Alert!SA PEN has issued its call for entries for the £10 000 2011 PEN/Studzinsky Literary Awards – which are judged by JM Coetzee – and has announced that Margie Orford is set to replace Shaun Johnson on the PEN executive.
In a not-altogether-welcome shift of policy, SA PEN has reverted to the geographical scope of its award that was in place before it secured sponsorship from current benefactor John Studzinski. That is, only residents of SADC’s fifteen countries may enter, whereas the inaugural award was open to the whole of Africa. (See the press release below for the full list of eligible countries.) Happily, the lack of any age restriction on entrants appears to remain intact.
3 000 to 5 000 word short fiction entries in English are invited from 1 March 2010; submission details will be posted to the SA PEN website on that date; no final closing deadline appears to have yet been set.
Here’s the complete press release from SA PEN:
2011 PEN/STUDZINSKI LITERARY AWARDS
Entries invited from 1 March 2010
The South African Centre of International PEN (SA PEN) is pleased to announce the launch of the second in the series of PEN/STUDZINSKI Literary Awards.
Entries for the award for original short stories in English are called for from 1 March 2010 and AFRICAN PENS, a compilation of the short-listed stories, will be published in mid-2011.
Prizes totalling £10 000 will once again be donated by American philanthropist and global investment banker, John Studzinski. The first, second and third prizes will be £5 000, £3 000 and £2 000, respectively.
Nobel Laureate and SA PEN Honorary Member, J.M. Coetzee, will once again select the winning entries.
The 2011 PEN/STUDZINSKI Literary Award aims to encourage creative writing in southern Africa and will offer talented writers an exciting opportunity to launch or develop a literary career. Twelve contributors to our earlier HSBC/SA PEN series have now published their own books, including Ceridwen Dovey who won the 2008 Sunday Times Fiction Prize. Petina Gappah, an early winner, went on to sign a three-book contract with Faber & Faber in the UK and Farrar Strauss & Giroux in the US. Three of the five short-listed stories for the Caine prize for African Writing first appeared in AFRICAN PENS 2007 – the model for AFRICAN PENS 2011. The story POISON, set in a threatened Cape Town, and written by author Henrietta Rose-Innes, was chosen by J.M, Coetzee as the winner of the 2007 HSBC/SA PEN Literary Award and it went on to win the 2008 Caine Prize of £10 000.
Our 2009 project, led by author Shaun Johnson, received over 800 entries from writers throughout Africa, but this year we revert to appealing only to writers living in the fifteen countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC*). The genre is still the short-story, this time between 3 000 and 5 000 words.
SA PEN is pleased to announce that author Margie Orford has agreed to take Shaun’s place on the SA PEN executive and that the Editorial Board for the 2011 award will comprise:
Anthony Fleischer (Chairman), novelist and President of SA PEN Dianne Case, popular children’s author John Gardener, English teacher, retired Head of Kingswood College & Bishops, published numerous articles and Bishops’ 150 year history of the school Jeremy Lawrence, writer who has worked in journalism and publishing in London and South Africa Adré Marshall, retired academic, author of book on Henry James and sundry poems, translator (French/English) Peter Merrington, novelist, professor extraordinaire at the University of the Western Cape, ceramicist and motorcyclist Margie Orford, writer and sometime journalist Anne Schuster, novelist, poet, creative writing facilitator and publisher J.M. Coetzee – Nobel Laureate (Final judge)
Writers who are citizens of SADC countries* are encouraged to prepare short stories for submission. Further information and detailed rules of entry will be posted on the SA PEN website, www.sapen.co.za, from the 1 March 2010. Previous publications featuring the shortlisted and winning stories from the 2005, 2006 and 2007 HSBC/SA PEN, and 2009 PEN/STUDZINSKI Literary Awards are: AFRICAN COMPASS (2005, New Africa Books), AFRICAN ROAD (2006, New Africa Books), AFRICAN PENS (2007, New Africa Books), NEW WRITING FROM AFRICA 2009 (2009, Johnson & KingJames Books).
* SADC countries: Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Alert! In an effort to raise funds for earthquake victims in Haiti, author Greg McQueen has taken it upon himself to compile a book of 100 stories from the pens of writers who hail all across the globe.
It’s called, appropriately enough, 100 Stories for Haiti, and amongst the 100 is Botswana’s own Lauri Kubuitsile, who contributes “Birds of a Feather” – “a humorous story about a woman who joins a birding club in Gaborone because the man she loves is a big bird watcher, whilst she is not”. Along with Kubuitsile, SA’s Claudia Boers sends words to Haiti from Africa, contributing “Anna and Nineteen”.
100 Stories for Haiti is being published in early March by the UK’s Bridge House Publishing, with an e-dition debuting from Smashwords around the same time. Here’s the blurb:
100 Stories for Haiti is a unique collection of stories bound together by paper and glue and massive amounts of hope. This is no ordinary book. One morning a writer woke up and decided, “I must do something.” Hundreds of talented authors worldwide sent him their stories and the result is an anthology that anyone can enjoy.
Proceeds go to helping the victims of the Haiti earthquake. So open this book and pick a page. There’s nowhere to start and nowhere to finish. If you find one story, one page, one line entertaining: buy it.
Alexander McCall Smith, author of the ever-popular No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, has taken to opera. McCall Smith wrote the libretto for the recently premiered Okavango Macbeth, which draws sensitive comparisons between human society and baboon society. Watch a video on the production below:
It is a scene worthy of the gentle surrealism of a Mma Ramotswe story. In a converted garage, surrounded by thorny bushveld, Alexander McCall Smith, one of the world’s best-read authors, sits in his safari hat watching 20 opera singers playing baboons.
“The idea came to me when I was on holiday in the Okavango Delta and came across a group of American primatologists who had been studying baboon behaviour for 12 years,” he said of The Okavango Macbeth, which had its world premiere last night in front of a select audience of 56 people at the No 1 Ladies’ Opera House just outside Gaborone, the capital of Botswana. “Baboon society has some Lady Macbeth issues, in that ambitious individuals try to push others up the pecking order.”
The Double Comfort Safari Club: The New No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency Novel by Alexander McCall Smith EAN: 9780375424502 Find this book with BOOK Finder!
DIBUKA, the Alliances Françaises (Johannesburg, Pretoria and Gabarone) along with the Lycée Française in Johannesburg are celebrating literature this November in Johannesburg, Pretoria and Gaborone with a number of events.
The program is hosted with the support of the French Institute of South Africa and will include book signings, talks with authors as well as an exhibition.
Here’s the Lire en Fête lineup – pick your pleasure and enjoy!
11 NOVEMBER @ 20:00 | SCREENING | JOHANNESBURG On tour in South Africa to present their book AFRICA TREK published in South Africa byJacana Media, Sonia & Alexandre POUSSIN will be present at the screening of their movieAFRICA TREK(both in English and French). The movie retraces the journey of these two French people who walked through the African continent for 3 years. The screening will be followed by a discussion with the authors. The cocktail is offered by Hitec.
Limited seats, booking is essential | Pauline on 011 646 1169 Alliance Française of Johannesburg, Cnr Kerry Road & Lower Park Drive, Parkview
12 NOVEMBER @ 19:15 | EXHIBITION | PRETORIA Launch of the exhibition ‘SCBWI– ILLUSTRATEURS DE JEUNESSE‘ showcasing children’s book illustrations by South African artists.
13 – 27 November 2009 08:30 – 19:30 (Mon – Thurs) | 08:30 – 13:00 (Fri) | 09:00 – 12:30 (Sat) Alliance Française of Pretoria, 99 Rivier St (cnr de Kock), Sunnyside
13 NOVEMBER @ 18:00 | BOOK SALE & STORYTELLING | JOHANNESBURG Following its first visit last year, the French book store ‘LA BOUCHERIE’ andUnipresseare back with a wider selection of French books on sale. This evening will also feature theFREEKY FRIDAY NIGHTwith scary storytelling by IZINDABA and fresh bloody cocktails!
Alliance Française of Johannesburg, Cnr Kerry Road & Lower Park Drive, Parkview
14 NOVEMBER @ 9:00 & 10:30 | BOOK SALE & ENCOUNTERS | JOHANNESBURG From 9:00, you will be able to buy French books from the French book store ‘La Boucherie’ and Unipresse.
At 10:30,Deon MEYER(RSA) andLouis SANDERS(France), two internationally renowned crime thriller writers, will meet and discuss.
Alliance Française of Johannesburg, Cnr Kerry Road & Lower Park Drive, Parkview
16 – 17 NOVEMBER | BOOK SALE | JOHANNESBURG The French book store ‘La Boucherie’ and Unipresse will showcase and sell books in French and in English at theLycée Français of Johannesburg.
Lycée Français of Johannesburg, Corner Bauhinia and Cestrum, Morningside Ext 40
18 – 19 NOVEMBER | BOOK SALE & WORKSHOPS | PRETORIA The French book store ‘La Boucherie’ and Unipresse will showcase and sell books in French.Free workshopsfor young pupils with kids’ writers and illustrators (bookings essential).
Alliance Française of Pretoria, 99 Rivier St (cnr de Kock), Sunnyside
21 NOVEMBER | BOOK SALE | GABORONE The French bookstore ‘La Boucherie’ and Unipresse will showcase and sell books in French in the capital of Botswana.
Alliance Française of Gaborone, cnr Mobuto Drive and Pudulogo Crescent Opposite the old main entrance of the University of Botswana (UB)
Alert! This Saturday, the 7th of November, marks the 17th anniversary of International African Writers Day. The day was originally initiated by the the Pan African Writers’ Association (PAWA).
To celebrate, the wRite Associates have put together a programme at Newtown’s MuseumAfrica featuring Zimbabwean author Shimmer Chinodya, Botswanan author and performer Mbali Kgosidintsi and South Africa’s own Oswald Mbuyiseni Mtshali. They will address the theme “Reflections on the contribution of African writers to the development of the Continent”.
The free event has been made possible by the Sylt Foundation / Jozi Art:Lab, Talk To Me Music (ditto?) and of course the museum itself, in addition to the wRite Associates. Here are the details:
Alexander McCall Smith reflects on the impact that his No. 1 Ladies Detective series has had on the way Africa is perceived in other parts of the world – a series that has gained even greater popularity since the launch of it’s TV counterpart, with US actress and R&B singer Jill Scott playing the lead:
As the main character in Alexander McCall Smith’s series The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, Mma Ramotswe has also brought fame to Botswana and its capital Gaborone, where her story is located.
Now comprising 10 books with more than 20 million copies sold worldwide, a film directed by the late Anthony Minghella in 2008, and a subsequent BBC series also shown in the United States and Africa, the success of Mma Ramotse had, nonetheless, simple origins.
McCall Smith remembers on his website that during a visit in Botswana, while taking a walk, “I met a woman who gave a chicken to the people with whom I was staying. I remember thinking at the time: This is a remarkable woman, I wonder what her life story is.”
Reflecting on the success of his books during a visit to Gaborone last week, Scottish author McCall Smith told the German Press Agency he also believes readers have grown tired of the stock portrayal of Africa as violent and corrupt.
“The normal portrayal of Africa is one of a continent in failure, but there is another side to the picture,” he said.
Mantel pipped JM Coetzee to the £50 000 post – he was on a hat trick riding a horse called Summertime – and ushers in a new era for the prize: one in which judges become winners. Mantel was a judge in 1990 when AS Byatt won for Possession; now she’s bested the master, who counted this time as a fellow shortlistee (for The Children’s Book).
Surprisingly, Mantel has a strong connection with southern Africa: she lived in Botswana for five years, after her husband got a job with a geological survey there. Another fact you possibly didn’t know: she is a former recipient of the obscure Shiva Naipaul Prize, named for the Nobel laureate’s brother and awarded by The Spectator for “the most acute and profound observation of a culture alien to the writer”. This wasn’t, in fact, for work related to Africa, but for an article she wrote on Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where she also lived. (An aside: Shiva Naipaul’s book on Africa, North of South – which apparently inspired the prize – is about the worst piece of writing I’ve ever laid eyes on; yet it resonated with Mantel, according to one interview.)
Wolf Hall reimagines the life of Thomas Cromwell, the son of lowly English parishoner who rose to become King Henry VIII’s chief minister from 1532 to 1540 – and also the antagonist of Sir Thomas More, as memorably depicted in the play A Man for All Seasons. Count Wolf Hall as another of More’s progeny, then.
Read an excerpt from the book:
Summer arrives with no intermission for spring, promptly on a Monday morning, like a new servant with a shining face: 13th April. He, Cromwell, is at Lambeth, with Audley and Archbishop Cranmer; as the sun shines strongly through the windows, he stands looking down at the palace gardens. This is how the book Utopia begins: friends, talking in a garden. On the paths below, Hugh Latimer and some of the King’s chaplains are play-fighting, pulling each other around like schoolboys, Hugh hanging around the necks of two of his clerical fellows so his feet swing off the ground. All they need is a football to make a proper holiday of it. “Master More,” Cromwell says, “why don’t you go out and enjoy the sunshine? And we’ll call for you again in half an hour, and put the oath to you again: and you’ll give us a different answer, yes?”
He hears More’s joints creak as he stands. Parliament’s late-night sittings and a fresh row every day have tired him, but sharpened his senses too, so he is aware that in the room behind him Cranmer is working himself into a terrible anxiety; Cromwell wants More out of the room before the dam breaks.
“I don’t know what you think a half-hour will do for me,” More says. His tone is easy, bantering. “Of course, it might do something for you.”
More had asked to see a copy of the Act of Succession. Now Audley unrolls it, bends his head, and begins reading, though he has read it a dozen times. “Very well,” More says. “But I trust I have made myself clear. I cannot swear, but I will not speak against your oath, and I will not try to dissuade anyone else from it.”
Here’s the official Booker Prize interview with the author, who, rather randomly, as a shortlistee, gets a year’s membership at the private Groucho Club in Soho, London (think she’ll meet fellow honorary member JM Coetzee there, maybe buy him a tough-luck pint?):
There is an anecdote Hilary Mantel tells, about herself at six, and “a little girl in my class putting her hand up and saying, ‘Miss! My mother says there’s no such person as the devil.’ And I remember thinking through all sides of the question. I thought: her mother’s told her that because she’s having nightmares. And Miss doesn’t know what to say! Because how can she say, ‘Your mother was wrong’? It was the most delicious moment.”
Her large pale eyes look intent, and mischievous. “But of course, I did myself believe in the devil. I just thought I was made of stronger stuff than that little girl.”
She tells it because she is trying to illustrate how her writing mind works, the ambivalences, the watching and weighing – but it also says much about her: about her Catholic upbringing, her tar-black sense of humour, her role, always, as the marginal watcher, the defiance and will to survive that she has imparted to her most recent character.
Hilary Mantel is tonight (Tuesday 6 October) named the winner of the £50,000 Man Booker Prize for Fiction for Wolf Hall, published by Fourth Estate.
Wolf Hall has been the bookies’ favourite since the longlist was announced in July, with William Hill taking over 90% of all Man Booker Prize bets on her book.
Wolf Hall was picked from a shortlist of heavy hitting literary authors including Sarah Waters, A.S. Byatt and J.M. Coetzee – who would have been the first person to win the prize three times. Hilary Mantel was herself a judge for the prize in 1990 when A.S. Byatt’s Possession won.
Wolf Hall is set in the 1520s and tells the story of Thomas Cromwell’s rise to prominence in the Tudor court. Hilary Mantel has been praised by critics for writing ‘a rich, absorbingly readable historical novel; she has made a significant shift in the way any of her readers interested in English history will henceforward think about Thomas Cromwell.’ (The Spectator)
This is the first time the publisher Fourth Estate has had a Man Booker Prize winner. They have previously published three shortlisted books – Nicola Barker’s Darkmans (2007) and Carol Shields’ novels Unless (2002) and The Stone Diaries (1993).
Hilary Mantel spent five years writing Wolf Hall and she is currently working on a sequel.
James Naughtie, Chair of the judges, made the announcement, which was broadcast by the BBC from the awards dinner at London’s Guildhall. Peter Clarke, Chief Executive of Man Group plc, presented Hilary Mantel with a cheque for £50,000.
James Naughtie, comments ‘Hilary Mantel has given us a thoroughly modern novel set in the 16th century. Wolf Hall has a vast narrative sweep that gleams on every page with luminous and mesmerising detail.
‘It probes the mysteries of power by examining and describing the meticulous dealings in Henry VIII’s court, revealing in thrilling prose how politics and history is made by men and women.
‘In the words of Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell, whose story this is, “the fate of peoples is made like this, two men in small rooms. Forget the coronations, the conclaves of cardinals, the pomp and processions. This is how the world changes.” ‘
Over and above her prize of £50,000, Hilary Mantel can expect a huge increase in sales and recognition worldwide. Each of the six shortlisted authors, including the winner, receives £2,500 and a designer-bound edition of their book. This year, shortlisted authors will also receive a year’s membership to The Groucho Club in London.
The judging panel for the 2009 Man Booker Prize for Fiction was: broadcaster and author James Naughtie (Chair); Lucasta Miller, biographer and critic; Michael Prodger, Literary Editor of The Sunday Telegraph; Professor John Mullan, academic and author and Sue Perkins, comedian and broadcaster.
Sales related to the Man Booker Prize have been exceptionally strong this year. More than double the number of copies of books have been sold between longlist and shortlist announcement, and from shortlist announcement to winner announcement, compared to last year.
Botswana’s Sheridan Griswold attended the first All-Africa Writer’s Conference in Kampala, Uganda, in 1962. With him were the likes of Chinua Achebe, JP Clark, Christopher Okigbo, Wole Soyinka, Ali Mazuri, Rebeka Njau, Okot p’Bitek, John Nagenda, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Es’kia Mphahelele, Lewis Nkosi – and Rajat Neogy, who was the founding editor of Transition magazine, which is now edited at the WEB. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University.
Going for nearly 50 years now, the literary journal has a proud legacy of representing the literary arts of “Africa and the Majority World”. Griswold published this appreciation of the magazine in a recent edition of Mmegi:
In these pages we have recognised a few other quality serial publications such as Granta and Botswana Notes and Records. Honouring Transition is long overdue – it will soon be 50 years old as an eminent literary journal for Africa and the Majority World. Transition began in Kampala, Uganda, in 1961, the year before independence. The decade of independence in African South of the Sahara had begun with Ghana in 1957 and Nigeria in 1960. Tanganyika was to follow in 1961 and Uganda in 1962. The first All-Africa Writer's Conference was held in Kampala in July 1962 at Makerere University College, partially as a result of the impact of Transition.
Ironically, that pioneering Mbari gathering was sponsored by the Congress for Cultural Freedom that was also backing Transition and Black Orpheus in Ibadan, Nigeria. Ironic, because later it was revealed the Congress was a US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) front (designed to support left-of-centre intellectualism and development in Africa South of the Sahara). The Mbari Club had only just started in Nigeria in March 1961.
The first All-Africa Writer's Conference was attended by Rajat Neogy, the founding editor of Transition and a wide range of writers from Chinua Achebe, JP Clark, Christopher Okigbo and Wole Soyinka to Ali Mazuri, Rebeka Njau, Okot p'Bitek, John Nagenda, James Ngugi (to become Ngugi wa Thiong'o), Ezekiel Mphahelele, Lewis Nkosi and many others. It remains one of the most exciting gatherings I have ever attended.
Alert! SAfm books presenter Karabo Kgoleng has spent the past two weeks in France, attending the annual Printemps des Comédiens literary festival in Montpellier, which had an “Africa” theme this year. She filed these two fragments, born of the festival, with BOOK SA:
Lost in Pezenas
The French word for foreigner evokes the sentiment of estrangement. Je suis étranger en France. But that sentiment doesn’t extend to Pezenas; on my first day of losing myself in this quaint little town I felt an uncharacteristic sense of familiarity with the place. Perhaps it is borne out of my having fallen in love with French culture and history when I was a little girl in dusty Botswana, courtesy my French teacher, Madame Lamont.
I am South African and live in Johannesburg. Most reading this have read about my country and my home town, now I want to tell about yours. We are not used to old buildings in SA – ancient permanent structures are nature’s doing. Seeing a 14th century building that has been preserved with the utmost care was awe-striking. And it was incredibly humbling to walk into a shop and not be treated like I was coming to ask for a job or to slip something into my purse for free without the proprietor’s knowledge or permission. On stumbling into an English book shop I went completely insane. I found memories of my childhood among the literary curiosities in that little heaven. I was able to share my peculiar sense of humour with the divine Carol and I happily parted with 5 Euros for 3 fantastic books – a steal in my estimation. I bought a gorgeous white frock that shall have to wait for the South African summer, a ring with a treble clef as its centre piece, and incense; and I drank wine with an American gallerist/photographer man. I got lost in Pezenas and I am going to do it again. And as for Molière, well, need I say more? (more…)
Alert! Regional short fiction powerhouse Lauri Kubuitsile has won one of the three inaugural Baobab Prizes for works of fiction aimed at young readers. (more…)
Alert! SA PEN has issued its call for entries for the £10 000 2011 PEN/Studzinsky Literary Awards – which are judged by JM Coetzee – and has announced that Margie Orford is set to replace Shaun Johnson on the PEN executive.
Alexander McCall Smith reflects on the impact that his No. 1 Ladies Detective series has had on the way Africa is perceived in other parts of the world – a series that has gained even greater popularity since the launch of it’s TV counterpart, with US actress and R&B singer Jill Scott playing the lead:
Alert! Hilary Mantel has won the 
