Modjaji – The Rain Queen
Posted on | May 5, 2012 | No Comments
During April I interviewed Colleen Higgs owner of Modjaji Books for my Mslexia Blog.
My final question to Colleen was: Colleen, you are a writer and publisher (and a mother!) how do you balance your own creative impulses and work, with helping other people to realise their creative dreams (and being a mother)?
‘As you probably suspect it is not easy to balance things. I don’t write as much as I would ideally like to, but I suppose it is partly because I don’t prioritise it as I could. I find publishing a creative outlet as is mothering. Both require problem-solving skills in particular.’
The rest of my interview with Colleen can be found here at the Mslexia Blog
Growing up in a literary family
Posted on | April 29, 2012 | No Comments
I interviewed Yewande Omotoso (author of Bom Boy, published by Modjaji Books in 2011) for my Mslexia blog.
During my interview Yewande spoke about what it is like to grow up in a literary family:
‘It was great to grow up in a literary family – if we had a question we had to go and look up the answer. My father is a writer but he is also a professor – as a teacher he values knowledge and books. It obviously made an impact on me. I love to read – if I could find a way to make a living by just reading then the writing would become secondary.
I am really sad – because I don’t think that children are encouraged to read these days. We were incentivised to read, we would get attention by reading – because my father would interact with us over the books – he wanted to hear a précis of the book we had read. So reading was an attractive thing to do. Both parents were very strong on reading and education though we are not all writers. My middle brother is an engineer but he is a big reader. It was a great childhood.
I was not treated any differently to my brothers when we were growing up. What I loved about my Dad was that he would buy me the Green Hulk comic for Xmas. There were no gender differences and I appreciate that’
My interview with Yewande for Mslexia can be found here:Yewande Omotoso and Bom Boy
The Humming Bird Technique
Posted on | April 18, 2012 | No Comments
I interviewed Joanne Hichens (author of Divine Justice) for my Mslexia blog on South African women writers and here are some snippets that didn’t make it into the blog:
Joanne describes her writing process as the humming bird technique: fetch kids – write – help with homework – write – do the dishes – write – blog – write. She would love to be more structured but it doesn’t work out that way. She finds her best writing time from 8am to 2pm when her children are at school.
She confesses that she has too many ideas and wants to write about a lot of things.
Joanne recently spent some time in Thailand for research on her third Rae valentine novel – a sexy thriller partly set in Thailand!
A big thrill for Joanne is to find that ‘someone I don’t know from a bar of soap has picked up my book and reads it and reviews it favourably or makes great comments on it’.
Joanne now has her own office – in a Persian carpet shop. She loves the smell of books and thinks that maybe she will set a book in a carpet shop…
The rest of the interview can be found here: Mslexia Blog
Tags: Divine Justice > Joanne Hichens > Kerry Hammerton > Mslexia > Rae Valentine
Photography Competition for Modjaji Books
Posted on | April 5, 2012 | No Comments
I was very thrilled last year to be asked by Colleen Higgs of Modjaji Books to compile a collection of poetry mainly of Modjaji poets.
In addition to poetry, the anthology with contain photographs to complement the poems.
Please see the Modjaji Books Bookslive blog for more details.
Mslexia Blog
Posted on | April 3, 2012 | No Comments
Last year I made a pitch to Mslexia to be a guest blogger on their website. They offer a three month guest blogging spot.
My pitch was accepted and I will be blogging for them from April to June 2012!
My topic will be South African women writers.
My first introductory blog was posted today: Mslexia Blog
Full Moon
Posted on | March 8, 2012 | 1 Comment
There is always room
for an indiscrete shredding
of clothes at the front door,
a gliding claw,
a ruff of feathers,
a cloven foot,
bristling hairs across the neck,
a snarl of teeth,
the blackness of eyes,
an over-the-top-fur coat,
extended paws,
a loping walk.
There is only one rule here:
you have to learn how to howl
at the moon.
And in the morning when you
are curled naked at the front door
someone will let you in.
It has got to count for something
Posted on | November 10, 2011 | No Comments
All the nappies you have changed,
all the blow jobs you’ve given,
all those nights you spent
alone at home masturbating.
All those hours in the supermarket
queue, cooking, or stuck in traffic
or doing the school run, the funerals,
the weddings, the christenings. Your
aching joints, those days you spent
on the beach, all the times
you’ve knocked your shin.
All the newspapers you’ve recycled,
all the plastic you’ve saved from
being dumped into the ocean.
Those arguments, those
words flying in your face,
the skin on all the hot chocolates
you’ve ever drunk,
all that coffee, those tequilas,
those late nights with friends,
consoling and drinking.
Every sighting of a whale,
every letter you’ve written,
every email you’ve sent.
The noise of the city,
the smell of the ocean,
cigarette smoke drifting in
from your neighbours house,
the sound of someone running
a bath upstairs. The feel of the sun
on your face, the feel the sun on
your naked skin. All those times
you’ve had cold feet or a hangover
or you gave change to the car-guard.
All those times there was no electricity.
Every sundowner and every sunrise.
All those days you didn’t get out of bed,
those times you didn’t protest and let
the world slide by. Every time you’ve
raised your fist, said a callous word.
All the joints you’ve ever smoked,
the drugs, the bedtimes
you’ve supervised, all the books
you’ve read, that walks you’ve taken,
the sessions in the gym, the stolen
kisses, the one night stands, the break-up sex.
All those times you mowed the lawn or weeded
the garden, the fuck-ups and the break-downs.
All the times you’ve climbed a tree,
walked barefoot on the grass, changed a flat tyre,
restocked the fridge, watched the stars.
All the times you’ve worn black or painted
your toenails purple, shaved your head,
worn platform shoes, ignored a friendly smile.
Every television show you’ve watched,
every love song you’ve listened to,
every movie that has made you cry.
They have got to count to for something,
haven’t they?
The Moody Divas return
Posted on | October 26, 2011 | No Comments
Fresh from the success of Many Moods of a Diva at the Greyton Bookclub Festival, the Divas Kerry Hammerton (Poetic Diva) and Amanda Foster (Singing Diva), accompanied by the fabulous Danie Theron, return with more poetry, more music, more moods…. and more Divas!
Graham Dukas will delight you with his take on life through his poetry. The rich baritone of Marius van Lonkhuyzen adds depth and dimension to the moods.
When: Saturday 19 November 2011
Time: 20h00
Where: Erin Hall, Erin Road, Rondebosch
Tickets: R60 (includes a glass of wine)
Please pre-book your tickets by emailing kerry(at)kerryhammerton(dot)com or you can contact me on 082 814 8503 or Amanda on 082 420 2757.
The evening will explore three moods of a Diva from Lament and Despair to Lust to finally Falling in Love.
The songs include Ek hou nog steeds van jou, Let’s do it, lets fall in love and So in Love.
Graham and Kerry will read their own poetry connected to the moods.
I’d like you to look at your x-rays
Posted on | October 10, 2011 | 2 Comments
On the sixth floor we’re almost eye level
with three white clouds that have
strayed into the maze
of buildings around Wynberg Hospital.
They’ve no language for
where they’ve been left, lost
above the traffic
and hawkers selling fruit
and taxi drivers we can hear
even from behind the double-glazed windows
of the doctors room.
No one’s forced me here.
I’m free if I wish to catch
- for five rand only –
a ride to
Rondebosch
Claremont
Mowbray
or Cape Town Central Station
If I wanted to I could
take the train to the east coast
disembark at East London
hitch to Transkei.
I’m told long-horned Nguni cattle still bask
on the Wild Coast rocks and
get called back each evening
by barefoot boys in school uniform.
I’ve seen for myself the clouds
that sprawl and slur untranslated
across that sky
beneath which poverty
and death
are quite unremarkable.
October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and an ideal time for me to post one of my favourite poems from Bev Rycroft’s debut collection missing. Bev is part of a monthly poetry workshop that I attend in Kalk Bay, South Africa. We publicly read together for the first time. I have watched Bev’s poems develop and grow and then converge into her debut collection missing.
I have always admired Bev’s directness, and her unflinching way of dealing with her truth and her life. She is bold and brave in what she says and how she says it. And nothing is sacred: family, children, chemotherapy, surgery, loss of hair, dying, despair and hope. All of these are subjects for her poetry.
I thought that I knew Bev’s poems – that her collection would hold no surprises for me. I was wrong – I have been surprised. Not because I have forgotten poems, how can you forget the lines:
‘dying women should not wear lipstick’ and
‘Through a keyhole in my navel/ they plan to unhook my turncoat ovaries’
(there are many more examples in the collection) but because Bev’s voice remains as fresh and direct as the first time I saw her poetry.
Each time I re-read a poem I find something new, like her descriptions of clouds in I’d like to look at your x-rays (the poem above), and how Walking to school again resonates with meaning at so many different levels.
My favourite lines are from a poem titled It’s difficult to explain: In her cool/ clay-pot palms she/ holds my feet like/ new-laid eggs. For me this is such a powerful image of compassion.
This is definitely a collection you should have on your shelves. It can be purchased at any good bookstore or on-line.
This is what Finuala Dowling had to say about missing:
‘This astonishingly moving debut collection reads compellingly as one complete story. missing covers the archetypal journey from sickness and near-death to transformation and hope. Rycoft wears her exquisite poetic technique lightly – though rich is deftly crafted images, the poems are profoundly inviting, readable, memorable. I could not put it down.’
My favourite poem (at the moment)
Posted on | August 31, 2011 | No Comments
The low road
by Marge Piercy
What can they do
to you? Whatever they want.
They can set you up, they can
bust you, they can break
your fingers, they can
burn your brain with electricity,
blur you with drugs till you
can’t walk, can’t remember, they can
take your child, wall up
your lover. They can do anything
you can’t stop them
from doing. How can you stop
then? Alone, you can fight,
you can refuse, you can
take what revenge you can
but they roll over you.
But two people fighting
back to back can cut through
a mob, a snake- dancing file
can break a cordon, an army
can meet an army.
Two people can keep each other
sane, can give support, conviction,
love, massage, hope, sex.
Three people are a delegation,
a committee, a wedge. With four
you can play bridge and start
an organisation. With six
you can rent a whole house,
eat pie for dinner with no
seconds, and hold a fund-raising party.
A dozen make a demonstration.
A hundred fill a hall.
A thousand have solidarity and your own newsletter;
ten thousand, power and your own paper;
a hundred thousand, your own media;
ten million, your own country.
It goes on one at a time,
it starts when you care
to act, it starts when you do
it again after they said no,
it starts when you say We
and know who you mean, and each
day you mean one more.
More information about Marge Piercy and her publications can be found at The Poetry Foundation. Here is the link to her author page: Marge Piercy
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