The most intensely felt and memorable experiences of our lives involve the ties that bind us to other people. In this performance John Maytham reads classic and little-known poems about families – poets’ personal memories of birth, child-rearing and death, marriage and divorce, partnership and breakup, words uttered in anger and words uttered in love. Compiled by Finuala Dowling, this moving, funny and deeply true script reminds the audience of what it means to be someone’s child, parent, sibling, spouse, or simply a fellow human being.
In keeping with the Noordhoek Art Point Gallery‘s theme for November — the Flow of Water — this month’s Salon Hecate will feature the recently published Short.Sharp.Story anthology, Fluid: The Freedom To Be.
For Fluid, South African writers were given this intriguing prompt: “In a FLUID state, nothing is fixed, matter can flow easily — between borders and boundaries, between cultures, between genders — everything is possible, porous, playful. In this world, increasingly conservative and restricted, we embrace the fluid nature of humanity. We grow, we change course, we discover more about who we are.” The best twenty stories in response were published in this collection. In reviewing it, author Jen Thorpe said: “I am always searching for writing that challenges me to try new techniques, forms and genres, and that takes on subjects I hadn’t considered. This collection does just that.”
Together with three Fluid contributors, I was asked to speak about the collection at the next Salon Hecate event. Contributors will read brief extracts from their stories. One of them, local artist Alex Latimer, will talk about the “fluidity” and overlap of being both a visual artist and illustrator, and an author. Vuyokazi Ngemntu will speak about the shades (literally) of identity for another perspective on what it means to be fluid. And Anna Hug will read from her shocking and entertaining story featuring perfume — also a fluid. Additionally, author Athambile Masola will read her poetry in both English and isiXhosa, to show us another form of fluidity — translation.
About the authors
Karina Szczurek
Karina Szczurek is an author, memoirist, reviewer and the driving force behind Karavan Press. She lives in Rosebank, Cape Town, and has won too many awards for her writing to list here. She looks very fetching in a witch’s hat.
Alex Latimer
Alex Latimer is an artist and illustrator who lives in Fish Hoek. His picture books are published around the world, and his stories have won or been shortlisted for the Short Story Day Africa prize and the Commonwealth prize. He has published a novel and two apocalyptic sagas, South and North, as one half of Frank Owen (the other half being Diane Awerbuck, whose work also appears in Fluid).
Vuyokazi Ngemntu
Vuyokazi Ngemntu is a writer-performer who lives in Nyanga. She uses a wide range of performances of words (poetry, ritual, song and more) to look at trauma and inequality, and to inspire healing. Her short stories have won or been shortlisted for a number of prizes in Africa.
Athambile Masola
Athambile Masola is an academic, archival expert and poet who lives in Muizenberg. She lectures in Historical Studies at UCT, and her PhD and primary research focuses on black women’s life writing. Her debut poetry collection, Ilifa, was published in 2021.
Anna Hug
Anna Hug, an author and editor who lives in Kommetjie, has had her stories published in South African literary journals, and has been longlisted for the Myslexia fiction prize.
Salon details
Date and time: TUESDAY (note: not our usual Monday!) 14 November, 5.30 for 6pm, until 7pm. Entrance is free, and all are welcome.
Please join us for small snacks and a glass of wine or juice.
Got a question about this event or interested in a particular piece you’ve seen? Get in touch with the Gallery at info@noordhoekartpoint.co.za or call 0835642493.
The 4-5 November weekend promises a lot of literary joy. The Cape Flats Book Festival is taking place that weekend and the one-day Festival of Poetry is happening on the 4th. Karavan Press authors are well represented at both, and I am also playing a role in my diverse capacities.
4 November | Bertha House and Youngblood-Africa
5 November | West End Primary School
I had great fun at the Cape Flats Book festival last year; I am so looking forward to returning. And I am thrilled about the Festival of Poetry. A weekend of inspiration and enlightenment awaits!
Six years after publication, The Fifth Mrs Brink is making her last official appearance at a festival before going out of print. The Book Lounge will be selling the remaining copies of the original edition of my memoir.
But no worries, Future Readers, Karavan Press is going to bring out a new edition of the book soon.
I will be participating in two panels, one in which Mervyn Sloman of The Book Lounge will be chatting to Mbali Sikakana of NB, Eugene Ashton of JB, and me about the future of publishing. It will be fun!
And then, I will be chairing a session with Sue Nyamnjoy, Zibu Sithole and Diane Awerbuck and we will be talking about writing journeys.
Diane Awerbuck is a prizewinning writer, reviewer, editor and teacher. She writes femme/goth thrillers (Home Remedies); memoirs (Gardening at Night); pandemic cowboy thrillers (South, as Frank Owen; North, as Frank Owen); doctorates on trauma (The Spirit and the Letter); holy-wholly poetry (As above, so below); and short story collections (Cabin Fever; Inside your body there are flowers). She hopes you are sitting comfortably.
Zibu Sithole lives in Johannesburg with her son. She is a journalist with more than 10 years of experience writing for television and radio as well as print and digital media. She is a published ghostwriter of mainly romance novels. The Thing with Zola is Zibu’s first novel published under her own name.
Sue Nyamnjoh is a Cameroonian-born creative currently residing in Cape Town. She has a background in media studies and languages and holds a BA(Hons) from the University of Cape Town. Earlier this year (2023), Sue released her debut poetry collection. The anthology, [un]ravelling, explores universal themes of love, grief, joy, and loneliness from a deeply personal lens. Beyond literary pursuits, Sue enjoys large doses of music, food, and people, in no particular order. She is mother to a feline named Shola and various plants in questionable states of existence.
The Franschhoek Valley does golden autumn like no other place I know in the world. Once again, the season was on full display during this year’s Franschhoek Literary Festival (FLF). I drove into town on Friday and could not help feeling elated just by looking at the bright reds and yellows of falling leaves bathed in the soothing morning sun. The scene was perfectly set for what was to unfold. I have never seen Franschhoek so packed during the festival. The place was heaving with writers and festivalgoers from all over …
What a pleasure to be part of the Open Book Workshop Week and to share my passion for the short story with others. I hope you will join me for one or both of the workshops I will be running:
I will be chairing two sessions at the KBF this year. I had so much fun attending the book fair last year that I can’t wait to return and look forward to engaging with all these wonderful authors, talking about fictional revenge and the short story – two of my favourite themes.
12:30 – 13:30 Karina Szczurek (Karavan Press) lets Lester Walbrugh (Elton Baatjies) and Michiel Heyns (Each Mortal Thing) allow their protagonists to settle the score.
16:00 – 17:00 Joanne Hichens (Fluid: Freedom to Be), Zaheera Jina Asvat (The Tears of the Weaver: Short Stories), Terry-Ann Adams (White Chalk: Stories) and Chase Rhys (Misfit: Stories vannie anne kant) share with Karina Szczurek about less sometimes being more.
For more details about the book fair, click here: KBF 2023
Please join Joanne, me and a few of the amazing authors we had the pleasure of working with on this Short.Sharp.Stories anthology for the launch of FLUID!
Karina Magdalena 