Jack Cope edited the first issue of Contrast published in the Summer of 1960. This issue, therefore, enters our 50th year. Next year we will publish a lovely book edited by Stephen Watson celebrating our half century not out. (Any ideas for a title?) We will, of course, also publish the journal itself as scheduled each quarter. From our 51st year we are dropping the New, and reverting to our original title, Contrast magazine.
The spotlight this issue is on the very much alive writer, Rosemund J Handler. I have selected one short story and nineteen poems, which will give you something of the flavour of Rosemund’s wit and wisdom. I am sure, too, you will enjoy Sarah Lotz’s review of Rosemund’s novels. Then we have the work of over forty other writers from round the country and the world, for your entertainment.
And now a concern. I have so few pieces in national languages other than English that I am reluctant to publish from so very small a selection. I realise it is in part my lack of fluency and even knowledge of languages other than English that inhibits some contributors. And, of course, the journal then appears ever more ‘English’. That is not our intention. I need help here please. I have excellent personal friends and ‘consultants’ who can advise (and edit) Afrikaans material. I can also get access to help with pieces in any of our other national languages, and some foreign languages. I would dearly like to give space and prominence to a representative spread of work by local writers, not confined to writing in English.
**
The scanning of the full set of the journal, both Contrast and New Contrast, is now complete at UCT. I had hoped we would be able to make available on-line everything, bar the current issue. But first we need to convert images to text using OCR technology. Once done, the issues will be fully searchable by Google and other engines. And so enabled for researchers. This resource will become available to every subscriber, whether individual or institution. Residents of the US have already begun downloading e-book versions of recent issues of the journal at http://www.scribd.com/.
The campaign to recruit subscribers continues. We’ve had some success in that over the last two years subscriber numbers have doubled. We are making progress but are not yet close to our objectives which would go a long way towards assuring the financial health of the journal. I hope, particularly if you are a contributor, that you do subscribe and if possible encourage others to.
**
Please send me electronic copies of your work. I never have time to transcribe from paper to MS Word. If you have no access to a PC at an Internet Café, I will still read your stuff, but your chances of being published are significantly reduced. Send me a separate document for each piece of work: I want five documents if you send me five poems: zip them together. If you have no access to MS Word, use Open Office (which is free – http://www.openoffice.org/), or any other text writer, such as Notepad, or send me an RTF. Make sure your name, postal address, email address and telephone number are on every page of the document: use the footer in MS Word to record the information. Make sure you complete the Properties tab in the document. Send me a brief biography: it can be as formal or not as you like. I will edit it.
Feedback: send me a letter by email or snail, but preferably the former. Interesting comments or suggestions I will publish.
Reviewers: I receive books for review regularly. If you would like to write a review, let me know. At this stage, I cannot pay you beyond the two free copies of the magazine every contributor should receive.
Rosemund J Handler, Sarah Lotz, Karin Schimke, Danya Ristić, Anne-Marie Moore, Jane North, Genna Gardini, Kerry Hammerton, Danie van Jaarsveld, Barry Wallenstein, Chad Pressman, Consuelo Roland, Sumeera Dawood, Bill Nasson, Kevin Dean Hollinshead, Doug Scott, Michael Copely, Marilyn Keegan, Adam Wiedewitsch, Doug Downie, Abbey Khambule, Azila Reisenberger, Kobus Moolman, Rustum Kozain, Marianne Burton, Norman Morrissey, Ian Tromp, Jonty Driver, Isobel Dixon, Karina Magdalena Sczcurek, Richard Alan Bunch, Kris Faure, Deborah Steinmair, David Cornwell, Arja Salafranca, Colleen Higgs, James O’Connor, Liesl Jobson, John Eppel, Aisling Heath, Allan Kolski Horwitz, Barbara Fairhead, Brett Beiles, John Forbis, Wendy Woodward, Thandi Sliepen, Fern GZ Carr, Rene Tajlaard
Four from New Contrast 148
Before she met you
before you she thought herself tangy yet subtle not quite ripes weet-sour at the pip a pale apricot or a mango with strings even a lemon scouring the palate inside out
the day you saw her your nostrils flared the bite and burn of her an onion between your teeth crackling wincing you stayed the course juicy with tears pared to the heart of her
that takes a man now that takes a real man
– Rosemund J Handler
*
The one-eyed cat glares at him
as he rips off shirt breaks buttons bares chest hairs tingle at their freedom purple scar touches light
she moves to hide in the study and the cat blinks
– Sumeera Dawood
*
fromA South African Historian in the Court of King Hollywoodor, when Bill and Ben were not the Flowerpot Men
Early in 2007 the leading Hollywood actor, John Malkovich, was on the campus of the University of Cape Town, a place where I have been teaching history for over two decades. His visit was a brief whirl to sniffabout the Arts Block and its Department of English which for years had been home to the acclaimed South African novelist, JM Coetzee, and which provided part of the background setting for his powerful story,Disgrace. Malkovich was at the drawingboard, swotting up to play the role of the disgraced Professor David Lurie in the film version of the novel. A discreet figure, some of those who spotted him wondered whathe would make of it all Here was an American actor pretending to be a South African University of Cape Town academic in an imaginary screen world. As fate would have it, at approximately the same time a real University of Cape Town lecturer was not only about to find himselfimmersed in what is often termed film ‘experience’. In another, wholly unexpected kind of adaptation, this academic would end up pretending to be an actor in a fictional historical narrative involving the construction of the House of Commons in Victorian Britain. What follows is that celluloid tale – or, to be exact, the personal experience of the present writer when the great summons suddenly arrived from Hollywood on location in Cape Town, its beloved cheaper version of California where the extras are not led astray by unions or minimum wage rules.
Eventual excitement in mydrab and dusty personal world of scholarship arrived out of the blue one day in March 2007 when Moonlighting, a local film company, contacted me at my university office. It was involved in the making of an American film called The Deal, that was to be shot on location in and around Cape Town, and which would incorporate historical reconstruction on which some knowledgeable guidance would be required. The scene in question was a clash in the Commons between William Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli during the second half ofthe nineteenth century. This had been scripted by the director and his lead actor who needed assurance that they had got things right for the Victorian age. Was the language convincing. Was the parliamentary debate sufficiently gripping. Would viewers be able to grasp a proper sense of the past. Did the scene contain historical errors.
One of Moonlighting’s more moonlighting employees, a former history student of mine, had mentioned that I had once taught British history. On that basis, could I do the job of checking the screenplay? No time was wasted in assuring the company that I was its man. After all, not only had I once run a university course on the history of 19th and 20th century Britain. As an undergraduate at a northern English university in the earlier 1970s I had taken ‘Modern Britain 1850–1950’ as an option. In more recent years, I had come to know the Gladstone Tabagie and Disraeli Boulangerie on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius which had once sweetened the Victorians’ tea. If I were still insufficiently informed after all that, there was another helpful brain to be picked. A Cambridge colleague at Cape Town had done the 1972 Oxford and Cambridge Schools Examination Board GCE History A-Level Special Subject paper on ‘The Age of Disraeli and Gladstone, 1846–81’. As it would transpire,for purposes of the present film that old paper’s question 10 was right on the button in asking, ‘What was Disraeli’s concrete achievement in either foreign or colonial affairs?’
– Bill Nasson
*
Daughter
The early shadows cast their fragile lace across her sleeping face and I am stopped in morning’s hurry by the sudden flurry of love and awe and fear; so that I can only stand and peer at the sudden, wild beauty of my sleeping child.
I had to smile when Gus Ferguson* sent me this: Sonja insists I am the melancholic poet, but it seems I’m normal after all. Yet there is reason to be sad this Spring issue: Guy Willoughby’s untimely death in August. Guy was a man of exceptional talent as the last ofthe poems he sent me attest. I am sure, too, that you will find Finuala Dowling’s tribute to Guy, poignant, interesting, beautiful and brave. We’ve turned the tribute section of this issue into a separate monograph; please see below to read it in its entirety.
I will miss him greatly. The spotlight on the work of Guy Willoughby and Don Maclennan has obliged me, happily in fact, to make space in the journal, which in turn has suggested change. I’m going to make two related changes as an experiment. First, I will show more examples of new work by one writer in each issue. Second, I will continue to extend the number of writers whose work is published here.
In this issue, I am bringing you new work from forty six writers. I hope this will give you an impression of some – certainly not nearly all – ofthe dimensions and vitalities of new writing in South Africa today. It does mean that the variety of work any one writer produces will not be accessible here, except where the writer is spotlighted. As on any other matter, I welcome feedback.
Geoffrey Haresnape, who edited New Contrast in the 1980s and with Les has been actively involved with the journal for many more years, has retired from the board of directors. At a recent meeting he was elected to join our illustrious group of Literary Patrons. Geoff is and has been a great and amusing friend and adviser to me. I look forward to many more rhymes from Dr Severance Package, and other personae Geoff represents to a wider world.
~ ~ ~
The scanning of the full set of the journal, both Contrast and New Contrast, is nearly complete at UCT. Quite soon, I hope within this year, we will make available on-line everything, bar the current year’s issues, that we have published in the last nearly 50 years. This resource will become available to every subscriber, whether individual or institution. Additional ‘seats’ for on-line access by the general public will, I hope, also be possible.
Residents of the US can now download e-book versions of the journalat http://www.scribd.com/.
The campaign to recruit subscribers continues. We’ve had some success in that over the last two years subscriber numbers have nearly doubled. We are making progress but are not yet close to our objectives which would go a long way towards assuring the financial health of the journal. I hope, particularly if you are a contributor, that you do subscribe and if possible encourage others to.
~ ~ ~
Please send me electronic copies of your work. I never have time to transcribe from paper to MS Word. If you have no access to a PC at an Internet Café, I will still read your stuff, but your chances of being published are significantly reduced.
I am introducing a small change to the way I manage contributions. I now store each piece on Google Docs where we can collaborate easily and quickly. By extension I am reviewing all contributions ‘in stock’ and asking writers to reduce the number of those items to six. When a piece is published it is removed ‘from stock’, making space for a replacement.
Send me a separate document for each piece of work: I want five documents if you send me five poems: zip them together. If you have no access to MS Word, use Open Office (which is free – http://www.openoffice.org/), or any other text writer, such as Notepad, or send me an RTF. Make sure your name, postal address, email address and telephone number are on every page of the document: use the footer in MS Word to record the information. Make sure you complete the Properties tab in the document. Send me a brief biography: it can be as formal or not as you like. I will edit it.
FEEDBACK: send me a letter by email or snail, but preferably the former. Interesting comments or suggestions I will publish.
REVIEWERS: I receive books for review regularly. If you would like to write a review, let me know. At this stage, I cannot pay you beyond the two free copies of the magazine every contributor should receive.
I monitor conversations on this blog – please feel free to comment. And, of course, you can send email to the editor at ed@newcontrast.net or to the business manager at business@ newcontrast.net.
Guy Willoughby, Finuala Dowling, Marianne Burton, Aisling Heath, Alessio Zanelli, Geoffrey Haresnape, Elisa Galgut, Anne-Marie Moore, Danya Ristić, Chris Mann, Thandi Sliepen, Dorian Haarhof, Emily Buchanan, Dawn Garisch, Graham Ellis, Carla Chait, Damian Garside, Chad Pressman, Doug Scott, Rosemund Handler, Kevin Dean Hollinshead, Deborah Steinmair, Isabella Morris, Carole Green, Genna Gardini, Emma Lungiswa de Wet, Maya Fowler, Alex Halligey, Richard, Juergens, Gail Dendy, Silke Heiss, Adam Wiedewitsch, Ahimsa Timoteo Bodhrán, Rustum Kozain, Kobus Moolman, Consuelo Roland, Liam Kruger, Jonty Driver, Karen Schimke, Brendon Bosworth, Gus Ferguson, Danie van Jaarsveld, Mari Mocke, Laura Kirsten, Sumeera Dawood, Harry Owen, Brett Beiles
**
Three more from New Contrast issue 147
At the Sufi’s table
Irefuse to sit at the Sufi’s table Politely, of course. Feigning detachment, busyness. So many lofty aspirations to pursue,
When the truth of the matter is: I know Not where I am, what I’m doing, what lies before me. I refuse him out of self-preservation,
Not wanting him to unravel my tightly-held sanity Like loose stitches on a hem. I am the hole in the needle,
And I want to be left alone with my failing stab at life. A traveller is a traveller is a traveller and he is always on his own. He needs to be searching for something,
And every Sufi should understand that Yet he probes and prods and teases me with tiny bits of info. Things about myself. Sufis are just men,
With grey beards, long robes, and I am not thing – just a girl who is too afraid to hold out her hand Lest she is asked to hold out a pedestal.
– Sumeera Dawood
*
Rest for the third eye
I want the sleep I used to have when the fall was shorter and the rise longer; supreme sense of comfort in each – a taste craved by the mind.
Tongue stilled, silence gained.
A shift to which gravity is beside the point and thus is neither plummet nor ascension but something in between –a kind of suspension.
Movement enacted by thought in the vast velvet sea. A kind of meditation, humbly meant.
Yet I continue to lie awake.
– Danya Ristić
*
In The Graveyard Across The Road
Where two shapes, furtive, duck and weave In this mockery of twilight, I once loved – or was so deceived – Wept and rutted, to my pen’s delight.
That was my brief pale hand; shot out From darkness’ shroud (for little deaths) And that, love-drained laughter, let out At last between our misted breaths.
Static-coated moonlight presides Over this, tonight’s replay. Framed By window-panes, they do not hide Their reproduction, are not shamed
By the chorus of witless eyes, That surely weep, as surely man must die.
– Liam Kruger
**
Special excerpted section from New Contrast issue 147: Tribute to Guy Willoughby
Small minds We walk to the front gate. Look up and down the road. We turn around And go back inside.
– Buster Petersen
Editor’s notes
The death of Don Maclennan last February came as the journal was due to go to print, and too late to prepare an appropriate tribute. That is now remedied. By kind permission of Shirley Maclennan, we bring you unpublished poems by Don from Dress Rehearsal. I am indebted to Douglas Skinner, a close friend of Don and his family, who has written with warmth and affection of Don, and provided the photographs taken by family and friends, reproduced here.
This issue contains new voices and familiar. I hope you find as great a pleasure in the reading as I have in selecting these examples of current writing.
The scanning of the full set of the journal, both Contrast and New Contrast, is nearly complete at UCT. Quite soon, I hope within this year, we will make available on-line everything, bar the current year’s issues, that we have published in the last nearly 50 years. This resource will become available to every subscriber, whether individual or institution. Additional ‘seats’ for on-line access by the general public will, I hope, also be possible.
The campaign to recruit subscribers continues. We’ve had some success in that over the last two years subscriber numbers have nearly doubled. We are making progress but are not yet close to our objectives which would go a long way towards assuring the financial health ofthe journal. I hope, particularly if you are a contributor, that you do subscribe and if possible encourage others to.
Please send me electronic copies of your work. I never have time to transcribe from paper to MS Word. If you have no access to a PC at an Internet café, I will still read your stuff, but your chances of being published are significantly reduced.
I am introducing a small change to the way I manage contributions. I now store each piece on Google Docs where we can collaborate easily and quickly. By extension I am reviewing all contributions ‘in stock’ and asking writers to reduce the number of those items to six. When a piece is published it is removed ‘from stock’, making space for a replacement.
Send me a separate document for each piece of work: I want five documents if you send me five poems: zip them together. If you have no access to MS Word, use Open Office (which is free – http://www.openoffice.org/), or any other text writer, such as Notepad, or send me an RTF. Make sure your name, postal address, email address and telephone number are on every page of the document: use the footer in MS Word to record the information. Make sure you complete the Properties tab in the document. Send me a brief biography: it can be as formal or not as you like. I will edit it.
FEEDBACK : send me a letter by email or snail, but preferably the former. Interesting comments or suggestions I will publish.
REVIEWERS : I receive books for review regularly. If you would like to write a review, let me know. At this stage, I cannot pay you beyond the two free copies of the magazine every contributor should receive.
I monitor conversations on this blog regularly. And, of course, you can send email to the editor ed@newcontrast.net or to the business manager business@newcontrast.net.
Hugh
Contributors to New Contrast 146
Don Maclennan, Douglas Skinner, Rosemund Handler, Joan Metelerkamp, Kevin Dean Hollinshead, Jane Bruwer, Laura Kirsten, Thandi Sliepen, Andries Samuel, Genna Gardini, Kobus Moolman, Grace Kim, Damian Garside, Consuelo Roland, Deborah Steinmair, Bulelwa Basse, Barry Wallenstein, Norman Morrissey, Allan Kolski Horwitz, Charl-Pierre Naudé, Mari Mocke, Chris Eugene Canter, Doug Scott, Gus Ferguson, Adam Wiedewitsch, Sam Manty, Tiah Marie Beautement, Louis Greenberg, Jonty Driver, Sumeera Dawood, Marcia Leveson, Heidi Marques, Jacques Coetzee, Richard Bunch, Lisa Lazarus, Doug Downie, John Simon, Michael Bernard, Rustum Kozain, Kelwyn Sole, Ken Barris, Clive Lawrance, Mark Swift, Elizabeth Joss, Mark Swift, John Simon, Buster Petersen
She sails far south, into growlers and ice. Yet she is well-fitted, crafted like a dolphin to love the sea. When light fills her high sail it flashes through the mind’s eye though she is far beyond satellite and radio.
Ken Barris
This is the final issue of the 2007 volume of New Contrast. It is late, I hope for the last time.
This is also the last cover of this set of my love, Sonja Wilker’s, paintings. I hope you have admired them as much as I have enjoyed sharing them with you. The 2008 volume will feature a new set of artwork and a new artist.
This issue also brings you an etching by Mimi van der Merwe whose work appeared in the Contrast volume of 1964. And a cartoon of Gus Ferguson’s.
I hope you will enjoy the variations, too, in the age old battle of the genders – ever a hardy perennial in these gardens for these gardeners.
There are a couple of interesting reviews too. (more…)
On Sale tonight at Off-the-Wall at a Touch of Madness
