Bernard Levinson, Kobus Moolman, Angifi Dladla, Genna Gardini, Medzani Musandiwa, Nedine Moonsamy, Kyle Allan, Kelwyn Sole, David wa Maahlamela, Natalia Molebatsi, Dashen Naicker, Nazlee Arbee, Joop Bersee, Diana Bloem, Dawn Garisch, Sindiswa Busuku-Mathese, Raphael d' Abdon, Gerard Rudolf, Mick Raubenheimer, Saaleha Indrees Bamjee, Unathi Slasha, Vonani Bila, Lesego Rampolokeng, Gail Dendy, Jim Pascual Agustin, Jeannie Wallace McKeown, Brett Beiles, Hans Pienaar, Colleen Higgs, Mphutlane wa Bofelo, Erica Glynn Schofield, Robert Berold, Lionel Murcott, Marike Beyers, Denis Hirson, Lee-Mari Gower, Elme Vivier, John Simon, Justin Joseph, Leslie Howard, Damain Garside, Haidee Kruger, Julian de Wette, Linda Ndlovu, Tim van Niekerk, Tony Ullyat, Mbongeni Khumalo and Allan Kokski Horwitz.

The issue also contains a symposium on the state of SA poetry, with contributions from Mxolisi Nyezwa, Kobus Moolman, Kelwyn Sole, Dashen Naicker, Raphael d'Abdon, Colleen Higgs, Denis Hirson, Haidee Kruger, Lesego Rampolokeng and Allan Kolski Horwitz.

There are book reviews by Kelwyn Sole and Tlhalo Sam Raditlhalo, and a tribute to Mafika Gwala by Robert Berold.

New Coin June 2014, edited by Gary Cummiskey

New Coin June 2014 is now out and contains poems by Kelwyn Sole, Alan Finlay, Kobus Moolman, Sinclair Beiles, Lucas Zulu, Arja Salafranca, Moira Lovell, Eva Jackson, Dawn Garisch, Goodenough Mashego, Kyle Allan, Haidee Kruger, Yannis Livadas, Gerard Rudolf, Khulile Nxumalo, Mangaliso Buzani, Mxolisi Nyezwa, Immanuel Suttner, Hans Pienaar, Catfish McDaris, Anton Krueger, Diana Bloem, John Carse, Mick Raubenheimer, Louise Anne Buchler, Lionel Murcott, Gail Dendy, Jim Pascual Agustin, Angifi Dladla, Carol Leff, Mzi Mahola, Allan Kolski Horwitz, Vonani Bila and Stephen Symons. Reviews by Kelwyn Sole, Rustum Kozain and Tlhalo Sam Raditlhalo.

New Coin is published by the Institute for the Study of English in Africa (ISEA) and is available on subscription. Subscription for 2013 is R170 for two issues.  You can also subscribe now for the two 2014 issues, for R180. 

For subscription details, contact New Coin secretary Nomangesi Kelemi on 046 603 8565 or at

isea@ru.ac.za.

Catalogue for the 50th anniversary of New Coin exhibition

Compiled by poet Alan Finlay

Exhibition celebrating New Coin's 50th anniversary

The '50 years of New Coin’ exhibition, presented by the National English Literary Museum (NELM) and the Institute for the Study of English in Africa (ISEA), will be running during the National Arts Festival July 2014, at Eden Grove in Grahamstown.  The opening is 10.30am on Sunday 6 July.  

The above image of New Coin covers is available as an A2-sized poster printed on card for R100 + postage. Email isea@ru.ac.za for order details.

Gary Cummiskey appointed New Coin editor

Grahamstown, 13th November 2013: Well-known South African poet and publisher, Gary Cummiskey, is to become the editor of poetry magazine New Coin from 2014, taking over from this year’s guest editor, Vonani Bila. A widely published writer, Cummiskey is based in Johannesburg where he runs Dye Hard Press and a number of other poetry projects.

Cummiskey’s poetry and short stories have been featured extensively in literary journals both locally and overseas for the past 20 years.  He founded Dye Hard Press in 1994 specifically to give a platform to new voices, and has since published over thirty titles from local poets. He sees his New Coin editorship as a fresh opportunity to promote the kind of challenging, original work that keeps South African poetry alive and awake:

“A poetry that is restricted and does not offer the reader anything new adds to the view of poetry as something stuffy and dead that has no resonance with contemporary readers and makes publishers even less likely to take a chance on it.  A journal such as New Coin, which has always focused on writing that is willing to break out of the mould and take risks, is an essential vehicle to continue to promote and offer poetry as a form worthy of attention and admiration.”

New Coin was founded in 1965 by Guy Butler and Ruth Harnett and is published twice a year by the Institute for the Study of English in Africa (ISEA) at Rhodes University.  Cummiskey will work with an editorial board made up of the four poets who teach on the Rhodes MA in Creative Writing course: Mxolisi Nyezwa, Brian Walter, Joan Metelerkamp and Robert Berold – the last two of whom have edited New Coin in the past.

Berold comments: “Gary Cummiskey has a good grasp of the range of voices and sub-cultures that make up South African poetry in English.  His approach to publishing is the only way to keep poetry vital.  His appointment is good news for South African poetry.”

Subscribe now to get both the June and December 2013 issues of New Coin for R170. Email isea@ru.ac.za or call 046 603 8565.  

Poetry as intervention: an interview with Alan Finlay

Alan Finlay lives in Johannesburg where he works as a writer, researcher and editor on issues of media freedoms and internet rights. His poems have appeared in various journals locally and abroad, and short selections of his poetry have been published by small presses. Over the years he has founded and edited a number of literary publications, including Bleksem and donga (with Paul Wessels). With Arja Salafranca he co-edited a collection of prose and poetry called glass jars among trees (Jacana, 2003). He was editor of New Coin poetry journal from 2003-2007. His latest collection of poems, pushing from the riverbank, is to be published by Dye Hard Press in October 2010.

To read the interview, click here

The Dye Hard Interviews

Dye Hard Press is proud to announce the launch of a new blog called The Dye Hard Interviews.

The Dye Hard Interviews will contain interviews with writers, poets and small publishers throughout the world, focusing on the non-mainstream.

The blog kicks off with an interview with South African writer Arja Salafranca, whose debut short fiction collection The Thin Line was recently published by Modjaji Books and who has just received the prestigious Darlo Award for her poem 'Steak' in literary journal New Coin.

The blog also contains interviews with Australian poet and artist Philip Hammial, first published in Green Dragon 5, and wth South African poet Vonani Bila, first published in The Weekender.

Dye Hard Press will keep you informed as and when new interviews are published.

Sinclair and the Great Dane

I am searching for André Gide and have been told he is staying with Sinclair Beiles, so I go to Sinclair’s house in Raleigh Street, Yeoville. It’s been years since I have been out this way, but even so, after I knock on the door, Sinclair answers quite friendly and says, “Gide doesn’t live here anymore. I think he’s staying at a flophouse – he went loony, you know.”

Then we talk about TS Eliot. Sinclair says: “Bob Kaufman was the only beat poet to really admire the work of Eliot. He was particularly enthusiastic about Murder in the Cathedral. The others hated Eliot because of his conservatism. It was a terrible, misguided narrow-mindedness.”

Sinclair is giving a series of presentations about the Beat Hotel in large lecture hall next to a synagogue, so I agree to meet him there later.

On the way to the hall, a neighbour stops me to complain that Sinclair’s dog has damaged his garden and demands that we drag the dog into the lecture hall, present it to Sinclair, and get the dog to confess its wrongdoing. The dog is a huge, intimidating Great Dane but is nevertheless nervous ands trembling, knowing it is in trouble.

So we drag the terrified, whimpering dog through the hall up to the lecture stand, where it knocks a glass of water all over Sinclair’s papers.

Published in New Coin, Volume 43, No 1 – June 2007. The issue also contains an interview with Beiles that I conducted in 1994.
To order copies of New Coin or to subscribe, Please write to Carol Leff (C.Leff@ru.ac.za) at the Institute for the Study of English in Africa for details.