Flavorwire’s Emily Temple recently wrote an article in which she compares contemporary authors to writers from the past. Temple pairs Teju Cole, author of the acclaimed novel Open City, with the stream-of-consciousness style of Jack Kerouac, author of On the Road. See her other comparisons:
Teju Cole and Jack Kerouac
If Kerouac were to start his wandering and spontaneous prose writing today, we think he might go about it a little bit more like Cole — or at least a little more like Julius, the narrator of Open City. Though Cole inserts an element of race that would be mostly alien to Kerouac, both men are defining the American experience through travel, talk and reflection, and maybe a little bit of consumption along the way.
The University of Cape Town (UCT) will be awarding Zakes Mda an honorary doctorate at their June graduation ceremony. Mda is considered a key figure in SA literature and commutes between South Africa and the US, where he is a professor of creative writing at Ohio University.
Mda will be honoured alongside Public-health icon Dr David Sanders who will also recieve an honorary doctorate in June. Artist Marlene Dumas, physicist Jonathan Ellis, business executive Allan Gray, constitutional expert Nicholas Haysom, and Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler of the Handspring Puppet Company will all receive honorary doctorates at the December graduation ceremony.
Acclaimed writer Zakes Mda has been named as the eighth public figure who will receive an honorary doctorate from UCT in 2012. Mda will be presented with an honorary doctorate in literature (DLitt) at a June graduation ceremony.
Novelist, poet, playwright, painter, composer and filmmaker, Mda was born in the Eastern Cape in 1948. He spent his early childhood in Soweto, but left the country in 1963 – when his father went into exile – at age 14, returning only after three decades in exile.
Over this period away from South Africa he would finish his first play, We Shall Sing for the Fatherland, which won the first Amstel Playwright of the Year Award in 1978.
South African-born author Jacques Strauss was recently announced as the winner of the 2012 Commonwealth Book Prize Africa Region for his debut novel, The Dubious Salvation of Jack V. Flamingo Magazine interviewed him about writing about South Africa, where he grew up, and about the online marketing campaign that he put together with the help of his friends. Vintage Books asked him what his favourite books are – a question he neatly sidestepped in the second article below, they also recorded a video interview with him:
You grew up in South Africa; how old were you when you left?
I was born and raised in South Africa, my family are from J-burg, but I left there and went to New Zealand to study my MA in Philosophy. I stayed for too long before moving to London, so it’s been quite a while since I lived in South Africa. I like London a lot – when I lived in New Zealand it was nice and friendly, but I actually felt quite foreign. London by comparison can feel quite an unfriendly place when you first arrive, but I actually found I settled really quickly and I felt more at home here than I ever did in New Zealand.
I love it when a famous person, be they an actor, politician, writer or celebrity is asked what their favourite book is. It’s a real bitch of a question for a number of reasons:
1) The interviewer is asking them to distil everything that they love about the vast tidal wave of text that is literature into a single book. Simply by answering the question they do an insult to the canon.
2) The interviewer is asking them to assign a metonymic function to a book; choose a book that represents you, in your varied complexity and ambiguity. Reduce yourself to only one book.
Several changes have been made to the upcoming Kingsmead RMB Private Bank Book Fair, which now takes place over a single day – 2 June – and not, as we previously announced, on 1 and 2 June. In addition to adding a few key authors and subtracting a few, the Kingsmead Book Fair has unveiled what looks to be a stellar programme.
Kingsmead College and RMB Private Bank will be hosting the first Kingsmead RMB Private Bank Book Fair on 2 June 2012 and are proud to announce the final programme of authors for the event. The Book Fair will be open to neighbouring schools, the broader Johannesburg community and anyone with a love of books.
Understanding that literacy and education is the cornerstone to leaving a legacy for future leaders, the Book Fair includes a high profile line-up of the country’s most distinguished local authors and media personalities will share their passion for literature and celebrate literacy by participating in an exciting programme of events aimed at children, teenagers and adults. The event includes author talks and workshops, book signings, interactive sessions and story-telling.
In celebrating literacy and learning, a percentage of the proceeds from the Book Fair will go to the Make a Difference Foundation (MAD), who aim to make a positive impact in the lives of disadvantaged, academically talented young South Africans. Francois Pienaar, MAD Founding Chairman, says, “MAD aims to develop high performance individuals who, in themselves, are role models who inspire others, and who will support each other in the future by giving back to others. The Kingsmead Book Fair is a good platform from which we can highlight the importance that literacy and education plays in building the leaders of tomorrow.”
“It is very rare that you are able to have access to authors of this calibre under one roof. This event, which we hope will become a flagship book event for Johannesburg, brings together families from across our community for a day of sharing and learning. We are very proud to be partnering with MAD in ensuring the legacy we create today is carried forward to our future leaders,” says Lisa Kaplan, Headmistress of Kingsmead College.
“Our vision for this sponsorship is to create a passion for literature and learning through an accessible, informative and engaging platform. RMB Private Bank ensures the initiatives we partner with work towards leaving a lasting legacy in the communities in which we operate and I am very proud to be supporting the Book Fair,” adds Gavin Tarr, Head of RMB Private Bank.
Visitors to the Kingsmead RMB Private Bank Book Fair will be able to connect and collaborate with other readers, writers and publishers through the very interactive and engaging programme.
The authors and facilitators who will be participating and engaging at the event include:
MICHELE MAGWOOD talks crime and thrillers with JASSY MACKENZIE (Random Violence) and ANDREW BROWN (Solace)
JEREMY GORDIN (Zuma: A Biography) engages MANDY WIENER (Killing Kebble), RIAN MALAN (My Traitor’s Heart) and HEIDI HOLLAND (Dinner with Mugabe) on “The rise of non-fiction and the challenges of translating the hurly burly of news and political commentary into books with staying power”
JUDGE EDWIN CAMERON (Witness to Aids) talks about and brings to life the Constitution, giving a personal account of how it has assisted people living with HIV/ AIDS and comparing the law under our Constitutional Democracy with the law as it was applied during the apartheid era.
JAMES HENDRY (A Year in the Wild) on “Ranging, writing and other things I wasn’t supposed to do when I grew up…”
SUE GRANT MARSHALL squares up to the “troublemakers” DAVID BULLARD (Out to Lunch), JEREMY GORDIN (Zuma: A Biography), and DENIS BECKETT (Radical Middle)
Acclaimed Kenyan writer Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, who will be speaking at the Cape Town Book Fair in June, writes about the importance of India in his life and in the anti-colonial struggle throughout Africa. He stresses the importance of interaction between Africa, India and South America in ending the “Age of the European Empire” in this feature for Pambazuka News:
The links between Asia and Africa and South America have always been present but in our times they have been made invisible by the fact that Europe is still the central mediator of Afro-Asian-Latino discourse. We live under what Satya Mohanty in his interview in Frontline (April 2012), aptly calls the long intellectual shadow of the Age of European Empire.
In my case, I had always assumed that my intellectual and social formation was tied to England and Europe, with no meaningful connection to Asia and South America. There was a reason. I wrote in English. My literary heroes were English. Kenya being a British colony, I had learnt the geography and history of England as the central reference in my widening view of the world. Even our anti-colonial resistance assumed Europe as the point of contest; it was we, Africa, against them, Europe. I graduated from Makerere College in Uganda in 1964, with a degree in English; then went to the University of Leeds, England, for further studies, in English. Leeds was a meeting point of students from the Commonwealth: India, Pakistan, Australia, and the Caribbean. We saw each other through our experience of England. Our relationship to England, in admiration, resentment or both, was what established a shared space.
Alert! Nigerian author Jekwu Anyaegbuna has been named the winner of the 2012 Commonwealth Short Story Prize Africa Region for his story “Morrison Okoli (1955-2010)”.
Anyaegbuna wins £1 000 and will now compete for the overall Commonwealth Short Story Prize against four other regional winners, picked from a shortlist of 21: Asia regional winner, Anushka Jasraj (“Radio Story”); Caribbean regional winner, Diana McCaulay (“The Dolphin Catcher”); Pacific regional winner, Emma Martin (“Two Girls in a Boat”); and Europe and Canada regional winner, Andrea Mullaney (“The Ghost Marriage”). The winner of the £5 000 prize will be announced at the Hay Festival on 8 June.
Congratulations and best of luck to Jekwu Anyaegbuna!
‘Morrison Okoli (1955-2010)’, Jekwu Anyaegbuna (Nigeria)
“There was a public bed situated at the centre of a market in a remote village in Africa. The bed could kill; yet every villager, male or female, fought like a lion to lay his/her back on this bed every year. Whoever succeeded in sleeping on this famous furniture overnight became a servant in the king’s mother’s fortress. The Commonwealth competition is this bed, and I am immensely thrilled to have won for Africa. I strongly believe this prize will provide me with the hoes and shovels to serve my motherland, Africa, affording me the strength and opportunity to plough through the thick literary farmland across the world.”
Jekwu Anyaegbuna was raised and educated in Nigeria where he qualified as a chartered accountant. He was shortlisted by novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie for the Farafina Trust International Creative Writers’ Programme. A graduate of the University of Ilorin, he writes both poetry and prose; and his work has been widely published, or will be published, in literary journals in the United States and the UK including Ambit, Orbis, Word Riot, Other Poetry, The Journal, Bow-Wow Shop, Eclectica Magazine, Atticus Review, Yuan Yang Journal, The Talon Magazine, Dark Lady Poetry, Asinine Poetry, Vox Poetica, Breadcrumb Scabs, Haggard and Halloo, New Black Magazine, Pattaya Poetry Review, Dcomp Magazine, Tipton Poetry Journal, Obsession, Black Heart Magazine and many other places. He hates mosquitoes and sometimes wonders whether they are domestic or wild animals. Jekwu lives, works and writes in Lagos where he has completed a manuscript of short stories. He is currently at work on his first novel.
Commonwealth Writers has announced the regional winners for the 2012 Commonwealth Book Prize and Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Representing Africa, Asia, Canada & Europe, Caribbean, and the Pacific regions, these new writers will now compete for overall winner which will be announced at Hay Festival on 8 June.
Commonwealth Book Prize
Regional Winner, Africa
Jacques Strauss, South Africa The Dubious Salvation of Jack V, Jonathan Cape
Regional Winner, Asia
Shehan Karunatilaka, Sri Lanka, Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew, Random House
Regional Winner, Canada and Europe
Riel Nason, Canada, The Town that Drowned, Goose Lane Editions
Regional Winner, Caribbean
Alecia McKenzie, Jamaica, Sweetheart, Peepal Tree Press
Regional Winner, Pacific
Cory Taylor, Australia, Me and Mr Booker, The Text Publishing Company
Commenting on the winners, Chair of the Commonwealth Book Prize, Margaret Busby said, “We were wonderfully spoilt for choice among some strong regional contenders on the shortlist, and although we could not take every favourite further, the books that triumphed are a reminder of what the best fiction can be: moving, entertaining, enlightening, exciting, engaging our thoughts and emotions, while creating an intimate connection with someone else’s imagination. Here are novels with memorable characters, unpredictable situations, a sense of humour, books that give insights into cultures and histories not our own, crafted by writers who care about language, and its ability to renew and enrich our view of the world. ”
Commonwealth Short Story Prize
Regional Winner, Africa
Jekwu Anyaegbuna, Nigeria, Morrison Okoli (1955-2010)
Regional Winner, Asia
Anushka Jasraj, India, Radio Story
Regional Winner, Canada and Europe
Andrea Mullaney, UK, The Ghost Marriage
Regional Winner, Caribbean
Diana McCaulay, Jamaica, The Dolphin Catcher
Regional Winner, Pacific
Emma Martin, New Zealand, Two Girls in a Boat
Chair of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, Bernardine Evaristo said, “The five regional winning stories this year rose to the top of a pool of 2200 entries and are the result of vigorous debate among the judges. We discussed not only the quality of the storytelling but the context of their respective literary cultures including notions of stereotypes and ‘the prize-winning formula’. Our final choices encompass range, depth, beauty, unpredictability and re-readability. These short stories will take you on a journey that spans cultures, eras, generations, and diverse ways of being and seeing. To read them is to inhabit other worlds.”
Commonwealth Writers has partnered with Granta magazine to give regional winners of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize the opportunity to be published by Granta online during the week commencing 4 June.
John Freeman, Editor of Granta said: “The Commonwealth Short Story Prize introduces some of the best writers in the world, writers who bring a thrilling and essential glimpse of the world and the worlds that are within Britain. This is also what I hope Granta has been as a magazine. A Trojan Horse for writers you don’t know, but once you read cannot forget: writers who can make the ground beneath your feet a little more mysterious. I am pleased Granta can partner with the Commonwealth Short Story Prize to help carry this mission forward.”
Commonwealth Writers is a new cultural programme within the Commonwealth Foundation which develops, connects and inspires writers. By awarding prizes and running on-the-ground activities, it works in partnership with international literary organisations, the wider cultural industries and civil society to help writers develop their craft in the fifty four countries of the Commonwealth. www.commonwealthwriters.org is a forum where members from anywhere in the world can exchange ideas and contribute to debates.
To mark the 25th anniversary of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize in 2011, the Commonwealth Foundation re-launched its prizes to form part of Commonwealth Writers. The prizes act as catalysts to target and identify talented writers from different regions who will go on to inspire and inform their local communities.
Lucy Hannah, Programme Manager (Culture) Commonwealth Foundation, said “These two new prizes are a really positive start to Commonwealth Writers. We had entries from a huge range of countries including Lesotho, St. Kitts and Nevis, and Samoa. We’ll now be helping our regional winners to gain a wider readership, develop their craft and to inspire others in their region.”
Alert! South African-born author Jacques Strauss has been named winner of the 2012 Commonwealth Book Prize Africa Region for his debut novel The Dubious Salvation of Jack V.
The Dubious Salvation of Jack V is the story of eleven-year-old Jack Viljee who is growing up in Johannesburg during apartheid. Bruce Dennil dubbed the book “edgy” and “entertaining” in a review for The Citizen.
Strauss wins £2 500 and will now compete for the overall Commonwealth Book Prize against four other regional winners, picked from a shortlist of 19: Asia regional winner, Shehan Karunatilaka (Chinaman); Caribbean regional winner, Alecia McKenzie (Sweetheart); Pacific regional winner, Cory Taylor (Me and Mr Booker); and Europe and Canada regional winner, Riel Nason (The Town that Drowned). The winner of the £10 000 prize will be announced at the Hay Festival on 8 June.
Congratulations and best of luck to Jacques Strauss!
The Dubious Salvation of Jack V, Jacques Strauss (South Africa), Jonathan Cape
“I was completely gobsmacked to be shortlisted so I can’t really describe how surprised and happy I am to have won. I’m not the most impartial person in the world, but I love books about Africa – which is why I have always followed the Commonwealth prize. It’s introduced me to so many books and authors I would otherwise not have known about. It’s a strange, dark and amazing place that gives you stories from Conrad and Achebe and I think there are millions more stories to tell. I hope this prize means I can add a further story or two of my own.”
Jacques Strauss is a 30 year old South African. He studied philosophy at university, obsessed over Derrida and now writes reams of corporate copy for a London firm.
Last year’s awards went to Aminatta Forna for The Memory of Love (Best Book) and Craig Cliff for A Man Melting (Best First Book). However, the Best First Book award has now been refashioned as the Commonwealth Book Prize and the Best Book Prize has been dropped altogether.
Commonwealth Writers has announced the regional winners for the 2012 Commonwealth Book Prize and Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Representing Africa, Asia, Canada & Europe, Caribbean, and the Pacific regions, these new writers will now compete for overall winner which will be announced at Hay Festival on 8 June.
Commonwealth Book Prize
Regional Winner, Africa
Jacques Strauss, South Africa The Dubious Salvation of Jack V, Jonathan Cape
Regional Winner, Asia
Shehan Karunatilaka, Sri Lanka, Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew, Random House
Regional Winner, Canada and Europe
Riel Nason, Canada, The Town that Drowned, Goose Lane Editions
Regional Winner, Caribbean
Alecia McKenzie, Jamaica, Sweetheart, Peepal Tree Press
Regional Winner, Pacific
Cory Taylor, Australia, Me and Mr Booker, The Text Publishing Company
Commenting on the winners, Chair of the Commonwealth Book Prize, Margaret Busby said, “We were wonderfully spoilt for choice among some strong regional contenders on the shortlist, and although we could not take every favourite further, the books that triumphed are a reminder of what the best fiction can be: moving, entertaining, enlightening, exciting, engaging our thoughts and emotions, while creating an intimate connection with someone else’s imagination. Here are novels with memorable characters, unpredictable situations, a sense of humour, books that give insights into cultures and histories not our own, crafted by writers who care about language, and its ability to renew and enrich our view of the world. ”
Commonwealth Short Story Prize
Regional Winner, Africa
Jekwu Anyaegbuna, Nigeria, Morrison Okoli (1955-2010)
Regional Winner, Asia
Anushka Jasraj, India, Radio Story
Regional Winner, Canada and Europe
Andrea Mullaney, UK, The Ghost Marriage
Regional Winner, Caribbean
Diana McCaulay, Jamaica, The Dolphin Catcher
Regional Winner, Pacific
Emma Martin, New Zealand, Two Girls in a Boat
Chair of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, Bernardine Evaristo said, “The five regional winning stories this year rose to the top of a pool of 2200 entries and are the result of vigorous debate among the judges. We discussed not only the quality of the storytelling but the context of their respective literary cultures including notions of stereotypes and ‘the prize-winning formula’. Our final choices encompass range, depth, beauty, unpredictability and re-readability. These short stories will take you on a journey that spans cultures, eras, generations, and diverse ways of being and seeing. To read them is to inhabit other worlds.”
Commonwealth Writers has partnered with Granta magazine to give regional winners of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize the opportunity to be published by Granta online during the week commencing 4 June.
John Freeman, Editor of Granta said: “The Commonwealth Short Story Prize introduces some of the best writers in the world, writers who bring a thrilling and essential glimpse of the world and the worlds that are within Britain. This is also what I hope Granta has been as a magazine. A Trojan Horse for writers you don’t know, but once you read cannot forget: writers who can make the ground beneath your feet a little more mysterious. I am pleased Granta can partner with the Commonwealth Short Story Prize to help carry this mission forward.”
Commonwealth Writers is a new cultural programme within the Commonwealth Foundation which develops, connects and inspires writers. By awarding prizes and running on-the-ground activities, it works in partnership with international literary organisations, the wider cultural industries and civil society to help writers develop their craft in the fifty four countries of the Commonwealth. www.commonwealthwriters.org is a forum where members from anywhere in the world can exchange ideas and contribute to debates.
To mark the 25th anniversary of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize in 2011, the Commonwealth Foundation re-launched its prizes to form part of Commonwealth Writers. The prizes act as catalysts to target and identify talented writers from different regions who will go on to inspire and inform their local communities.
Lucy Hannah, Programme Manager (Culture) Commonwealth Foundation, said “These two new prizes are a really positive start to Commonwealth Writers. We had entries from a huge range of countries including Lesotho, St. Kitts and Nevis, and Samoa. We’ll now be helping our regional winners to gain a wider readership, develop their craft and to inspire others in their region.”
In una stanza sconosciuta, the Italian translation of Damon Galgut’s In a Strange Room has been shortlisted for the 2012 Gregor von Rezzori Award.
This year’s prize, awarded to the best foreign work of fiction translated into Italian, sees Galgut pitted against Emmanuel Carrère’s Vite Che Non Sono La Mia (Lives Other Than My Own), Jenny Erpenbeck’s Di Passaggio (Visitation), Jón Kalman Stefánsson’s Paradiso e Inferno (Heaven and Hell) and Enrique Vila-Matas’ Esploratori Dell’abisso (Exploradores del abismo).
The winner of the €12 000 prize will be announced at an awards ceremony in Florence on the 15 June. Try your Italian on the press release:
Ernesto Ferrero, presidente della giuria del Premio Gregor von Rezzori – Città di Firenze per la migliore opera di narrativa straniera tradotta in Italia – sesta edizione – annuncia gli autori selezionati: Emmanuel CarrèreVite che non sono la mia (Einaudi), Jenny ErpenbeckDi passaggio (Zandonai), Damon GalgutIn una stanza sconosciuta (e/o) Jón Kalman StefánssonParadiso e inferno (Iperborea), Enrique Vila-MatasEsploratori dell’abisso (Feltrinelli).
Andrea Landolfi, presidente della giuria del premio per la miglior traduzione in italiano di un’opera di narrativa straniera annuncia il vincitore: Bruno Berniper I figli dei guardiani di elefanti di Peter Høeg. La cerimonia di premiazione, dove sarà annunciato il vincitore della narrativa, avrà luogovenerdì 15 giugno alle ore 18.00, nel Salone dei Cinquecento in Palazzo Vecchio a Firenze.
Brett Murray’s controversial painting, The Spear, in which Jacob Zuma is depicted with his genitals exposed, has upset the ANC. The party is pursuing an interdict against The Goodman Gallery, where the painting forms part of Murray’s latest exhibition, Hail to the Thief II, and the City Press, who published an the image on the painting on their website.
Ferial Haffajee, editor-in-chief of the City Press, has defended the newspaper’s decision to publish the image:
Did we think the image of President Jacob Zuma by Brett Murray was particularly beautiful to persuade us to publish it? No.
Would it be something I would hang at home? No.
There is a copy stuck on my office window, along with two others from Murray’s explosively angry exhibition of satirical graphic art.
Murray, now facing a demand from the governing ANC that he destroy the work, designed some of the anti-apartheid movement’s most iconic resistance art.
Nickolaus Bauer examines the constitutional implications of the interdict in an article for the Mail & Guardian:
The stage is set for a ground-breaking legal battle at the South Gauteng High Court this week as President Zuma’s right to dignity is weighed against the right to freedom of expression.
The president and the ANC is due to lock horns with the Goodman Gallery and City Press on Tuesday over the controversial exhibition and resultant publishing of Brett Murray’s contentious artwork The Spear.
Murray’s painting depicts Zuma with his genitals exposed, and forms part of his Hail to the Thief II exhibition.
According to eNews, the painting in the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg was defaced as the court case in which the ANC sought to compel the gallery to remove the artwork began in the South Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
Eyewitnesses told the Mail & Guardian that two men painted a red “X” over the figure’s genital area and smeared the face and private parts with black paint. They were apparently locked in the guards’ hut before police arrived.
A university professor and a 25-year-old man are believed to be behind Tuesday’s defacing of a controversial painting of President Jacob Zuma.
The two were in custody at the Rosebank police station after they allegedly painted over the genitals on the artwork.
Greg Palmer, attorney for the Goodman Gallery which is hosting the exhibition by the artist Brett Murray, said the gallery would lay charges of destroying private property against them.
On a train journey to Berlin in the early 1930s, a young Englishman meets Mr Norris, an older man wearing an ill-fitting wig. Mr Norris is a professional conman with deviant tendencies which Berlin’s underworld is able to indulge set against a backdrop of the conflict between communism and the sinister spectre of rising Nazism.
Flavorwire’s Emily Temple recently wrote an article in which she compares contemporary authors to writers from the past. Temple pairs Teju Cole, author of the acclaimed novel Open City, with the stream-of-consciousness style of Jack Kerouac, author of On the Road. See her other comparisons:
Download this eBook at LittleWhiteBakkie.com
Download this eBook at LittleWhiteBakkie.com
Apr
