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.

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.

FIVE copies of donga left in stock

Dye Hard Press has FIVE copies of donga left in stock. donga is a selection of poetry, short fiction, interviews and essays from what was one of South Africa's first literary online journals (2000-2003).

With 32 contributors, donga contains work by writers such as Lionel Abrahams, Robert Berold, Lauren Beukes, Nadine Botha, Toast Coetzer, Gary Cummiskey, Graeme Feltham, Richard Fox, Stacy Hardy, Stephen Hofstatter, Aryan Kaganof, Bernat Kruger, Joan Meterlerkamp, Ike Mboneni Muila, Pravasan Pillay, Lesego Rampolokeng, Arja Salafranca, Kelwyn Sole, Ivan Vladislavic and Paul Wessels.

donga is edited by Alan Finlay and Paul Wessels, and was published by BlekSem, in collaboration with Botsotso Publishing and Dye Hard Press.

320 pages.

The cost is R100 per copy, including postage - South Africa only. Email me at dyehardpress@iafrica.com to order!

Invite to the Cape Town launch of donga

Oh BLeKSEM, I Missed (Most of) the Launch of Donga

On a night that snow fell in Johannesburg, breeding dubious new forms of life, a very respectable crowd turned out at De la Creme, the bakery and cafe next door to Bookdealers of Melville, for the launch of several indie works, including The Best of Donga, an important compilation from new imprint BLeKSEM (in association with Dye Hard Pres sand Botsotso)...Read more here

A note from Alan Finlay and Paul Wessels, editors of the donga anthology

it’s been a while… so much has happened… we’ve seen god, we’ve seen the alpha and the omega… paul beat mr death at his own game… so did stacy years later… alan holds out against the city folk… lionel and mark didn’t make it… the mud that caked our ankles has long since crumbled to sand and lies now like mementos of a long forgotten past on our unswept floors… the donga anthology edited by alan finlay and paul wessels will be launched in johannesburg tuesday 7 august 2012 5:30 for 6:00pm de la crème next to bookdealers of melville cnr 7^th street and 4^th avenue Melville… (cape town launch to be announced) we returned to the dugout a time ago, no sign of the lean-to, the ashes in the fire pit long blown away to reveal the grey earth of countless catfish braais… the wind caressed us, carrying off our tears as we turned to leave that place forever, having now gathered the words…

lionel abrahams

robert berold

lauren beukes

nadine botha

toast coetzer

gary cummiskey

jané dowd

clinton v du plessis

quen emmenes

graeme feltham

richard fox

stacy hardy

august highland

stephen hofstätter

aryan kaganof

chris kraus

bernat kruger

greg latter

arthur mafokate

dawie malan

joan metelerkamp

ike mboneni muila

pravasan pillay

leonhard praeg

lesego rampolokeng

arja salafranca

kelwyn sole

bill stobb

rayno van rooi

ivan vladislavić

paul wessels

stu woolman

apologies to those who do not appear in the anthology. no hard feelings. gary from dye hard and allan from botsotso bankrolled the project and we gratefully squeezed in as much as we could. maybe next time…

Book launch: donga, There Are Two Birds At My Window, Meditations of a Non-White White and Botsotso #16

Rene Bohnen on donga

n ʼn tyd van e-boeke, beide nuwe publikasies en bestaande boeke wat in die nuwe formaat aangebied word, het ek afgekom op ʼn publikasie wat andersom werk.

donga was ʼn aanlyn projek wat deur Alan Finlay begin is en vanaf 2000 tot 2003 op die internet verskyn het. Onlnags is sommige van die werke wat aanlyn verskyn het in gedrukte vorm gebundel en uitgegee deur Bleksem en Dye Hard Press gesamentlik ...Read more here

New title from BlekSem, in collaboration with Botsotso Publishing and Dye Hard Press: donga

donga is a selection of poetry, short fiction, interviews and essays from what was one of South Africa's first literary online journals (2000-2003).

With 32 contributors, donga  contains work by writers such as Lionel Abrahams, Robert Berold, Lauren Beukes, Nadine Botha, Toast Coetzer, Gary Cummiskey, Graeme Feltham, Richard Fox, Stacy Hardy, Stephen Hofstatter, Aryan Kaganof, Bernat Kruger, Joan Meterlerkamp, Ike Mboneni Muila, Pravasan Pillay, Lesego Rampolokeng, Arja Salafranca, Kelwyn Sole, Ivan Vladislavic and Paul Wessels.

donga is edited by Alan Finlay and Paul Wessels, and is published by BlekSem, in collaboration with Botsotso Publishing and Dye Hard Press.

320 pages.

ISBN: 978-0-620-52779-8

For more information and direct orders, contact Alan Finlay at bleksembook@gmail.com. donga will soon retail at bookstores.