boswestblog.com

The Sunday Times has published a piece of mine on the South African English literary marketplace - it appeared today, on p. 21 of the second section (”Insight”).

• Read the piece: Tongue Tied Literature by Ben Oswest (Sunday Times)

For anyone looking for the text of the speech that Ingrid de Kok gave at the launch of my novel, I’ve temporarily “unpublished” it, so she can re-work it as a review for another Sunday newspaper. As soon as it’s been published, I’ll re-post the text. (Update - 9 July - I’ve republished it - click here.)

Cat: The Review

Tags: Ben Oswest, South Africa, South African Literature, Sunday Times, The Review

√       

Today’s Cape Times published an excerpt from my novel in its Review section, running the first few pages of Chapter One (”Jonah“). The Review ’s headline, “Fascinating novel takes look at scholastic life”, is somewhat off-target, given a conventional reading of the term “scholastic” - but I clearly can’t have any quibbles with the phrase’s other adjective.

The Review is unfortunately not online, so can’t be linked to. The newspaper paper had three excerpts to choose from; here is one of the two that weren’t published:

Keep reading »

Cat: The Review

Tags: Ben Oswest, Cape Times, Fiction, South Africa, South African Literature, The New Suffolk Hymnbook, The Review

√       

Here is the second of the two excerpts mentioned in the previous post:

Keep reading »

Cat: The Review

Tags: Ben Oswest, Fiction, South Africa, South African Literature, The New Suffolk Hymnbook, The Review

√       

a haiku by Gus Ferguson

Refusing to tip
the parking attendant,
she bought him a latte.

Keep reading »

Cat: Black Scotsman

Tags: Black Scotsman, Doggerel, Gus Ferguson, Haiku, Poetry, South Africa, South African Literature

√       

Today’s Sunday Independent ran a review, by the South African poet Ingrid de Kok, of The New Suffolk Hymnbook (Jacana/Snail Press, 2006), which was based on her introduction of the novel at its 19 June Cape Town Book Fair launch. The review is available online to the Independent’s subscribers only - click here for the story if you subscribe - but here is the full text of de Kok’s original speech:

The New Suffolk Hymnbook Considered
by Ingrid de Kok

It is a pleasure to be participating in the launch of The New Suffolk Hymnbook. I read Ben Oswest’s novel some years ago in manuscript form, and thought then that it was a startling and unique achievement. On a second reading, I feel even more intrigued and impressed. I can’t pretend to claim that I entirely understand this radical book - but I think one of the purposes of the book is to confront the very idea of “entire understanding” . At the same time as it engages us every step of its way, the book questions the solidity of its own surfaces and the nature of its own evidence. It dislodges expectation and leaves one half knowing, half confused, as if in a dream whose meaning is elusive but full of portents.

• Purchase a copy ofThe New Suffolk Hymnbook.

Keep reading »

Cat: The Review

Tags: Ben Oswest, Cape Town, Cape Town Book Fair, Cape Town International Book Fair, Ingrid de Kok, Jacana, Snail Press, South Africa, South African Literature, Sunday Independent, The New Suffolk Hymnbook, The Review

√       

Today’s Sunday Times ran a brief response to my opinion piece on the South African English literary marketplace. Here’s the link:

• Language tightrope (letter to the editor by Johann Rossouw)

Cat: The Margin

Tags: Ben Oswest, Johann Rossouw, South Africa, South African Literature, Sunday Times, The Margin

√       

Offices, 5th Floor

Cape Town, South Africa. Single exposure (Nikon 990), “raw�? jpeg - no editing, cropping, “developing�?, etc.

Cat: N.R. Studios

Tags: Ben Oswest, Cape Town, N.R. Studios, Nieu Riktus, South Africa

√       

Mary Watson, South African author of Moss, a collection of short stories (Kwela, 2004), has won the prestigious £10,000 Caine Prize for African Writing. The prize was awarded for the story “Jungfrau”, the opening piece in Moss.

Andre Brink & Mary Watson at the recent Cape Town Book Fair

Keep reading »

Cat: The Margin

Tags: Caine Prize, Jungfrau, Kwela, Mary Watson, Moss, Short Stories, South Africa, South African Literature, The Margin

√       

The Wordsworth Books at the Gardens Centre is hosting Mike Nicol and Joanne Hichens, authors of the Cape Town crime novel Out to Score (Umuzi, 2006), this Saturday at 10 a.m. For more information, phone Wordsworth on (021) 461 8464, alternatively the Centre on (021) 465 1841.

Cat: The Margin

Tags: Cape Town, Fiction, Gardens Centre, Joanne Hichens, Mike Nicol, Out to Score, South Africa, South African Literature, The Margin, Umuzi, Wordsworth Books

√       

South African writer and poet Denis Hirson will read from his 1986 novel, The House Next Door to Africa (David Philip/New Africa Books) at Cape Town’s Labia Theatre on Wednesday, 2 August, at 6 p.m.

Clarke’s Bookshop will be on hand with a selection of Hirson’s books for sale and signing. He is also the author of two memoirs, I Remember King Kong (The Boxer) and We Walk Straight So You Better Get Out the Way (both Jacana titles).

RSVP to Morgan Vesty by 28 July: morgan@newafricabooks.co.za, (021) 674 4136.

From the reviewers:

Keep reading »

Cat: The Margin

Tags: Cape Town, Clarkes Bookshop, David Philip, Denis Hirson, Fiction, Jacana, Michael Wade, Morgan Vesty, New Africa Books, New Writing Partnership, South Africa, South African Literature, The House Next Door, The Margin

√       

On the day of his 88th birthday, a book of poems commemorating Nelson Mandela’s life and times has been launched at London’s South Africa House by Aflame Books.

Keep reading »

Cat: The Margin

Tags: Aflame Books, Andrew Motion, Anthologies, Dennis Brutus, Gerrit Fourie, Halala Madiba, Jeremy Cronin, John Matshikiza, Madiba, Mongane Serote, Nelson Mandela, Ntozake Shange, Poetry, Richard Bartlett, Seamus Heaney, South Africa, South Africa House, South African Literature, The Margin, Trafalgar Square, Wole Soyinka

√       

by Ben Oswest

You girls are thin
because you smoke
and drink cappuccino
but don’t drink Coke
if you know what I mean.

Keep reading »

Cat: Black Scotsman

Tags: Ben Oswest, Black Scotsman, Cape Town, Lament at Le Petit Paris Cafe, Le Petit Paris, Poetry, South Africa, South African Literature

√       

Carapace no. 59 is out; as the magazine has no website, Boswestblog steps into the breach (with permission from publisher & editor). Two poems:

Haiku

The poet’s wife -
when the car won’t start
she calls the neighbour.

Slakkie van der Schyffe

—–

Keep reading »

Cat: Black Scotsman

Tags: Black Scotsman, Box, Carapace, Clarkes Bookshop, Ethelwyn Rebelo, Gus Ferguson, Haiku, Ingrid de Kok, Little Magazines, Mike Alfred, Mteto Mzongwana, Poetry, Roger Freemantle, Slakkie van der Schyffe, South Africa, South African Literature, South African Poetry

√       

Chicago Cultural Center

Chicago, IL, USA. Single exposure (Nikon 990), “raw�? jpeg - no editing, cropping, “developing�?, etc.

Cat: N.R. Studios

Tags: Ben Oswest, Chicago, Chicago Cultural Center, N.R. Studios, Nieu Riktus

√       

It was Leila Khaled Hijacker, a relatively new documentary, and Leila Khaled herself - the “Che Guevara of the Palestinians” - was there for a post-screening discussion. She hijacked one plane in the late-60s, and attempted to hijack another in the early-70s, as a member of the secular Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and was catapulted to fame, aided by her beauty and audacity. Today, she is revered as a hero by millions, especially in the pan-Arab world.

The object of her missions was publicity for the Palestinian cause, which until then, she says in the film, had gone largely ignored in the mainstream media. From that point of view, both operations were a success - unless you take the line, like the Swedish Palestinian filmmaker, that Khaled and her comrades gave the Palestinians a “bad reputation” through their acts. (No one was killed in the PFLP hijackings, the second round of which were coordinated across four filghts, Khaled’s being the only one that didn’t come off; planes were landed in friendly territory, then, after everyone had disembarked, spectacularly blown up.)

Leila Khaled and Dennis Davis

Keep reading »

Cat: The Margin

Tags: Cape High Court, Cape Town, Dennis Davis, Dennis Goldberg, Dullah Omar, Ebrahim Rasool, Encounters International Documentary Film Festival, Farieda Omar, Israel, Lebanon, Leila Khaled, Long Walk to Freedom, Middle East, Nelson Mandela, Palestine, PFLP, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Siraj Desai, South Africa, Tasneem Essop, The Margin

√       

BC 2003 is a book club that would find much favor with Emily and Florence of Little Britain, for it is entirely composed of ladies. I was privileged enough to join their beau monde last evening, where a supper of spicy tomato soup was slurped up (delicious, Claudia - thank you), a few pages of The New Suffolk Hymnbook were read, and outrage over the absolutism of “C-Section only” gynaes was expressed.

The club is run like a stokvel: each member contributes R50/month to the pot, and the monthly sum then rotates among them, giving each the chance to buy five or six books she’s had an eye on, and simultaneously build up the club’s library (which travels from meeting to meeting, via car boot, in cardboard boxes). I was happy to see a few new local titles in the mix, including K. Sello Duiker’s The Hidden Star and Coldsleep Lullaby by Andrew Brown. On behalf of writers in South Africa, thanks for the support, BC 2003 - may other clubs follow your lead.

BC 2003

Cat: The Margin

Tags: Andrew Brown, BC 2003, Ben Oswest, Book Clubs, Cape Town, Coldsleep Lullaby, K. Sello Duiker, South Africa, The Margin, The New Suffolk Hymnbook, Thirteen Cents

√       

a haiku by Sue Clark

Ten minutes away
the exotic trading store.
Who needs to travel?

Cat: Black Scotsman

Tags: Black Scotsman, Cape Town, Fargo Trading Store, Haiku, Poetry, Salt River, South Africa, South African Poetry, Sue Clark

√