Alex Smith

After three E’s, the first of the F’s, France, for this Easter Monday’s installment of the ongoing A-Z, Kissing in World Literature. I would have done three again, but Finland and Fiji are not so easily resolved and it’s a long weekend.

This is not yet the kiss, and not written by anyone French, but by a Pulitzer Prize winning American named Doug Wright about a particularly infamous French writer:

From Quills [By Dough Wright, here via Drew's Script-o-Rama, minus the two character names, but it's clear enough]

Marquis ?
– Well– Did I frighten you ? – [ Gasps ]
Frighten me ? That’s a good one. I’m twice as quick as you are.
I suppose you want to know about that silly book of yours.
What about my book ?
[ Whispers ] It sold like the devil.
Then they started burning it.
That’s the peril of composing such incendiary prose.
If only these coins purchased your other talents too.
[ Whispers ] There’s something else I want from you.
You’ve already stolen my heart…
as well as another prominent organ south ofthe equator.
Your publisher says I’m not to leave without another manuscript.
I’ve just the story.
Inspired by these very surroundings.
The unhappy tale of a virginal laundry lass,
a darling of the lower wards where they entomb the criminally insane.
– Is it awfully violent ? – Most assuredly.
– Is it terribly erotic ? – Fiendishly so.
– [ Laughs ] – But it comes with a price.
A kiss for each page.

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Kissing in World Literature, two more E’s in the A-Z.

Ethiopia – Ityop’iya

From The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears
by Dinaw Mengestu (winner of the Guardian First Book Award)

Joseph is short and stout like a tree stump. He has a large round face that looks like a moon pie. Kenneth used to tell him he looked Ghanaian.
“You have a typical Ghanaian face, Joe. Round eyes. Round face. Round nose. You’re Ghanaian through and through. Admit it, and let us move on.”
Joseph would stand up then and theatrically slam his fist onto the table, or into his palm, or against the wall. “I am from Zaire,” he would yell out. “And you are a ass.” Or, more recently, and in a much more subdued tone: “I am from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Next week, it may be something different. I admit that. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll be from the Liberated Land of Laurent Kabila. But today, as far as I know, I am from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.”
Joseph kisses me once on each cheek after he takes his coat off.
“That’s my favorite thing about you Ethiopians,” he says. “You kiss each other on the cheeks all the time. It takes you hours to say hello and good-bye because you’re constantly kissing each other. Kiss. Kiss. Kiss.”
Kenneth pours Joseph a scotch and the three of us raise our cups for a toast.

From Blue Daughter of the Red Sea
By Meti Birabiro

Esu’s body took the space beside mine on the sofabed. (more…)

Prince among days! Not only is it Library Week, but tomorrow is World Storytelling Day, which has its origins in Sweden’s Alla berattares dag, All storytellers day. So in honour of libraries and the storytellers whose books fill them, here is an anthology of novel libraries, beginning with some library memories from poet and lecturer of Literature at Makarere University, Susan Kiguli who has a PhD in English from The University of Leeds and an particular interest in Oral Poetry, Popular Song and Performance Theory. (more…)

At the 2007 Umuzi Showcase in Johannesburg, Kathryn White, aged 27, was the youngest of five featured writers on a daunting stage answering questions about a debut novel. That was where I met her. Barry Ronge was on the panel of literary reviewers and he seemed very taken with the premise of Kathryn’s novel, Emily Green and Me. I was too nervous to think straight, speak properly or listen well, but I do remember sitting with a pile of books, twiddling my pen, and overhearing an enthusiastic discussion between Barry Ronge and Kathryn at the signing afterwards, and I remember the fabric of Kathryn’s beautiful dress: vintage silky satin cream printed with polka dots in two shades of green. How I envied that dress! A year later after the end of the first half of the BookSA banquet, at a time past midnight in a flower bed in Kelvin, Kathryn and I had stopped to gather roses en route to Helen’s place for the second half of the banquet, and while we tugged the flowers off their bushes, I asked if she’d some day write something for the Love Africa Carnival. “Here it be,” Kathryn emailed at 20:36 tonight, “it is actually rather rough – but am going to leave it heavy and naive instead of rewriting it light.” She also instructed that ‘the line breaks are decided’, and because the breaks didn’t fit on the page properly I’ve saved it as a picture and scaled it down to fit.

It is Note of Affection #21 in the Love Africa Carnival. (more…)

Last year, Ugandan poet Susan Kiguli, joined the Love Africa Carnival with her Animal Portraits, the first poems of an anthology she is writing for children. When Animal Portrais was selected as one of the most loved Love Notes of its month, I sent Susan a copy of Gabeba Baderoon’s A Hundred Silences. After some problems with the posting of the book, it finally arrived in Uganda last week. I thought Susan’s response to Gabeba’s poems was just too lovely to keep locked away in my Google mail box, so I asked Susan if she would mind if I posted it here at BookSA and she said it would be fine.
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The Love Africa Carnival is an online celebration of Africa. This year the carnival has featured some glorious ‘Notes of Affection for Africa’ from writers in Ethiopia, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and South Africa.

Great and hearty thanks to all those writers who participated in the the 2008 Love Africa Carnival by sending poems, essays, stories, photographs and memoir articles.

The Carnival is supported by the following generous authors who have donated signed copies of their books as book prizes for the carnival:

Michael Ambetchew, Gabeba Baderoon, André Brink,
Lauren Beukes, Richard De Nooy, Louis Greenberg,
Liesl Jobson, Sarah Lotz, Jo-anne Richards,
Henrietta Rose Innes, Ben Trovato , Helen Moffett

Last Monday, over litchis and Rooibos tea with Sven’s wonderful view of Kalk Bay, the Love Africa Carnival honorary panel consisting of Karina Magdalena Szczurek and Helen Moffett selected the “MOST LOVED LOVE NOTE OF 2008”. (more…)

Love Africa Carnival note of affection #9 comes from Dineo Maboe who is ‘an avid keeper of diaries and secret story writer since my primary school years. I crossed over into poetry as a teenager, and now have a stash, spanning a decade, of my poems. I’m also an Africanist, eternal optimist, keen genealogist, believer in dreams, lover of children and the old, and an intellectual with a creative side. I am strong, powerful and I don’t hide behind the curtains – I’m up on stage, owning my greatness. (more…)

One hundred is a collective, a kiss of Book SA kisses, beginning with a farewell and ending with a welcome. There are missing kisses, I know it, and I will continue to add. (more…)

Karina Magdalena Szczurek, born in Poland, now living in Cape Town is a writer who wears many hats. Although perhaps best known for her writings as literary critic for The Sunday Independent and other publications, Karina is also author of a growing collection of short stories, some published, prize-winning, some unpublished, and surprising! At present her PhD on Nadine Gordimer’s post-apartheid writing is under consideration with a German publisher. Also she is working on an anthology. Karina wrote ‘Inverted Season’ last year in October. When I was preparing this post, I was unsure what colour theme it should have. At the Book SA Blogger’s Meeting at the Book Lounge last night, I asked Karina to tell me her favourite colour. “A kind of dull blue,” she said and pointed to a cushion on one of the Book Lounge’s handsome brown armchairs. So the colours for this post are blues including, hopefully the right dull blue, and brown. (more…)

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On this rainy Cape day, The Spaza shop, Love Africa Carnival note of affection#6 comes with sunlit kisses from writer, poet, reviewer, Michelle McGrane who was born in Zimbabwe and grew up in Malawi. Michelle has lived in South Africa since 1988 and has published two collections of poetry, Fireflies & Blazing Stars (2002) and Hybrid (2003). (more…)