Wole Soyinka, in an interview in The (London) Times” on the “theatricality of politics”: Some leaders “exceed what the playwright can invent”. He gives the example of the Sudanese leader, Omar Bashir, who “guilty of sending his soldiers out raping, massacring, poisoning wells in Darfur, then goes on television with a spear and a robe [...]
Archive for the ‘Books’ Category
James Matthews is 80
Posted in Books, tagged Cape Town, James Matthews, poetry, poets, South Africa, writers and writing on May 28, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Poet and novelist James Matthews turned 80 today. Here‘s a link to a short note I wrote on the occasion of his 79th birthday. If you can read Afrikaans, here‘s a link to piece in Cape Town’s “Die Burger” by reporter Heindrich Wyngaardt. [The picture, above, by photographer Michael Hammond accompanied the Wyngaardt story.]
this is not research
Posted in Books, tagged Books, David Beresford, R W Johnson, South Africa, Zimbabwe on May 18, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
David Beresford, longtime Johannesburg correspondent for The Guardian, unpacks RW Johnson’s (remember him?) research methods in his (Johnson not Beresford’s) new book, “South Africa’s Brave New World: The Beloved Country Since the End of Apartheid,” published last year. Johnson writes libelous things about the dead because they can’t sue, according to Beresford. And then there’s [...]
the American novel
Posted in Books, tagged Books, Gays and Lesbians, James Hannaham, novels, sexuality on May 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
‘… “There are a lot of novels out there that make you think America is England, you know? …”That book is sort of—it’s dark green, and there’s a very sort of sensuous but depressing-looking cover: a photograph, there’s like a blurry thing in the distance. It’s a beach maybe, and the title describes a relationship [...]
Nadine Gordimer–from the archives
Posted in Books, tagged apartheid, from the archives, Nadime Gordimer, Nobel Prize on May 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Posted with vodpod From the archives. A clip from a longer interview with writer Nadine Gordimer in 2005. And in October 1982 in a talk entitled “Living in the Interregnum,” (one of my favorite pieces of writing on the conundrum of South Africa, that despite the context changing, still remains relevant) she told an audience [...]
remembering Ken Saro Wiwa
Posted in Books, tagged Egypt, Ken Saro Wiwa, Ken Wiwa, literature, Nawal El Saadawi, Nigeria, Pen American Center, Pen World Voices, politics, writers on April 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
With his son, Ken Wiwa, on Saturday at the annual Pen World Voices Festival of International Literature. Also, on the program, Egyptian novelist, psychiatrist, and activist Nawal El Saadawi, giving a lecture on Sunday.
Thabo Mbeki and his father’s people
Posted in Books, tagged Books, Govan Mbeki, Jacob Zuma, politics, South Africa, Thabo Mbeki on April 29, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Excerpt from former New York Times Johannesburg correspondent Suzanne Daley’s review of Mark Gevisser’s book of the former South African President, “A Legacy of Liberation: Thabo Mbeki and the Future of the South African Dream”: [Here is] the description of the funeral of Mbeki’s father in 2001. Govan Mbeki, who had been more activist than [...]
‘new stories. new perspectives. new African writers’
Posted in Books, tagged Books, fiction, literary magazines, The Literary Review on April 29, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The Winter 2009 issue of The Literature Review is themed “Africa Calling” and is guest edited by Jeffery Renard Allen, features work by African writers writing in English. Contributions by Siphiwo Mahala, Parul Sehgal, Victor Ehikhamenor, Jackee Batanda, Chika Unigwe, Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, Esi Edugyan, Stanley Gazemba, Zed Houndete, Oghenerukevwe Jennifer Agbatutu, Brian Chikwava, Mildred [...]
the writer and the new South Africa
Posted in Books, tagged 22 April 2009 elections, Books, Damon Galgut, South Africa, The Imposter on April 19, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Novelist Damon Galgut interviewed in The Boston Globe: Q. You grew up in apartheid South Africa and live in post-apartheid South Africa. How does that influence your writing? A. It’s hard to say. Any radical change or trauma always makes for interesting subject matter, but then all stories deal, to some extent, with the disjuncture [...]
Dr. Beetroot
Posted in Books, tagged AIDS, Anso Thom, Books, Kerry Cullinan, The Virus, Vitamins & Vegetables on April 16, 2009 | Comments Off
New book edited by a friend of mine.
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