Saturday, 08 December 2018

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

Saturday, 01 December 2018

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.

Tuesday, 27 November 2018

Friday, 23 November 2018

I don't understand when you talk



A song for the first girl I loved


Hittin' the road: an interview with John Dorsey by Gary Cummiskey, in The Odd Magazine


John Dorsey lived for several years in Toledo, Ohio. He is the author of several collections of poetry, including Teaching the Dead to Sing: The Outlaw's Prayer (Rose of Sharon Press, 2006), Sodomy is a City in New Jersey (American Mettle Books, 2010), Tombstone Factory (Epic Rites Press, 2013), Appalachian Frankenstein (GTK Press, 2015), Being the Fire (Tangerine Press, 2016) and Shoot the Messenger (Red Flag Press, 2017).  His most recent publication is a limited-edition chapbook titled Dying like Dogs, published by Tangerine Press The address is http://thetangerinepress.com/ He is the current Poet Laureate of Belle, MO. His work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. He may be reached at mailto:archerevans@yahoo.com.


When did you start writing poetry? When was your first collection published?

JD: I started writing very bad poetry about 30 years ago. My first collection, which contained much of that early work, was published in 1995 by Jesse Poet Publications, and was entitled When It's Over and Other Poems. Read more.

Saturday, 27 October 2018

Two poems by Gary Cummiskey published in Have your Chill

I have again had two poems published in the Australian poetry zine Have your Chill, edited by Pete Spence. As usual, when Pete sends out his contributor copies, he includes a gift collage.






Monday, 08 October 2018

Editor needed for New Coin

ew Coin
New Coin is looking for a new editor to begin work in January 2019 (first issue: June 2019).

The editor should have a good sense of the range of genres and sub-cultures in South African poetry today, and be willing to engage constructively with new writing and writers.

The main responsibilities would be:
·         selecting and compiling material for each issue
       (two issues a year – typically 50 poets submit work to each issue)
·         selecting cover art for each issue
·         identifying and selecting new books to review, and finding knowledgeable reviewers
·         corresponding with poets, notifying them of acceptances and rejections, as well as making constructive editorial suggestions
·         appointing a judge for the annual DALRO Prize
·         liaising with the designer of New Coin on production matters
·         proofreading
·         maintaining the New Coin page on Facebook
·         promotion of New Coin
·         liaison on administrative matters with the publisher – the Institute for the Study of English in Africa (ISEA) at Rhodes University in Grahamstown.

The editor can be based anywhere in South Africa. He or she will have the support of an editorial advisory board appointed by the ISEA. A small stipend is paid for the work.

If you’re interested, please send a letter of motivation spelling out your vision for the future of the journal, together with a short CV, to isea@ru.ac.za before 31 October 2018.

Monday, 24 September 2018

As she looked down ...


Text messages | Eleven short trips to Chatsworth, by Darryl Accone

Readers of Pravasan Pillay’s Chatsworth who know the place and its people say: “That’s the way they talk” or “I recognise that”. Having read the 11 short stories in this Dye Hard Press collection, I feel tempted to claim that now I know it too. Of course, I don’t really; rather, what I do is recognise it.
But for this debut collection of short fiction to achieve that is considerable. Read more.

Austere beauty of Chatsworth by Niren Tolsi

His prose is spare yet precise in detail and minutiae. It captures not merely the lives of people living in the eponym of his collection, the former Indians-only township south of Durban, but the claustrophobia and gloom that accompanies class and caste disdain, racial oppression and the fatalism of a dead-end —set to a dead-beat — imposed on individuals and a community.
His stories are the mise en scène of melancholia.
“I have always felt that there is a deep vein of melancholia that runs through Chatsworth and which touches the lives of some of its residents,” says Pillay. Read more.

Tuesday, 11 September 2018

Not going very far


Food ( Music is the weapon of choice)



Graffiti in Venice, 2016. 

Opening up Soweto and Chatsworth with stories: a glowing review of Chatsworth in Business Day

Pravasan Pillay writes about another township, Chatsworth, in Durban. Seldom have I come across similar writing in which I can hardly wait for the next sentence. His collection could yet be remembered as the harbinger of a major authorship, up there with the very best in short SA fiction: Ivan Vladislavic, Nadine Gordimer and Hennie Aucamp. Read more.

Monday, 06 August 2018

A place where paradox lives and breathes - a review of Chatsworth, by Francine Simon


As a South African Indian, it is not easy for me to find writing that is descriptive of my cultural heritage. This is what I have experienced from the time I could read. The poets, the novelists, the short story writers and the playwrights scattered among the 2.5 percent of South Africans of sub-continental descent who identify as ‘Indian’ are scarcely represented in our national literature. I am continually seeking out depictions of the complex, rich culture I come from. Sometimes, I find a poem in an online magazine. Other times, it is a short story in a print journal. But discoveries like this do not happen as often as I would like...Read more


Sunday, 01 July 2018

Saturday, 30 June 2018

A tweet from Saaleha Idrees Bamjee

Chatsworth by Pravasan Pillay. Such artfully crafted characters, wonderfully nuanced tellings. Published by .

Friday, 29 June 2018

Copies of Gary Cummiskey's Bog Docks still avaiable

Dye Hard Press has just FOUR copies left of Bog Docks, a chapbook of 25 poems by Gary Cummiskey, published in 2005.
Available at R60 per copy, including postage, for South Africa. For overseas the cost is R110, including postage. Email dyehardpress@iafrica.com to order.

Copies of Gary Cummiskey's When Apollinaire Died still available

Dye Hard Press has in stock just FOUR copies of When Apollinaire Died, a chapbook by Gary Cummiskey published by Firfield Press in Cape Town way back in 1996!
Available for R70 per copy, including postage, for South Africa. For overseas R120 including postage. Email dyehardpress@iafrica.com to order.

Copies of Arja Salafranca's Beyond Touch still available

Dye Hard Press still has copies in stock of Arja Salafranca's poetry collection Beyond Touch, which was published by Modjaji Books and Dye Hard Press in 2015.
Beyond Touch is Salafranca's third poetry collection and was co-winner of the SALA Poetry Award in 2016.
Copies are available at R145, including postage, for South Africa. For overseas orders, the price is R190, including postage. Contact dyehardpress@iafrica.com to order.

Copies of Alan Finlay's pushing from the riverbank still available

Dye Hard Press has just FIVE copies left of pushing from the riverbank by Alan Finlay, published in 2010.
Consisting of 19 poems, this is a beautiful production by one of South Africa's finest poets.
Other titles by Finlay include Burning Aloes, No Free Sleeping and The Red Laughter of Guns in Green Summer Rain, with Philip Zhuwao. He was editor of Blek-Sem, donga and New Coin.
Available at R90 per copy, including postage, for South Africa. For overseas, R140 including postage. Email dyehardpress@iafrica.com to order.

Copies of Green Dragon #2 still available


Dye Hard Press has just TWO copies left of Green Dragon #2, published in 2003.

It contains poems by the late Daniel Abdul-hayy Moore, Allan Kolski Horwitz, Paul Wessels, Sumeera Dawood, Kobus Moolman, Gus Ferguson, Richard Fox, Aryan Kaganof, Alan Finlay, Philip Hammial and Joop Bersee. Prose by Allan  Kolski Horwitz, Alan Finlay and Arja Salafranca.

64 pages.

For South Africa the price is R60, including postage, and for overseas the price is R100, including postage.

Send an email to dyehardpress@iafrica.com to order.


Chats ‘home Swede home’ for author: an article on Pravasan Pillay's Chatsworth

Inspired by his love for his hometown, a former Chatsworth resident now living in Sweden, released a book on the Durban township and the experiences encountered in the close-knit community of Montford.

Pravasan Pillay, 40, who lives in Stockholm, completed the book titled Chatsworth in 2014 but only had it published recently.

“It comprises 11 short stories. I wrote more but ended up cutting a lot of the stories because they did not quite match the tone I was aiming for,” said Pillay, a freelance editor... Read more.

Copies of Gary Cummiskey's Off-ramp still available

Dye Hard Press still has copies of Gary Cummiskey's Off-ramp in stock.
A finalist for the 2014 Nadine Gordimer Short Story Award, Off-ramp is the debut short fiction collection of Gary Cummiskey and consists of ten stories often characterised by a surreal eroticism. Set mainly in contemporary South Africa, the book opens with a young man’s hallucinatory encounter with a derelict in a Johannesburg street; there is a couple’s visit to a sinister Free State farm; an editor who reluctantly agrees to meet an aspiring woman writer at midnight; two young men who go out on a drinking spree as the country teeters on the edge of civil war; a restless teenager who stalks an unknown woman; and a middle-aged academic who engages in an obsessive, sadistic relationship with a prostitute.
The stories in this startling collection offer a vision of individuals who are slowly being devoured by paranoia and absurdity. Beyond the off-ramp lies a pervasive, heavy dread and an unnameable, perhaps unknowable fear. Cummiskey creates an off-kilter reality that is both disturbing and compelling.
Off-ramp is available at R150 per copy, including postage, for South Africa. For overseas the cost is R200, including postage.
 Email me at dyehardpress@iafrica,com for order details.

Copies of Kobus Moolman's Left Over still available

Dye Hard Press has unearthed some more copies of Kobus Moolman's poetry collection Left Over, published in 2013. Available for R150, including postage, in South Africa. For overseas the cost is R190. 

To order please send an email to dyehardpress@iafrica.com.

Copies of Khulile Nxumalo's fhedzi still avaulable

Dye Hard Press has just FOUR copies left of Khulile Nxumalo's second poetry collection, fhedzi, which was a finalist for the SALA Poetry Award in 2014.
Khulile Nxumalo was born in Diepkloof, Soweto, in 1971. He finished school at Waterford Kamhlaba, Swaziland, and went to the University of Cape Town, University of Natal and Wits University.
His first poetry collection, ten flapping elbows, mama, was published by Deep South in 2004. His work has appeared in several literary journals in South Africa, Canada, the UK and the US. Nxumalo has twice won the DALRO award for poetry. He has two children.
'Khulile Nxumalo is one of the few poets in South Africa using longer experimental forms. He has found a creative way of breaking up the English language and fusing it with other languages. He is also capable of intense lyrical expression.' – Robert Berold
'magma-burn. emotion-lava spilling out. of wounds.
and thoughts of them expressed in ghostly words
of the divining spirit. and coming thru the smog.
and dust,blood-rained on strange children's games.
and ever The Voice, lonesome, wearied, spiralling inward...
with this one, sikhulile!' – Lesego Rampolokeng
'The language expands to both participate in reality and recreate perceptions of reality with its metaphors and poetic syntax. This is a highly skilled technical work that evokes the surrealism and interlocking process of South African society.' - Kyle Allan
fhedzi is available for R140 a copy, including postage, for South Africa. For overseas the cost is 190 per copy. Email me at dyehardpress@iafrica.com to order.

Copies of Green Dragon #6 still available

There are just TWO copies left in stock of Green Dragon #6, which was the final issue of a literary journal published by Dye Hard Press from 2002 to 2009. Contributors to this final issue were Alan Finlay, Arja Salafranca, Haidee Kruger, Janet van Eeden, Joop Bersee, Kelwyn Sole, Kobus Moolman, Tania van Schalkwyk, Megan Hall, Cecilia Ferriera, Anton Krueger, Allan Kolski Horwitz, Goodenough Mashego, David wa Maahlamela, Vonani Bila, Mphutlane wa Bofelo, Aryan Kaganof, Neo Molefe Shameeyaa, Colleen Higgs, Gus Ferguson, Brent Meersman, Kai Lossgott, Daniel Browde, Ingrid Andersen, Gary Cummiskey, Mick Raubenheimer and Mxolisi Nyezwa. There were also lyrics from Durban folk group The Litchis.
Copies are available from Dye Hard Press at R80 per copy, including postage, for South Africa. For overseas, R130 including postage. 

Email dyehardpress@iafrica.com to order.


Copies of The Edge of Things still available

Dye Hard Press has unearthed FIVE copies of The Edge of Things, the short fiction anthology edited by Arja Salafranca, which was published a few years back and received much critical acclaim. The Edge of Things contains 24 short stories by Jayne Bauling, Arja Salafranca, Liesl Jobson, Gillian Schutte, Karina Magdalena Szczurek, Jenna Mervis, Jennifer Lean, Fred de Vries, Margie Orford, Aryan Kaganof, Bernard Levinson, Hamilton Wende, Pravasan Pillay, Beatrice Lakwana, Hans Pienaar, Rosemund Handler, Tiah Beautement, Angelina N Sithebe, Jeanne Hromnik, David wa Maahlamela, Perd Booysen, Gail Dendy, Silke Heiss and Dan Wylie. 

The cost is R180 per copy, including postage, for South Africa. For overseas the cost is R230, including postage. 

Send an email to dyehardpress@iafrica.com to order.

Copies of Arja Salafranca's The fire in which we burn still available

Dye Hard Press has just THREE copies left of Arja Salafranca's poetry chapbook The fire in which we burn, published by Dye Hard Press in 2000.

24 poems, 44 pages.

The cost is R60, including postage, for South Africa, and R100 for overseas, including postage.
Send an email to dyehardpress@iafrica.com to order.

Copies of Green Dragon #4 still available


Dye Hard Press has just FOUR copies left of Green Dragon # 4, published in 2006.

It contains poems by Goodenough Mashego, Michelle McGrane, Colleen Higgs, Philip Hammial, Allan Kolski Horwitz, Mxolisi Nyezwa, Amanda Van Rooyen, Liesl Jobson, Les Merton, Mkhosazana Xaba, Kobus Moolman, Aryan Kaganof, Joop Bersee, Haidee Kruger, Gus Ferguson, Bernat Kruger, Tania van Schalkwyk, Alan Finlay and Richard Fox, as well as prose by Allan Kolski Horwitz, Arja Salafranca, Haidee Kruger, Silke  Heiss and Gary Cummiskey.

90 pages.

The cost is R80, including postage, for South Africa, and R130, including postage, for overseas.
Send an email to dyehardpress@iafrica.com to order.

Tuesday, 26 June 2018

Sunday, 03 June 2018

Wednesday, 30 May 2018

Full-page feature on Chatsworth in the Durban Post



A full page devoted to Pravasan Pillay's Chatsworth appeared in yesterday's Durban Post. There's an article about the book, an extract from one of the stories, as well as a competition to win a free copy!

Chatsworth soon available at bookstores throughout South Africa



Pravasan Pillay's short story collection Chatsworth will soon be available in good bookstores countrywide. It is already available at David Krut Bookstore in Rosebank, Johannesburg, and The Book Lounge in Cape Town. Copies are also available for sale at the Nelson Mandela Youth Centre in Chatsworth, Durban, plus it can be ordered directly from the publisher at dyehardpress@iafrica.com.

Sunday, 20 May 2018

Saturday, 19 May 2018

Former Chatsworth man stays true to his roots


He said, “The book is entitled ‘Chatsworth’ and I believe that the township and its vibrant residents were my primary inspiration. I grew up in Chatsworth so I am very familiar with the area. I don’t live in Chatsworth anymore. However, having some distance helped me write about it better.” Read more.


Monday, 07 May 2018

You think you know me


Let me get back


Pravasan Pillay's Chatsworth on sale at Chatsworth Youth Centre


Chuffed that Chatsworth was being sold yesterday at the Chatsworth Youth Centre monthly flea market! The book is currently for sale at the Chatsworth Youth Centre for R160! Contact Clive Pillay, Programmes Coordinator at the Youth Centre, on 061 429 2574. Thanks to Clive for stocking the books!

Sunday, 15 April 2018

René Bohnen writes about Chatsworth ...


Poet and photographer René Bohnen writes the following about Pravasan Pillay's Chatsworth: 'I have just finished reading this. Such clean writing! Sober, unsentimental windows open onto the lives of characters who negotiate life and leave us wondering if they have slipped through the cracks or not. Bleak, but not depressing - a fascinating depiction of very ordinary days in a Chatsworth that seems timeless. Quiet portraits with lively and true dialogue, so familar the vernacular. Well done, Pravasan and Dye Hard Press.'

Sunday, 08 April 2018

Monday, 26 March 2018

Thursday, 22 March 2018

New publication from Dye Hard Press: Chatsworth by Pravasan Pillay


Dye Hard Press is proud to announce the publication of Chatsworth by Pravasan Pillay.
Chatsworth is Pravasan Pillay's debut short fiction collection and consists of eleven stories set in the sprawling township of Chatsworth, Durban. The stories are populated mostly by working-class characters who all, in one way or the other, find themselves on the margins of their community. There is an elderly mother and her dependent obese daughter who must fend for themselves; an angst-filled twelve-year-old girl who secretly chain smokes late at night; a tearful man who is incapable of passing his driving test; an albino girl who attains a fragile popularity in high school; a young woman who – against her father's wishes – falls in love with an immigrant; a seemingly placid pensioner who hides a shockingly violent side; and a pair of girls who bond over a love letter and hair bleach, among others.
The stories present sensitive yet unsentimental portraits of these characters, in prose that is spare and unadorned. Pillay additionally displays a remarkable ear for dialogue, and faithfully captures much of the nuance of Durban-Indian English.
Chatsworth is a gentle and moving book about growing up, being different, but also about failing at adulthood.
140 pages.
ISBN: 978-0-9869982-5-6.
Pravasan Pillay is a South African writer. He has published two chapbooks of poetry, Glumlazi (2009) and 30 Poems (2015), as well as a collection of co-written comedic short stories, Shaggy (2013). He is also the editor of the micro-press Tearoom Books.
Chatsworth is available directly from the publisher for R160, including postage. For overseas orders, the cost is R220 including postage.
Email dyehardpress@iafrica.com to order.

Saturday, 10 March 2018

Proof copy of Pravasan Pillay's Chatsworth



Received the proof copy of Pravasan Pillay's Chatsworth and it looks wonderful!

Sunday, 04 March 2018

Friday, 02 March 2018

Coming soon from Dye Hard Press: Chatsworth by Pravasan Pillay



  
Chatsworth is Pravasan Pillay's debut short fiction collection and consists of eleven stories set in the sprawling township of Chatsworth, Durban. The stories are populated mostly by working-class characters who all, in one way or the other, find themselves on the margins of their community. There is an elderly mother and her dependent obese daughter who must fend for themselves; an angst-filled twelve-year-old girl who secretly chain smokes late at night; a tearful man who is incapable of passing his driving test; an albino girl who attains a fragile popularity in high school; a young woman who – against her father's wishes – falls in love with an immigrant; a seemingly placid pensioner who hides a shockingly violent side; and a pair of girls who bond over a love letter and hair bleach, among others.

The stories present sensitive yet unsentimental portraits of these characters, in prose that is spare and unadorned. Pillay additionally displays a remarkable ear for dialogue, and faithfully captures much of the nuance of Durban-Indian English. Chatsworth is a gentle and moving book about growing up, being different, but also about failing at adulthood.

140 pages.

ISBN: 978-0-9869982-5-6.


Pravasan Pillay is a South African writer. He has published two chapbooks of poetry, Glumlazi (2009) and 30 Poems (2015), as well as a collection of co-written comedic short  stories, Shaggy (2013). He is also the editor of the micro-press Tearoom Books.