UCT Summer School: Writers Reading

I believe there are still places available for next week’s UCT Summer School course, “Writers Reading: Favourite Recent Books“, 28 Jan – 1 Feb, 11.15 am.
The line-up is:
1. Michiel Heyns on: “An absence of love: three journeys around the self: In a Strange Room by Damon Galgut”
2. Finuala Dowling on: “Poems to find your way home by: Other Signs by Ingrid de Kok”
3. Imraan Coovadia on: “Contemporary Russian satire and werewolves: The Sacred Book of the Werewolf by Victor Pelevin”
4. Yewande Omotoso on: “The pains and solaces of twinhood: 26a by Diana Evans”
5. Henrietta Rose-Innes on: “Demanding ghosts: a psychic comedy: Beyond Black by Hilary
Mantel”

More info about Summer School here; download the brochure here.

Lost animals and a green lion at GIPCA

Next week, Tues 7th August, at GIPCA’s “5 Thoughts” event, I’ll be presenting a sample of the work I’ve been doing as a 2012 Fellow. I’ll be showing a series of wall-mounted texts on the topic of extinctions, touching on museums, zoos, lost animals and raising the dead. I’ll also be introducing my novel-in-progress, Green Lion.

Also presenting their exciting work – dance, photography, film and multi-media – will be GIPCA fellows Michael MacGarry, Richard Antrobus, Jared Thorne and Mamela Nyamza. See the full programme here. 5pm – 7pm, Hiddingh Hall, free entrance. The texts will be on display at the Michaelis Gallery.

Panthera leo melanochaitus © The Natural History Museum, London

Three recent interviews

I recently did three interviews on three excellent literary blogs. On Africa is a Country with Brett Davidson, and with Geoff Gyasi of Geosi Reads, I talked about Nineveh, writing, the Caine Prize, etc. And, here on Books LIVE, I submitted to the notorious “Proust Questionnaire”, administered by Alex Smith.

Rob Gaylard finds “comic, gothic, social realist” in Nineveh

I’m very pleased that  Nineveh is still getting reviews, six months after publication: LitNet a couple of weeks ago, and now the Cape Argus.

Litnet finds ‘deep ecology’ theme in Nineveh

In a review on Litnet, Elzette Steenkamp calls  Nineveh  a “densely woven narrative that ingeniously maintains the wavering balance between personal tragedy and wider social commentary” (my translation).

Interestingly, Steenkamp perceives a theme of ‘deep ecology’ in the book. She quotes environmentalist Neil Evernden, which I thought was very apt:

“Where do we draw the line between one creature and another? Where does one organism stop and another begin? Is there even a boundary between you and the non-living world, or will the atoms on this page be a part of your body tomorrow?”

This joins a gratifying collection of positive reviews of Nineveh, grouped here. Thank you so much, critics and readers, for all your thoughtful responses.

Satanic Verses unbanning petition

In the aftermath of Salman Rushdie’s withdrawal (under threat) from the Jaipur Literature Festival, an online petition is calling for the unbanning of ‘The Satanic Verses’ in India. You don’t have to be Indian to sign. (Via @aminattaforna and @salmanrushdie)
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/supportrushdie/

See also this piece by Hari Kunzru on the scandal at the JLF. And this on Rushdie’s reaction.

Puff Adder: a short short story

‘Puff Adder’ is a mini story I wrote for ELLE magazine www.elle.co.za. It’s in the current (November) edition. Fantastic that the mag is commissioning fiction.

I’m curious about people in cars. In traffic, I watch them through back windscreens or in my rear-view mirror, doing what people do when they think they’re unobserved: singing, picking noses, gaping at the world. I like to see a driver and passenger, laughing across the space between them. It’s an intimate view, a conversation framed. The travellers are focused on each other or on the road ahead: they don’t feel my eyes sneaking up from behind to touch
the backs of their necks.
This dorp is too small to have a rush hour, but I still get held up behind a green car at the town’s single stop sign …

Read the full story here: puff adder  – or in the November mag.

Nineveh at Fish Hoek Library

I’m talking about my novel Nineveh at Fish Hoek Library tomorrow morning at 10am. R15 donation, books on sale, free tea.

The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2011

Very happy that my story ‘Homing’ is in Dave Eggers’ The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2011 – described as ‘An eclectic volume introduced by Guillermo del Toro and compiled by Dave Eggers and students of his San Francisco writing center, who don’t leave a stone unturned in their search for nonrequired gems.’

The Best American Nonrequired Reading is an annual anthology of fiction and nonfiction selected by Eggers and high school students in California and Michigan.

‘Required reading is the stuff that’s supposed to be on the test. Nonrequired reading often is more interesting. That’s the case with this quirky collection’ — USA Today

Two more Nineveh reviews

Thanks so much to Ken Barris for the lovely Nineveh review in the Cape Times last week, and to Maureen Isaacson for the detailed follow-up to our M&G Festival discussion in the Sunday Independent the week before that. I haven’t been able to find either of these online, so I’m posting them here as pdfs:

Nineveh review – CapeTimes 23 Sep 11

Nineveh Review – Sunday Independent 18 Sep 11