Got shortlisted for the New Contrast Poetry Prize (ex-National Poetry Prize… poster didn’t get updated) for a poem that may upset some people, make others laugh, or go wah?
All poets will be reading their work and another poem on Monday evening (April Fools!) after which the winners will be announced.
Join us on ZOOM https://us02web.zoom.us/j/3881622255?pwd=QlhSRktjNWkyeThZY2s1aHFuZ2hkUT09
Got shortlisted for the National Poetry Prize… for a poem that may upset some people, make others laugh, or go wah?
All poets will be reading their work and another poem on Monday evening (April Fools!) after which the winners will be announced.
Join us on ZOOM https://us02web.zoom.us/j/3881622255?pwd=QlhSRktjNWkyeThZY2s1aHFuZ2hkUT09
Part 1: The reading
On the morning of the 14th of October 2023, I stood before a small audience in a place where silence is often kept. Silence in the pages of books before they are opened, before words tumble out and swirl into many doors and windows, entire worlds. It was a library with high ceilings, abundant with natural light, a public library in the centre of Cape Town, South Africa, the city I have come to love as my second home.
This was the first in a series of readings and launches in public libraries for my newly released books (two of which are South African editions of previous titles):
Bloodred Dragonflies (Deep South, Makhanda 2022 & San Anselmo Publications, Manila 2022)
Waking Up to the Pattern Left by a Snail Overnight (Gaudy Boy, New York 2023 & forthcoming from Ateneo de Manila University Press, Manila 2024)
Crocodiles in Belfast (Vhakololo Press, Limpopo 2023 & San Anselmo Publications, Manila 2020)
Sound Before Water (Minimal Press, Cape Town 2023 & UST Publishing House, Manila 2013).
Being with small independent publishers is a challenge for both the brave publisher and the author. One doesn’t have the backing of huge promotional campaign funds. There is no team to work with and throw ideas around, no long meetings on how to reach target audiences. It is a humble existence, and often solitary. But when one finds keen readers and listeners, one sees the most beautiful and magical of fireworks that do not just fade into darkness.
It was Robert Berold, highly-respected poet and owner of Deep South who encouraged me to find ways to share my new books. He said it is not every day that a poet finds him/herself with four new books in two years! It just never happens. But, shocked as I am, it has by chance happened to me! (Maybe I’ll write about how this came about at another time.) And now I have an obligation to these books, these paper children. I need to find them new homes with the little means I have at my disposal.
Thus, I decided to embark on this small journey by seeking to work with the kind and generous people who run the many public libraries in and around Cape Town. I have so far secured four events, three of them in November.
This one at the Central Library was a beautiful beginning to what I hope to be a unique journey. For a while, in that almost sacred space, I was allowed to break the silence.
I started with quiet poems about the struggle of small creatures, about hearts and distances conquered, before unleashing my gutter-like voice for a poem dressed up as a tribute to The Lord of the Rings, but was actually about the real tragedy of war and destruction. I then ended the reading with an old poem which appeared in Alien to Any Skin (UST Publishing House, Manila 2011), “The Side of Love, for Mahmoud Darwish”
The people who sat and listened looked very much entranced. They asked important questions in between the reading of the poems. Afterwards they repeatedly thanked me for sharing my work with them.
-o-
Part 2 to follow soon.
Go to Clarke’s Bookshop!
Clarke’s Bookshop on Long Street in Cape Town has most of the books. They’re wonderful and super helpful. Please get your books from them instead of snotty pretend book sellers that only stock imported so-called (manipulated as) bestsellers. Local authors really appreciate the few spaces they’re allowed. It’s unfair, but something for another day.
I should have shared this review as soon as it came out. But it was an insane year for me, 2022, and I’m just slowly catching up with what struck me then while still trying to chart an already halfway 2023.
Poet Sihle Ntuli wrote a generous review and I have no way of thanking him enough. Please click THIS LINK to read the entire review.
Here is a screenshot from Botsotso.
The book Bloodred Dragonflies took many years in the making. It took so long that I was beginning to doubt it would ever come out.
My Deep South publisher, Robert Berold, shared immense wisdom in shaping the final version of a book we felt we could be proud to share with the rest of the world. Or at least any reader of poetry who doesn’t just go for popularity or passing fads.
The book is available in South Africa through me, Robert, and at decent book sellers in the country. It is available in the Philippines through a special arrangement with San Anselmo Publications (order via their Facebook page). For the rest of the world it is distributed in hard copy and ebook format by the African Books Collective through their website. It is also available from other online retailers.
We had a Pre-launch Zoom event in April 2022. I never got around to editing the recording until yesterday. Apologies to all. I’ve posted it now on my YouTube channel, matangmanok. Please subscribe to the channel and consider sharing it. I hope to reach more readers using it.
I had a chance to share my poems online via two poetry platforms recently, one in April and the other just this month.
I’ll make shorter clips of these recorded readings one day.
HERE IS THE LINK TO MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL with the Zoom event hosted by Off the Wall Poetry.
Coming out of the shadows to introduce a new paper child to the world in the next few days (Cape Town for now!). Wondering who will be in the audience.
3 May with The Red Wheelbarrow at The Book Shoppe in Plumstead.
16 May with Off the Wall Poetry at A Touch of Madness Restaurant in Observatory.
Matangmanok 