We all know how difficult it is for poets to get published… This is your opportunity. The deadline for submissions for the Sol Plaatje Poetry Award has been extended to 1 March 2010. The inaugural Sol Plaatje Poetry Award for poetry in ALL 11 South African languages will be awarded later this year. The jury will be convened by South African Poet Laureate, Keorapetse (Willie) Kgositsile.
Prize:
- All selected works will be published in an annual anthology.
- Selected poets will be invited to appear at a South African poetry festival.
- A cash prize of R10 000 will be divided among the selected poets.
Rules:
- Entrants are encouraged to write in their mother tongue.
- Poems may not have been published in book form before, but may have been published in journals or magazines.
- Entries are limited to 3 poems per poet.
- Entrants must be South African citizens permanently resident in South Africa.
- Entries must include 6 copies of each poem entered plus a soft copy in a suitable word-processing package. No handwritten entries will be considered.
- Entries must include a one-page biography of the author, including the name of their poem and current contact details.
- The award is judged blind and therefore any poems that include the author’s name will be disqualified.
Submissions:
Good luck to all the entrants!
Just a few weeks back at the Whale Well in November an exciting new book, TRANS: Transgender Life Stories from South Africa was launched at a fantastic party.
Amidst the array of fascinating speakers on the night, Robert Hamblin took the podium. He introduced himself in the form of a poem. Enjoy it here:
MY NAME IS
My name is Robert Hamblin.
I am an artist.
I am a photographer.
I am a part time grass roots type of activist
and the chairman of the board of transgender organisation.
I live in a house in Melville. I have my own business.
I am a Transgender man.
This means I used to be seen as a woman.
This transition has taken five years.
I use men’s toilets.
I was asked to come and tell you about Transgender people.
I decided against that because it would be
a bit like telling you about humans.
You get too many kinds of humans.
There are many kinds of Transgender people.
So yes, to change one’s gender you need to
get help from doctors,
take hormones to change your looks and give you the right perspective,
and sometimes people have surgeries.
But as I said, I am not going to tell you about TG people…
There are too many kinds.
I am going to tell you about me.
Then you can say I once met a Transgender guy.
He was extremely handsome, clever and charming…
I wonder if other Transgender people are similar.
I am Robert Hamblin. I am an artist,
a photographer, a part time gender activist.
I have my own business.
I have a mother who loves me and accepts me as a male.
I have a father, but he died. My stepfather does not like me much.
My brother, who is younger than me, humiliated me
and threatened my life when I told him that I was going to transition.
The rest of my family love me.
I drive a BMW, an old one, dolphin shape.
It’s paid for.
I am engaged to a girl who has curly hair and freckles
and a pale skin. She loves me a lot!
She will marry me in May next year.
She leaves poems and chocolates in my suitcase when I travel.
Her father said I am the best man he could have wished for for his daughter.
I have hair on my back and chest.
I am 40.
People say if I am a man and I live with a woman
I am heterosexual.
I say if they say so…
I am a feminist because I believe men and women are not equal in this world.
I would like that to change.
Some feminists say I cannot be a feminist. I still am.
Some people say I am not a real man
I still live as one.
People ask me why I changed my gender.
I now tell them because I am Transgender.
It’s a bit like being Afrikaans.
I just am.
Transgender people change their shapes.
After that guy on Oprah told the world that he used to be a girl
but that he was having a baby
people asked me if I could, or if I would?
I said no, I don’t like that part of my body or the way it works.
I also said I think he is wonderful for doing that.
Trans people should have reproductive rights too.
I try everyday to be happy that I live in a country where
I am free
to be an individual.
I am happy that I am free to be strange to others
and ordinary to those who love me.
I am Robert Hamblin
an artist in love
I am not crazy,
I don’t hurt children.
I don’t have a criminal record. I don’t do crime.
People ask me if I am happy now
I say everybody has a chance to be happy
if they get to be who they are.
I am Robert Hamblin.
My mother loves me with a smile
I am not crazy.
I am successful.
I am 40.
I take testosterone injections every two weeks
If you are going to ask me questions about my private parts,
you have to buy me drink and maybe kiss me first…
My name used to be Adele, but I can advise you
it is rude to ask Trans People their old name.
When I was small I did not understand
why people kept telling me
the clothes I liked to wear
the way I used to play and the fact
that I could stand and pee was wrong.
They told me girls don’t do that.
I wished I knew then, that those things were just…
well, what I liked!
I am Transgender.
I changed my shape because that is what Transgender people do.
I am Robert Hamblin.
I have gay friends.
I have strait friends.
I fall in love with women.
I think men are sexy but that confuses them.
I eat food. I live in a house.
I want people to be tolerant of one another.
I run 5km’s a day and work out three times
a week with Bonny.
I don’t shave because I look good this way.
I am Robert Hamblin.
I am lucky.
I am loved.
Sometimes my life is hard.
Sometimes I am in danger.
I am Robert Hamblin.
I think I might be more like you than different from you.
I work with an organisation called Gender Dynamix.
We help people who want to change their gender.
Not all Trans people are privileged like me.
I do this work because I want this to change.
I am Robert H.
Just Robert to you by now.
I sleep in a bed.
I don’t have a grandmother any more.
My grandfather was a bad dude to women.
Some people say what I did
is against the laws of nature.
I tell them about Parrot fish
and five other kinds of animals
that change their gender.
I have a friend who is a priest. He wears glasses.
He says sin makes us sick and uncomfortable in our bodies.
He says God gave us technology to fix that.
I don’t know about that but I admire him for understanding
The possible scheme of things.
I am Rob.
Some gay people distrust me because they think I am strait.
Some strait people distrust me because they think I am gay.
Some feminists distrust me, because despite my background,
I now have a patriarch’s face.
I tell them I am not like that.
You need to get to know me.
Then you will say, Oh, you are Transgender, I accept you.
Some of my best friends are Transgender
and then we will laugh!
Book details
- TRANS: Transgender Life Stories from South Africa edited by Ruth Morgan, Charl Marais, Joy Rosemary Wellbeloved
EAN: 9781920196226
Find this book with BOOK Finder!
This lengthy treatment of Barbara Adair’s End by Fred de Vries originally appeared in Empire magazine, and comes to Jacana courtesy Adair’s own website:
A case of commercial suicide? Barbara Adair’s second novel, End, uses the story of the 1942 movie Casablanca, but situates it in the Mozambique and Johannesburg of the late 80s, with odd references to Hector Pieterson, cell phones, Nigerians in Hillbrow and the Rosebank Hotel as a hangout for rightwing extremist where a black pianist plays Nkosi sikelel iAfrika.
“Will it have a wow finish?” asks the front cover. Well, it ends somewhere in Mozambique with Princess Di in a blue Versace dress being shot and killed.
And that’s not all for absurdities. There’s also the cruel writer Freddie, a kind of superimposed character, who talks to her protagonists, called X and Y, and treats them like puppets on a string. Oh, and one of them changes gender, whenever it suits the manipulative Freddie.
Book details
Jacana and its Fanele:Necessary imprint invite you to join People Opposing Women Abuse to celebrate the launch of Breaking the Silence: Journeys to Recovery and the call for submissions to the 2009 POWA Women’s Writing Collection.
Survivors of violence are often forced to flee – emotionally and geographically – from sites of violence. Women cross vast emotional and geographical borders in order to flee from violence to find a place of safety. For its latest collection of women’s writing, POWA called for entries in the three categories of poetry, short stories and personal essays that describe the transformation of the flight from violence into a journey of healing.
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A poem of Isobel Dixon’s appeared on the Poetry Daily website just before Valentine’s Day.
Dixon’s latest collection is A Fold in the Map, a book that charts two very different voyages: a tracing of the dislocations of leaving one’s native country, and a searching exploration of grief at a father’s final painful journey.
Here’s her poem, “The Buried Butterfly”:
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Due to popular demand, Jacana is happy to announce the Cape Town launch of Stoep Zen by Antony Osler.
Join Jacqui L’Ange, books editor at Psychologies Magazine, and Buddhist monk, legal adviser, farmer and father Osler for a discussion of life as it passes by the stoep of Osler’s Karoo farm, the seasons – the people and his country, everything changing, just so:
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The year 2008 flew by and 2009 is now firmly on our doorsteps. Or stoeps, as it were. Jacana’s first launch offering this year is designed to remind you of the good life, with time to contemplate, find peace, delight in your spirit and revel in the present.
Join the author, Antony Osler – Buddhist monk, legal adviser, farmer and father – for the launch of Stoep Zen at Adams Bookshop, Musgrave. Durban.
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Jacana Media is pleased to invite you to an exclusive breakfast with Eric Miyeni this Wednesday morning, to celebrate the publication of his first poetry collection, O’Mandingo! A Poetic Journey.
In true Miyeni style, this book of poems – which range in time over two decades – is indeed a journey. A journey through the geography of love and hate, politics, race, dance, poetry and language. Above all, it is a journey through language.
“Trotting in the mind of Eric Miyeni is a journey of laughter, sadness and the urge to know your place in the world, plus being at peace with your heart.”
- Mpho Morereane
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