The proprietor of Kalk Bay Books‘ latest Sunday Times column:
Among the mis-conceptions I had on opening a bookshop was that I’d have time to read all the books I wanted to, and that there would be a never-ending supply of them.
It’s true that new books arrive every week, but there is also the deep frustration of knowing I will read only a fraction of them.
My sense of hopeless-ness is compounded when I consider that the concept of “new” books is a relative one. As Samuel Butler observed: “The oldest books are still only just out to those who have not read them.”
Alert! This notice about the late K Sello Duiker’s novels from Isobel Dixon via Facebook:
Strong foreign interest in the late K. Sello Duiker’s novels has resulted in sales of THIRTEEN CENTS to France (Editions Yago), Norway (Solum) and Egypt (GEBO) as well as of THE QUIET VIOLENCE OF DREAMS to Germany (Das Wunderhorn).
THE QUIET VIOLENCE OF DREAMS, which was longlisted for IMPAC Literary Award 2003, is a daring novel giving a startling account of contemporary South African urban culture. From the corridors of the Valkenberg mental hospital, to the strange comfort of the male escort agency he works for, Tshepho’s story is raw, powerful and original. It was first published in South Africa in English by Kwela Books in 2001 and was also translated into Dutch by De Geus in 2003.
Alert! The London Book Fair may be several months away, but a veritable army of South African writers have already booked their tickets. In several cases, of course, we’re talking bus tickets, because many an SA scribe lives or works in the UK, and won’t have much to do to get to Earl’s Court, where the Fair takes place. But literally dozens of others will be packing for the long-haul flight from JNB to LHR come the tail end of April 2010.
BOOK SA understands that the following authors have given commitments (ranging from tentative to firm) to be part of the LBF’s South Africa Market Focus programme:
What a lineup – it’s going to be one heck of a party! (Plus, several other authors who’ve been invited are still deciding whether they can make the trip.) BOOK SA will be there, of course – and we can’t wait to bring all the action to our readers online.
For Londoners who want to get to know these authors better, a sampling of their works:
Alert! At the weekend, VC Netwox Book Club founder Pinky Khoabane turned to matters of literature in her regular Sunday Times column.
She attended author Lewis Nkosi’s recent birthday party – where she observed that the writer’s health and spirits, after a bad fall earlier this year, are not in the best of shape (in some contrast to the statements in a recent press release issued by his agent). There, she met the wife of the late poet Mazisi Kunene, and learned that the latter is considering taking Kunene’s archives out of South Africa, that they might be better preserved.
Between the frail Nkosi and the possibly disappearing Kunene, Khoabane was struck by a feeling that, in South Africa, we’re allowing our cultural heritage to fall into decay. Keep it alive, she says:
Should we be outraged that Mathabo Kunene, the wife of one of Africa’s literary giants and South Africa’s first poet laureate, the late Professor Mazisi Kunene, is contemplating approaching the University of California, where he worked for 19 years, regarding the preservation of his works?
Not out of choice or from a lack of trying to have the material archived here, but because there isn’t the interest and commitment in this country to preserving what should be our treasured cultural property.
Mathabo Kunene made the startling revelation at a gathering to celebrate the birthday of another of our literary elders, Professor Lewis Nkosi, whose debilitating health seems to have been lost to our media. Nkosi fell and injured his head in June and, despite several operations, his speech is affected and he is confined to a wheelchair.
Alert! BOOK SA received this press release from Sandile Ngidi, author Lewis Nkosi’s literary agent, which was sent out in response to David van Wyk’s recent post about Nkosi’s purported critical medical condition. According to Ngidi, Nkosi is in relatively fine fettle, and ready to celebrate his 73rd this Saturday (tomorrow):
Press release
Author Lewis Nkosi on Road to Recovery
Contrary to a chain email message currently in circulation in the literary news portal Book Southern Africa, the renowned South African writer and distinguished literary critic Lewis Nkosi, is not in a coma in hospital.
Nkosi is recovering in a frail care facility in Johannesburg, and is looking forward to celebrating his birthday this coming weekend. The author of Mating Birds, Underground People, and Mandela’s Ego, among others, turns 73 on Saturday.
Born in Chesterville township, near Durban, Nkosi who lives in Switzerland, returned to South Africa in May this year when he took ill in early July. He was working on his long-awaited memoirs tentatively entitled, Memoirs of a Motherless Child, a project we hope he will still be able to complete in the near future.
His fourth novel, After, is due for publication in 2010. “I am just trying to get the best way of ending it off with a bang,” Nkosi said recently.
On the eve of Nkosi’s birthday, literary scholars and friends alike, wish only the best for one of Africa’s sharpest and enduring literary figures. US-based South African literary scholar Ntongela Masilela, said “ You gave us a historical intellect and a critical imagination not only to understand our South Africanness but also to negotiate it in relation to the continent and to the African Diaspora; or for that matter, to articulate it in our interaction with the rest of the world.
In enabling us to construct our cultural voice in the present moment, you simultaneously connected us to our modern cultural history which stretches from S. E. K. Mqhayi through Ernest Mancoba and Kippie Moeketsi to Mazisi Kunene.”
Friend and former musical director of the world-renowned South African musical, King Kong, Stanley (Spike) Glasser and his wife Liz, said: “To our brother Nkosi: Get better quickly, you Zulu! We want to see you.”
Meanwhile, in a poem, dear friend and leading publisher Annari van der Merwe, said: “So what if he sometimes knew no bounds? It enabled him to write stuff that still dumbfounds. So what if he was sometimes irresponsible and wild? He made us smile and had us all beguiled.”
In line with the wishes of Lewis Nkosi’s family, we kindly urge that matters relating to the author’s health be communicated in consultation with Talk To Me Literary Agency and Nkosi’s family. We nonetheless appreciate the support Nkosi’s friends and fellow writers have given him since he took ill.
Alert! BOOK SA’s own Phillippa Yaa de Villiers is hosting a conversation with writers this Saturday at the David Krut bookstore at Arts on Main, on the fringe of the Johannesburg CBD.
Alert! Poet and novelist Yvette Christiansë is returning to South Africa briefly later this month – and Kalk Bay Books has capitalised by organising a poetry reading with her and Ingrid de Kok.
The proprietor of Kalk Bay Books‘ latest Sunday Times column:
