OYSTERHOOD is reclusiveness or solitude, or an overwhelming desire to stay at home.

— @HaggardHawks

I cooked a lamb knuckle stew today. It wasn’t the greatest achievement of the day but, apart from the bubbly and the pasteis de nata from The Hoghouse that we had for dinner, definitely the most delicious.

I slept, and I managed to get out of bed. Simple miracles.

It wasn’t planned like this (Covid-19 had other plans), but together with Rachel Zadok and Jason Mykl Snyman, I am co-editing the next SSDA anthology: Disruption: New Short Fiction from Africa. This week the stories are going for typesetting. The cover, designed by Megan Ross, is ready. I have been working with seven authors from across the continent and I can’t wait for people to read their stories. Disruption is going to be another great book. And being part of this project for several years now has been one of the most enriching experiences of my literary life.

Officially, over fifty thousand people have died in SA because of Covid-19-related causes. Excess deaths are probably close to three times as much by now. I understand that it is not always easy to keep safe. What I don’t understand is that in situations when it is easy, people choose not to.

Be kind. Wear a mask. Support local.

“Physical distancing remains one of the key strategies to curb this pandemic.”

— NICD

OYSTERHOOD is reclusiveness or solitude, or an overwhelming desire to stay at home.

— @HaggardHawks

To understand that what you do is worthless, at least in monetary terms, to most people, is hard. To continue anyway is usually naive. It equals accepting that no matter what beauty and meaning your work brings into the world, you might still starve doing it.

What does it mean about you when you have the choice between spending your days simply being and barely surviving or working yourself into an emotional breakdown and barely surviving, and you still get up and do your work?

It was one of those days when all my dreams felt pointless.

Be kind. Wear a mask. Support local.

“Physical distancing remains one of the key strategies to curb this pandemic.”

— NICD

OYSTERHOOD is reclusiveness or solitude, or an overwhelming desire to stay at home.

— @HaggardHawks

On the 27th, it will be a year of lockdown in SA. Reading comments and listening to people today after the Level One announcement, I realised that the third wave is in the making. We are one year into this and we know exactly what to do to keep, if not hundred per cent, then at least relatively, safe, but we are still being simply careless with one another. And I know that I have been part of the problem by not always being cautious, strict and assertive enough. Perhaps I have been extremely lucky, too. But I don’t want to repeat the same mistakes. I don’t want to run out of luck. There are ways of living one’s life and enjoying many activities, also with others, without endangering one’s and other people’s well-being in the process, so why should I not follow the simple rules and keep as safe as I can?

I keep repeating to myself: I don’t want to get ill.

Financial Times: Yuval Noah Harari: Lessons from a year of Covid | Free to read

Monday. The usual tasks, work, dinner with my love, Skype meeting with my family. In the evening, the inaugural National Poetry Prize winners have been announced during the monthly Off the Wall poetry reading.

First prize: BUSISIWE MAHLANGU “I wear mother’s bones” (R10 000). Second prize: MELISSA SUSSENS “A New Veterinarian Spends a Compulsory Year Working at a Slaughterhouse” (R3 000). Third prize: STEPHEN DEVEREUX “2020” (R1 000).

Over forty people tuned in for the announcement – a lovely crowd. It was inspiring to hear the poets read their work. Great stuff.

With Burma in the media again for all the wrong reasons, I often think about this stunning novel.

“Now dusk-mauve darkens the sky, and just before the big lights crack on and erase everything, a flood of indigo ink writes up the night.” (The Lizard Cage)

Be kind. Wear a mask. Support local.

“Physical distancing remains one of the key strategies to curb this pandemic.”

— NICD