RT @nbpublishers: Bekendstellings van Die staat teen Anna Bruwer in Kaapstad en Pretoria http://t.co/hYbP2bbU
Verdict: carrot
Change is a constant for 10-year-old Benedict, from the deaths of his biological parents to the addition of a surprise new sibling.
Now he and his patchwork Malawian family face a new adventure, finding their way as outsiders, makwerekwere, in a close-knit community in Swaziland.
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Last Monday, a special memorial service was held to pay tribute to Dr Reuben Chirambo, who passed away last week. Members of UCT’s Department of English Language and Literature gathered to honour the man not only regarded as “one of our most important scholars of African Literature” but also responsible for the education of two out of four members of the Books LIVE team. He will be greatly missed.
It’s with immense sadness that we mark the passing away of our dear friend and colleague, Dr Reuben Chirambo. Messages of condolence have been sent to us from all over—and the messages are remarkable in their consistency.
We mourn the loss of one of our most important scholars of African Literature at a time when this is one of the leading fields of enquiry within our discipline. So many of the messages have spoken about the untimeliness of Reuben’s passing away. Mbongiseni Buthelezi speaks for many of us when he says, “there was much that I was still hoping to learn from Reuben.”But quite apart from Reuben’s scholarship, there’s so much else that we had to learn from our friend and colleague—and as long as we take the trouble to remember that, Reuben’s legacy is something that remains with us.
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Photo courtesy UCT
When Colleen Higgs started the small independent publisher, Modjaji Books, it was with the express intention of creating a space for new writers to develop and emerge. At the launch of the fifteenth book on her list, Bed Book of Short Stories, held at the Franschhoek Literary Festival on Saturday, the rain queen quite literally appeared. Tears flowed as an overwhelmed Higgs beamed with delight as she showed off the latest addition to the Modjaji family.
She said it had been an early goal to publish an anthology of short stories. “I love this form,” she said, “and I figured there had to be others who would want to read short stories too. There certainly are many who like to write them.” Another goal was to cast the net wide so as to include writers from countries across the border. The collection includes writers from Zimbabwe, Malawi, Botswana and Mozambique.
Joanne Hichens, who edited the collection, talked about the challenge and delight of working with new writers who were hungry for engagement on their writing and were keen and willing to take up her suggestions. She said she felt the responsibility acutely and found it was a gratifying process that informed her own growth as an editor: “Part of my learning curve was never to underestimate how a writer’s energy drives one to polish a story until it sparkles like a gem.” She noted that it felt at times like she was “the mother of thirty children!”
She saluted Higgs’ vision, saying she was a “brave publisher that takes risks”. She siad it was imperative to seek out new writers and to nurture and engage with fresh voices in order to expand the literary canon in South Africa.
Higgs said this publication was a testament to teamwork on every level. She acknowledged Lauri Kubuitsile who had read more than 300 stories and come up with the selection that called to her most strongly. Maire Fisher’s proof reading and Colleen Crawford-Cousins’ practical and emotional support had been supremely valuable.
She acknowledged the financial support of the Arts and Culture Trust that had enabled her to keep the resale price of the book down. Additionally, the support of Jenny Hobbs of the Franschhoek Literary Festival, Le Bon Vivant, the restaurant that hosted the launch and provided the delectable munchies, and Porcupine Ridge all contributed to a delightful welcome for the Bed Book of Short Stories.
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Scribd.com book preview:
Alert! SA PEN has issued its call for entries for the £10 000 2011 PEN/Studzinsky Literary Awards – which are judged by JM Coetzee – and has announced that Margie Orford is set to replace Shaun Johnson on the PEN executive.
The winner of the inaugural PEN/Studzinksy award was Karen Jayes, who received the £5 000 first prize at the 2009 Franschhoek Literary Festival. Andrew Salomon took the £3 000 second prize, while Ceridwen Dovey and Nadia Davids shared the £2 000 third prize.
In a not-altogether-welcome shift of policy, SA PEN has reverted to the geographical scope of its award that was in place before it secured sponsorship from current benefactor John Studzinski. That is, only residents of SADC‘s fifteen countries may enter, whereas the inaugural award was open to the whole of Africa. (See the press release below for the full list of eligible countries.) Happily, the lack of any age restriction on entrants appears to remain intact.
3 000 to 5 000 word short fiction entries in English are invited from 1 March 2010; submission details will be posted to the SA PEN website on that date; no final closing deadline appears to have yet been set.
Here’s the complete press release from SA PEN:
2011 PEN/STUDZINSKI LITERARY AWARDS
Entries invited from 1 March 2010
The South African Centre of International PEN (SA PEN) is pleased to announce the launch of the second in the series of PEN/STUDZINSKI Literary Awards.
Entries for the award for original short stories in English are called for from 1 March 2010 and AFRICAN PENS, a compilation of the short-listed stories, will be published in mid-2011.
Prizes totalling £10 000 will once again be donated by American philanthropist and global investment banker, John Studzinski. The first, second and third prizes will be £5 000, £3 000 and £2 000, respectively.
Nobel Laureate and SA PEN Honorary Member, J.M. Coetzee, will once again select the winning entries.
The 2011 PEN/STUDZINSKI Literary Award aims to encourage creative writing in southern Africa and will offer talented writers an exciting opportunity to launch or develop a literary career. Twelve contributors to our earlier HSBC/SA PEN series have now published their own books, including Ceridwen Dovey who won the 2008 Sunday Times Fiction Prize. Petina Gappah, an early winner, went on to sign a three-book contract with Faber & Faber in the UK and Farrar Strauss & Giroux in the US. Three of the five short-listed stories for the Caine prize for African Writing first appeared in AFRICAN PENS 2007 – the model for AFRICAN PENS 2011. The story POISON, set in a threatened Cape Town, and written by author Henrietta Rose-Innes, was chosen by J.M, Coetzee as the winner of the 2007 HSBC/SA PEN Literary Award and it went on to win the 2008 Caine Prize of £10 000.
Our 2009 project, led by author Shaun Johnson, received over 800 entries from writers throughout Africa, but this year we revert to appealing only to writers living in the fifteen countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC*). The genre is still the short-story, this time between 3 000 and 5 000 words.
SA PEN is pleased to announce that author Margie Orford has agreed to take Shaun’s place on the SA PEN executive and that the Editorial Board for the 2011 award will comprise:
Anthony Fleischer (Chairman), novelist and President of SA PEN
Dianne Case, popular children’s author
John Gardener, English teacher, retired Head of Kingswood College & Bishops, published numerous articles and Bishops’ 150 year history of the school
Jeremy Lawrence, writer who has worked in journalism and publishing in London and South Africa
Adré Marshall, retired academic, author of book on Henry James and sundry poems, translator (French/English)
Peter Merrington, novelist, professor extraordinaire at the University of the Western Cape, ceramicist and motorcyclist
Margie Orford, writer and sometime journalist
Anne Schuster, novelist, poet, creative writing facilitator and publisher
J.M. Coetzee – Nobel Laureate (Final judge)Writers who are citizens of SADC countries* are encouraged to prepare short stories for submission. Further information and detailed rules of entry will be posted on the SA PEN website, www.sapen.co.za, from the 1 March 2010.
Previous publications featuring the shortlisted and winning stories from the 2005, 2006 and 2007 HSBC/SA PEN, and 2009 PEN/STUDZINSKI Literary Awards are: AFRICAN COMPASS (2005, New Africa Books), AFRICAN ROAD (2006, New Africa Books), AFRICAN PENS (2007, New Africa Books), NEW WRITING FROM AFRICA 2009 (2009, Johnson & KingJames Books).* SADC countries: Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
WRITE! AFRICA WRITE!
Here are the official rules of entry:
PEN/Studzinski Literary Award Rules of Entry 2011
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Alert! Not much literary news comes out of Malawi – at least, not much of the kind that we can feature at BOOK SA – but here’s a story you simply have to hear about.
Meet William Kamkwamba. Now 22, he built an electricity-generating windmill in his home village in Malawi – from scratch – after he dropped out of high school to help his family combat famine. His first windmill was “made from PVC pipe, a tractor fan, an old bicycle frame, and tree branches, and powered four light bulbs and charged mobile phones. A second windmill pumped water for a family garden.” His instruction manual? An eighth-grade science book.
Kamkwamba’s extraordinary story has now been told in book form, with the assistance of writer Bryan Mealer – and their just-published The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope has taken the USA somewhat by storm.
Kamkwamba has appeared on The Daily Show with John Stewart, for instance – a top evening slot in the US. The following clip from the show is worth watching not just because it’s a great introduction to Kamkwamba and his book, but also because it shows how the self-taught engineer built a circuit-breaker with nails, copper wire and a magnet when was fourteen. (Or maybe fifteen. That year makes a big difference, hey.) The latter-day windmill-wright (hopefully no one tilted at his) also describes his astonishment upon encountering Google for the first time, on a trip to the US, which gave him “millions” of plans for windmills in less than a second:
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Clearly pre-disposed to be a tech savant, Kamkwamba is busy ruling the internet with a blog, a Twitter account and a charity portal to help community projects in Wimbe, Malawi. (See links below.)
Kamkwamba’s is a story that would have made vernacular architecture enthusiast James Walton – author, inter alia, of Watermills, Windmills and Horse-mills of Southern Africa and Windpumps in South Africa – very proud. Here’s an excerpt from The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind:
Prologue
The preparation was complete, so I waited. The muscles in my arms still burned from having worked so hard, but now I was finished. The machinery was bolted and secured. The tower was steady and unmoving under the weight of twisted steel and plastic. Looking at it now, it appeared exactly as it was—something out of a dream.
News of the machine had spread to the villages, and people were starting to arrive. The traders spotted it from their stalls and packed up their things. The truckers left their vehicles along the roads. Everyone walked into the valley, and now gathered in its shadow. I recognized these faces. Some of these people had mocked me for months, and still they whispered, even laughed. More of them were coming. It was time.
The inventor now apparently lives in South Africa; here’s his impressive resume:
William Kamkwamba is a student at African Leadership Academy, a pan-African high school in Johannesburg, South Africa. A 2007 TED Global Fellow, Kamkwamba has been profiled in the Wall Street Journal and his inventions displayed at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry. He’s often invited to tell his story, and in 2008, he delivered an address at the World Economic Forum on Africa.
A short documentary on Kamkwamba’s story has been posted to YouTube:
Finally, you can help Kamkwamba extend his rather unique and inspiring reach in his home country by donating to the Moving Windmills project, founded in 2008, which pursues rural economic development and education projects:
Help me achieve my village projects, support my friends’ and family’s educations, and complete a documentary film. Payments appear as Moving Windmills Project, a US 501(c)3. Contributions are tax deductible in U.S. Click “Support My Work” tab for more info. Amounts over $250 will be doubled by a challenge grant.
A great story – and, we hope, a great Sunday read for you.
William Kamkwamba links
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WRITE ! AFRICA WRITE !
That’s the call from SA PEN, which has just announced the rules of its new £10 000 short story competition, the PEN/Studzinski Literary Award.
Let’s get right to it – here’s the official press release:
SA PEN / STUDZINSKI LITERARY AWARD
Following the success of the HSBC/SA PEN Literary Awards, SA PEN announces a call for entries for the new PEN/STUDZINSKI Literary Award.
Writers from African and SADC countries are invited to submit original, previously unpublished, English-language short stories.
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BOOK SA presents 12 Days of Xcerpts, featuring the work of BOOK SA writers. Watch out for one a day until Xmas!
Despite his cool-as-a-cuke demeanour, Sihle Khumalo can make some pretty provocative statements – which is when, as demonstrated at the recent launch of his book, Dark Continent, My Black Arse, said demeanour comes in particularly handy.
The problem lies, on the one hand, with Khumalo’s love of the continent he explored from tip to toe – or from toe to tip, rather – during his thirtieth year; and, on the other, with his lack of an internal censor. Khumalo doesn’t suppress his urge to talk straight about the shortcomings of Africa and its leaders; nor does he cavil about reporting the thoughts whispered in his ears from either shoulder (you know, the one with the angel on it vs. the one supporting the devil). He calls it like he sees it: there’s not a shred of political finesse in his account of his travels.
Here’s an excerpt from a book that impressed the likes of Paul Theroux (who called it “very likeable and engaging”), which treats a part of the author’s visit to Senga Bay, Lake Malawi:
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Alert! Durban’s Poetry Africa is just around the corner, running from 1 to 6 October this year, and featuring, among the twenty poets who will participate, BOOK SA’s own Phillippa Yaa de Villiers. Hoorah!
The official press release announcing the event is below. But first, a few BOOK SA picks; the complete (and very impressive) roster of performers; and the all-important festival links.
Poetry Africa 2007: Picks (more…)
Freezing South Africans can “think north” for some cheer. The summer festival season is in full swing above the Tropic of Cancer – and Africa makes a good showing in the activities. A dreamy session of post-prandial peregrination online this afternoon has led me to discover two places/happenings I’d rather be right now, instead of at the sleet-soaked Cape, where the lights are flickering ominously:
(1) The Aspen Summer Words Literary Festival in lovely Aspen, Colorado, USA. Aspen is a ski town in the Rocky Mountains noted for its picturesque beauty, highbrow approach to culture (which strays firmly into snobbishness) and, of course, colorful parade of colour in autum, when the groves of aspen trees that dot its mountainsides turn red and gold. African giants Wole Soyinka and Ngugi wa Thiong’o headline this fest, which also includes Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Binyavanga Wainaina in the billing, among others. The events run until this Thursday.
Alert! The Southern African Review of Books, ably run by Rob Turrell for many years, has been granted a new lease of life online, courtesy the truly fascinating web experiment that is the WayBack Machine.
A vast SARoB archive is now available – for free – at this rather ungainly URL:
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.uni-ulm.de/%7Erturrell/
For readers like me, who cut their literary teeth in the 1990s, the practically endless offerings there are enough to bring a tear to the eye. Perusing the pages is like glossing the shelves of a library one hasn’t visited for years – the face lights up continually in happy recognition of the names and titles.
Here are a few samples from the archive to get you started – follow them and soon you’ll be utterly lost!
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