12:35-13:15 In Conversation (Adults): Sara-JayneMakwala King (Mad Bad Love) & JOY WATSON (The Other Me)
15:20-16:00 In Conversation (Adults): Colleen Higgs (my mother, my madness) & NANCY RICHARDS (The Skipper’s Daughter) moderated by Leslie Swartz (How I Lost My Mother)
Catch Cathy Park Kelly, the author of Boiling a Frog Slowly, and other fabulous authors at the Friends of Tokai Library Book Sale this Saturday between 9am and 12pm.
We are delighted to invite you to the launch of Lester Walbrugh‘s eagerly awaited debut novel, Elton Baatjies. Equally delighted that it is going to take place at Liberty Books in Elgin – Lester will be in conversation with Christy Weyer.
Thank you to Paul Cluver Wines for sponsoring the wine for this special occasion!
We can’t wait to share this hauntingly dark, absolutely stunning novel with Readers.
“I travelled to five cities on the African continent at intervals during 2018 and 2019 to visit an independent art space in each. Panya Routes is an invitation to join this journey and discover how such spaces work, think and navigate conditions of constant flux. These independent art spaces form part of a larger family of small-scale platforms, often artist-led or with artistic thinking at heart, whose numbers have flourished in recent years although their existence can also be short-lived. This book focuses upon five case studies of such spaces that have all been active for more than a decade, thus offering compelling tales about sustaining non-profit and innovative practice in an increasingly commodified world. My visits, conducted as part of the African Centre for Cities research project Platform / Plotform, were timed to coincide with emblematic programming, predominant art in public spaces. And, where possible, other independently curated events and spaces from a street art festival to an “off-biennial” were considered in parallel in order to glean another reading on art in each city …” (Panya Routes, p. 9)
Thank you, Nancy Richards and Natalie Becker, for the photographs!
Dawn Garisch will be the featured poet at The Red Wheelbarrow next week.
Dawn Garisch is an award-winning author and poet, a medical doctor and founding member of the Life Righting Collective. As an LRC facilitator, she teaches writing and poetry as a route to self-discovery, self-recovery and community building. Her second collection, Disturbance, (Karavan Press) came out in 2020.
Broken
A toy horse falls from the shelf, breaks a leg. The small boy, tearful, shows an uncle who gives him a tube of glue: The boy tries hard like he always does, not knowing how to fix his parent’s domestic mess.
The horse leg sets, stuck back skew, now it’s lame, he’s made things worse. His father’s long gone, but he’s to blame, the glue of family rendered useless.
The boy wanders out of the house, climbs the tree, sits by himself, sick with crying. Wanting his father joined to his mother, wanting the father to come home to help him.
What he wants is impossible, so he prays for the leg to be restored like magic, so he can ride away.
— Dawn Garisch
As always, the reading by the featured poet will be followed by an open mic session for poets from the audience. Poets are welcome to read from their own work as well as from the work of a favourite poet.
Sean Davison (assisted suicide), Joy Watson (GBV) and Matthew Wilhelm-Solomon (urban housing) speak to Bronwyn Pithey about using the courts as tools for transforming our society.
Last week, Joy Watson, Cathy Park Kelly and Melissa A. Volker spoke to Karina M. Szczurek about love and relationships in their lives and writing at the beautiful Stonehaven, the home of the Union of Jewish Women (UJW). Thank you to the UJW for hosting, thank you to the authors for their insights and laughter, and to everyone who attended with such generosity of spirit. A beautiful evening!
Thank you, Bernie Shelly, for being there and for sharing a few photographs with us!
Joburg, you are in for a literary treat of note! Joy Watson will be launching her debut novel, The Other Me, at three different events next week. We hope to see you at at least one of them, if not all!
First up: Exclusive Books Nicolway, Wednesday, 20 July. Joy will be in conversation with author Angela Makholwa.
On Thursday, 21 July, Joy will be at Book Circle Capital and in conversation with media powerhouse and author Joanne Joseph.
Last, but not least, Friday, 22 July: a literary dinner at Tommy’s Bar where you will enjoy a light meal and a discussion between Joy and author/editor Sue Nyathi. Bridge Books and the Heinrich Boell Foundation are co-hosting.