Poetry | Umuzi
Join Beverly Rycroft for an Off the Wall Poetry Reading in Cape Town
Off the Wall Poetry Performing invites you to a live poetry reading by poet and author, Beverly Rycroft.
Rycroft, whose debut novel A Slim, Green Silence was launched at The Book Lounge recently, will read poems from the chapbook collection Calling from the Crowd.
The event will take place on Monday, 29 June, at Off the Wall in Observatory and will start at 8 PM.
Venue: Off the Wall, Touch of Madness
12 Nuttal Road
Join Off the Wall Poetry Performing on Facebook
That Coyote Moment, Messenger and Vision: Read Poems From Isobel Dixon’s The Tempest Prognosticator
by Amanda on May 26th, 2015 Tweet
Aerodrome recently featured two poems by Isobel Dixon.
The poems are called “That Coyote Moment” and “Messenger”. Both poems are about foxes, a “flash in the drab” interloper in a station, and a “roadside fox” for which neither traffic nor news would stand still.
Read the poems, and then try The Tempest Prognosticator for more of Dixon’s wonderful poetry:
Russet and frost
to be sidelined so fast.
Continue reading: Aerodrome
Karina Szczurek tweeted a poem from The Tempest Prognosticator earlier today, paying tribute to Dixon:
From THE TEMPEST PROGNOSTICATOR by @isobeldixon (@Umuzites 2011): pic.twitter.com/TjSJcpgHMe
— Karina M. Szczurek (@KarinaMSzczurek) May 26, 2015
The Tempest Prognosticator is Dixon’s third collection of poems, praised by writers in South Africa and abroad. Also known as a Leech Barometer, a Tempest Prognosticator is a 19th century invention that uses leeches to predict storms. The leeches are kept in small bottles inside the device. When they become agitated by an approaching storm they try to climb out of the bottles and trigger a small hammer which strikes a bell, signalling changeable weather.
Dixon is alert to the quirks and oddities of the world where nature and our constructions coincide, as with this strange Victorian reference. She practices a stylish, time-honoured kind of poetry, well-crafted poems which make you want to return to read them again and again. This wide-ranging, appealing collection also contains fascinating conversations with Eugène Marais, Adamastor and Nonqawuse, ‘richly and vividly observant poems’, as Gabeba Baderoon writes, which ‘teach you how to read the world anew’.
Several of the poems in The Tempest Prognosticator have won prizes in international poetry competitions, establishing Dixon firmly as a poet here and in the UK. It is, as JM Coetzee writes, ‘a virtuoso collection’. Book details
Verweerskrif deur Antjie Krog die onderwerp van navorsingsprojek aan Universiteit van Fort Hare
Enkele verse uit Verweerskrif deur Antjie Krog (in Engels beskikbaar as Body Bereft) was onlangs die onderwerp van ‘n navorsingsprojek deur Susan Smith van die Departement Afrikaans, Universiteit van Fort Hare. LitNet Akademies, ‘n geakkrediteerde Suid-Afrikaanse vaktydskrif, het die gevolglike artikel geplaas.
Smith skryf: “Die aard van die gekose gedigte van Krog bied die basis vir ’n ondersoek na die materialiteit van plek en die dinamiese emotiewe en interaktiewe uitruiling wat plaasvind waar die plek van die liggaam en die liggaam van die plek met mekaar in ontmoeting tree. Die uitruiling behels nie net kulturele en sosiale uitdrukkings nie, maar onder andere ook uitdrukkings van gemoed en toonaard wat as sensoriese uitdrukkings bestempel kan word.”
Lees “Plek as liggaam en liggaam as plek. Tendense van die nuwe materialisme en interaksie tussen mens en plek in enkele tekste uit Verweerskrif (2006) van Antjie Krog”, al is dit net vir uittreksels uit Krog se bundel:
In die volgende versreëls neem die berg byvoorbeeld die vorm van ’n vrou aan wat uitbundig uiting aan haar stralende voorkoms gee:
die berg gooi die wolke soos ’n
haar af en staan eensklaps
met nat klip-
dan stapel sy haar stem in
hoogtes van klip en sing (73).
As vrou dra die berg in hierdie versreëls ’n mantel en kamaste en sy sing – menslike aksies waardeur die berg beliggaam en van emosies voorsien word. Die vreugdevolle stemming en voorkoms van die berg (“stralend”) resoneer in die gemoed van die spreker-digter, waardeur intra-aksie bewerkstellig word deur aksie (“sing”) en reaksie (“duisel”, “antwoord”). Die spreker-digter en die berg tree in gesprek met mekaar en ’n uitruil van emosies vind plaas; die berg “antwoord” – ’n aanduiding van woord en wederwoord:
[…] jy dui-
sel van geluk. Sketterend skep
elke antwoord (73).
Johnita le Roux: “Jou laaste geestelike tuisland is jou taal” (Potgooi)
Suzette Kotzé-Myburgh het op RSG se Skrywers en Boeke-program met Johnita le Roux gesels oor haar jongste roman, Die engel en die bont bees.
Die engel en die bont bees begin met ’n hofsaak waar die drie hoofkarakters aangekla word vir die onwettige ontginning van edelgesteentes. Uit hierdie gegewe ontspruit verskeie temas, onder meer identiteit, grondbesit, taalkwessies en die weerstand teen Afrikaans in die 1970′s.
Le Roux het vertel dat grond, grondstowwe en kultuur altyd deur taal verteenwoordig word. “Jou laaste geestelike tuisland is jou taal, en dat daar mense is wat dit doelbewus verlaat is natuurlik ook vir my ’n teer kwessie.” Kotzé-Myburgh het opgelet dat die skrywer omstrede stukke geskiedenis in haar roman bymekaar bring. Oor haar navorsing het Le Roux vertel dat sy veral Karel Schoeman se werk geraadpleeg het.
Die gesprek begin om 07:00. Luister na die potgooi:
Die engel en die bont bees deur Johnita le Roux
Internasionale literêre agent Isobel Dixon: ’n Slegte vertaling is so goed soos geen vertaling
by Amanda on Sep 9th, 2014 Tweet
Conrad Brand, ‘n Britse vryskutjoernalis, het met Isobel Dixon, Suid-Afrika se mees prominente internasionale literêre agent, gesels. Dié onderhoud verskyn in vandeesmaand se uitgawe van Maandblad Zuid-Afrika, maar word ook op Netwerk24 gedeel.
Dixon, wie se jongste boek The Tempest Prognosticator plaaslik deur Umuzi gepubliseer is, deel haar gedagtes rondom die toekoms van die gedrukte boek, haar ervaring van Europese lesers,’n normale dag en die betrokke prosesse in die lewe van ‘n literêre agent en die ontwikkelinge in die bedryf wat sy oor die jare waargeneem het.
Hoe bemark jy Suid-Afrikaanse skryfwerk in Europa?
Dit begin alles met kwaliteit. Verteenwoordig die beste: daarsonder is die stryd reeds verlore. Sukses is nie maklik om te behaal nie, en dis nog moeiliker met Afrikaanse skrywers, want daar is min mense wat die boek kan lees voordat dit vertaal word. Daar is wel uitgewers in Nederland vir wie ek Afrikaanse boeke kan stuur voordat dit vertaal is, maar van hulle vind dit nog vreemd om die Afrikaans ­direk te lees.
Hier en daar is daar vertalers en lesers in Engeland, Frankryk of Duitsland wat ’n mening oor ’n Afrikaanse manuskrip kan gee. Vir ander lande, byvoorbeeld Spanje of Italië, moet die skrywer gewoonlik eers sorg dat hulle baie goeie vertalers vir die Afrikaans het. Baie van die oorsese uitgewers vertaal uit die Engelse boek as hulle nie ’n goeie vertaler van Afrikaans na hul taal kan kry nie.
Om ’n Afrikaanse skrywer in die internasionale mark te verteenwoordig is baie meer werk, en Britse en Amerikaanse uitgewers koop eintlik baie min vertaalde werke.
Die beste vertalers is noodsaaklik: ’n slegte vertaling is so goed soos geen vertaling. Ons het ’n paar vertalers in verskillende lande wat uit Afrikaans kan vertaal, maar die meeste wag maar vir die Engelse vertalings.
Volledige onderhoud: Netwerk24 Boekbesonderhede
The Tempest Prognosticator deur Isobel Dixon
Isobel Dixon Shares Her Trick for Getting Unstuck When Writing
by Lindsay on Jun 5th, 2014 Tweet
Isobel Dixon, award-winning poet, literary agent and author of The Tempest Prognosticator, was interviewed by Alexander Matthews from Aerodrome recently.
Dixon says that poetry has “always been part of the heartbeat” and shared what she does when she gets stuck writing:
When do you know a poem is ready?
What you know is the sense of dissatisfaction when it’s not — when it’s not doing what it should or when it’s come out a little bit stiff.
Nadia Davids Reveals Poetic Inspiration for Imperfect Blessing
by Amanda on May 30th, 2014 Tweet
Nadia Davids delivered a public lecture in the Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts‘ Great Texts/Big Quesions series.
Davids’ debut novel An Imperfect Blessing was recently released, but she began her career as an actor and playwright, and her lecture was entitled “Writing and Performing Cape Town”. Davids read an excerpt from her novel, and before beginning her lecture singled out Rustum Kozain for thanks, saying it was a poem of his that inspired her to write the book.
“I just want to say, I’m very pleased to have my dear friend Rustum Kozain in the audience tonight because his poem The Blessing, in fact I first heard it in 2007, and it was one of the most moving experiences of my life, and in fact that poem is the reason I wrote the novel,” said Davids. “And the entire novel is a quite clumsy attempt to respond to that poem.”
Kozain tweeted a link to the poem earlier in May:
“@Grondwerk: Bless her & keep from her/the dark & darkening times… http://t.co/uEyOJPtj2a” <- Complete poem opening @Nadia_Davids1's novel
— Ben Williams (@benrwms) May 10, 2014
Listen to the full GIPCA lecture here:
Antjie Krog oor haar leespatrone en hoe dit deur ’n reis na Frankryk beïnvloed is
by Amanda on Jan 10th, 2014 Tweet
“Ek het die afgelope paar jaar uitsluitlik Suid-Afrikaans (behalwe poësie) begin lees en verkieslik nie-fiksie. Onlangs is die patroon gelukkig versteur,” skryf Antjie Krog, bekroonde skrywer en outeur van onder meer Skinned, in ‘n rubriek wat verlede maand in Beeld verskyn het. Krog is onlangs genooi om deel te wees van ‘n Suid-Afrikaanse delegasie van kunstenaars wat in Frankryk moes gaan deelneem aan ‘n poging om die land se toenemende rassisme deur middel van opvoeding te kniehalter. Hierdie projek het haar leespatroon noemenswaardig beïnvloed:
Mens val soms in leespatrone vas.
Ek het die afgelope paar jaar uitsluitlik Suid-Afrikaans (behalwe poësie) begin lees en verkieslik nie-fiksie. Onlangs is die patroon gelukkig versteur toe ek as deel van ’n Suid-Afrikaanse kunstenaarsdelegasie genooi is om in Frankryk deel van hul interaksie te wees. Die land is duidelik bekommerd oor die toenemende rassisme (onlangs is hul minister van justisie, Christiane Taubira, ’n swart vrou, in die openbaar as ’n slim aap deur jong mense gehoon) en dus word Suid-Afrika se apartheid en transformasie dringend deel van baie streke se leerplanne.
Volledige rubriek: Beeld
Skinned deur Antjie Krog
Antjie Krog Discusses Afrikaners’ Relationship with Nelson Mandela
by Amanda on Dec 17th, 2013 Tweet
Antjie Krog has written an article for The Independent about the feelings of Afrikaners towards Nelson Mandela, which developed as he paid “attention to the history of which Afrikaners felt proud and offered alternatives for that part of which they felt ashamed”. She writes that Mandela’s “innate sense of the collective enabled him to formulate a vision of mutual dependency which included Afrikaners in its articulation”.
Krog ends by saying that the main reason that Afrikaners feared Mandela’s death was that it “severs their tenuous link to the continent after which they so passionately named themselves and their language, but which they, deep down, despise.”
When I grew up, in the 1960s, the name Nelson Mandela never featured in our Afrikaner home.
Feelings of racial superiority precluded any thought that a remarkable or successful black leader might exist. If a banned name slipped through in the liberal press, it was assumed that either the liberals or the regime were secretly “using” him. It was simple: there was no agency to praise or respect in black people. One just had to outwit their numbers.
Four Poems by Isobel Dixon (Including Tribute to Nelson Mandela)
by Amanda on Dec 13th, 2013 Tweet
Writer’s Hub has published three new poems and one previously published by Isobel Dixon, author of The Tempest Prognosticator. Dixon was born in Mthatha in the Eastern Cape, 31kms from Qunu where Nelson Mandela grew up.
Of the four poems, one reflects on the life of the late statesman, who passed away last week, and the transformation of South Africa after his release from prison. A second poem is in memoriam the Cradock Four.
Read Dixon’s poems:
Truths & Reconciliations
the miracles forgot –
but would you forgive the man
who made your father blind?
Complete poem: Writer’s Hub
I have forgotten the Periodic Table of the Elements,
apart from the famous few
and the look of the waxy scroll of text
unfurled against the science lab’s wall,
Earth’s Ten Commandments graphed in code.
I went with my father in the night as a little girl,
when he was setting up experiments,
sat long and studied it, in fascinated ignorance.
A man pushes his rubbish
juggernaut up 7th Avenue,
Melville. Cresting the rise,
then swiftly switching sides
to brake – his shoulders braced –
his junk ship’s following wind,
that swift acceleration down the hill,
a slope of now-dishevelled affluence.
I remember the pale peaches of Cathcartvale:
light down as of a cheek
and the wet white flesh, firm to the bite.
Sweet fibre of peach in your teeth
and the pinkening fruit at the rosy wrinkled pip. Rarer than the golden peaches
halved and boiled and syrup-drowned,
home-bottled, seldom from the shop.