Fish Tales

US poet Catfish McDaris has put together a small collection of poems and stories about fishing called Fish Tales. The collection includes a short (surreal) prose poem by me titled 'Angling today'.


You can read Fish Tales here.

In Naked Field by Gary Cummiskey: Order details

In Naked Field is a chapbook of 20 poems by Gary Cummiskey, published by Concrete Meat Press in

Leicester, England. It is limited to 50 copies. To order click here.

Gary Cummiskey reading from In Naked Field

Gary Cummiskey reading from his latest poetry chapbook, In Naked Field, published by Concrete Meat Press, Leicester, England. Photo: Arja Salafranca

In Naked Field: a chapbook of poems by Gary Cummiskey

The eagle has landed ... my copies of my latest chapbook, In Naked Field, published by Concrete Meat Press in Leicester, England. Thanks to publisher Adrian Manning and to French poet and collagist Bruno Sourdin, who supplied the cover art.

To order contact Adrian Manning at adrianmanning@yahoo.co.uk.

The presences, again

Dye Hard Interview ‒ Rethabile Masilo: From innocence to exile

Rethabile Masilo was born in Lesotho in 1961. He is the author of four poetry collections: Things that are Silent (Pindrop Press, 2012), Waslap (The Onslaught Press, 2015),  Letter to Country (Canopic, 2016) and Qoaling (The Onslaught Press, 2018). His work has appeared in various literary journals online and in print. His collection Waslap won the 2016 Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry. He now lives in Paris with his wife and children.

You were born in Lesotho but now live in Paris, after stays in South Africa, Kenya and the US. How did you end up in Paris?

Our family was targeted, in 1981, in an organised night attack by agents of the then Lesotho government, the aim being to eliminate our father, Ben Masilo, who had been an outspoken opponent of the government. Following that attack, which failed to kill our father but instead took the life of my 3-year-old nephew, Motlatsi, we left the country in a hurry by crossing the frontier into South Africa under the pretext of ’going shopping’. Read more.

Strange brew in December

A Dye Hard Interview: Lee Beckworth: Poetry should be a way of avoiding commodification and superficiality

Lee Beckworth aka Lee Kwo was born in Geelong, Australia, in 1952/He started writing at 17 and completed a Degree at Deakin University in creative writing and Journalism in 1974/After travels in Europe he moved to Melbourne and completed a Bachelor of Letters in literature and psychology at Melbourne University/ He has published five works of fiction and two books of poetry/ His interests in music and photography have been expressed through the band Kicks and an exhibition of collages and photography in 2016/

You are an artist, a writer and musician, but which medium do you consider the most important, or do they each carry the same weight?

Well for me they all contribute to each other and each has a period of time where my lifestyle is dominated by one or other of them respectively/I have made performance videos using original music and photo images and I have used art works as covers  for published books and collages/I wrote lyrics for bands I was playing with and usually remained active in all creative areas including sculpture and photography ...Read more

Bruno Sourdin holding a copy of In Naked Field

French poet and collagist Bruno Sourdin holding a copy of my latest collection, In Naked Field, published by Concrete Meat Press in Leicester, England. Bruno provided the collage on the front cover. 

Forthcoming from Concrete Meat Press: In Naked Field by Gary Cummiskey

In Naked Field, a chapbook of 20 poems by Gary Cummiskey, is due to be published by Concrete Meat Press, in Leicester, England. 

Cover collage by Bruno Sourdin.

A limited edition of 50 copies.

Dancing the stones

Out there on the spot

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

A review of Pravasan Pillay's Chatsworth, by Karabo Kgoleng

Set in the highly populated township of Chatsworth in KwaZulu-Natal, this collection of 11 short stories highlights working class life in a residential area that was allocated for South Africans of Indian descent during apartheid. The stories take place in the recent past and bring to life the nuances of life in this community, without leaning into stereotypes. The characters vary in age and ethnolinguistic background, from Tamil to Gujarat to hints of Telugu and Urdu. Read more.

My first visit to the forest

I don't understand when you talk