Sunday, December 11, 2016

Back in 2017

Thank you to all our contributors this year, especially Gary Cummiskey, Victoria Williams,and Eva Jackson. See you back in 2017!

Sunday, November 27, 2016

Out There by Gary Cummiskey

Being Human After 1492 by Richard Pithouse

"We are all, in the sense derived from Walter Benjamin, formed from the catastrophe of history. Some of us have come out of that catastrophe with property, wealth, education, social standing and access to the agora. Others are impoverished, socially-scorned and governed with welfare, incarceration and violence. Some of us are valued. Some of us are disposable."

Singhfeld by Pravasan Pillay

Singhfeld

"Singhfeld is a comic book script written by Pravasan Pillay. In it we meet Prem Singh, a teenager growing up in the Indian township of Chatsworth, Durban in the 1990s, who falls obsessively in love with the television show Seinfeld. Prem decides that he wants to become a standup comedian like his hero Jerry Seinfeld, but faces opposition from his strict mother and his bully of an older brother."

Sunday, November 13, 2016

Sunday, October 16, 2016

The Trees Are Calling, Calling by Gary Cummiskey

Snackwich Nation

Pravasan Pillay continues his series of columns on sandwiches and this time he’s talking snackwiches.

När Livet Ger Dig Citroner

Victoria Williams: 0309

Every day the same trajectory. An abstract part of you rides as a passenger in the chariot which pulls the sun across the sky, looking down on your helpless body performing its daily rituals; catching this train and that, moving in the same worn circles; the future always an elaborate pantomime of the past, the same characters and villains appearing, each year in more exaggerated dress and painted faces. The endless waiting to be born; waiting to perform the right action which will allow you to be released into the brilliant, blinding, blank unknown. Do I mean the future? Or do I mean death? Or are they perhaps THE SAME THING? Haha, anyway, look at me rambling on! Happy birthday kiddo!

5 Authors Share Their Favourite Pieces of Writing

"We spoke to a host of writers to find out what their favourite pieces of writing are. Some shot back immediately with their most treasured text while others refused to single it down to one example of writing, but all of them ended up sharing with us, their source of written inspiration."

Sunday, September 4, 2016

In Case You Missed It: Don't Stop Until Incinerated by Gary Cummiskey

Gary Cummiskey's Don't Stop Until Incinerated is a short collection of poems that inhabit a desolate, disquieting place, a place in which the fabric of reality is threadbare. Cummiskey has mastered the art of minimalist unease, yet there are also moments of dark humour in these 26 starkly elegant poems, characterised by his iconoclastic surrealism.

Die Laughing Invite

The Rebellion Rocking Schools by Vashna Jagarnath

"In an interview at the turn of the millennium Sylvia Wynter, the Jamaican dancer, writer and theorist, observed that for a social order to exist intellectuals must establish and legitimate “the categories in which this order sees itself and knows itself”."

Tunnelbana Billboard

Saturday, July 9, 2016

From Darrel Bristow-Bovey's Introduction to Die Laughing

Die Laughing

Die Laughing Winners Announced

The Short.Sharp.Stories Awards are very pleased to announce the WINNERS for the 2016 collection, DIE LAUGHING. Congratulations to all.

JUDGES’ CHOICE

BEST STORY
 'This Could Get Messy' by Greg Lazarus
“A simply wonderful story about love... funny, with its twists and turns, chuckles and sadness.”

NEXT ON THE PODIUM…

The Runners-Up…

'This Is Not A Joke', Maureen by Gail Schimmel
“Really funny despite its dark subject matter. The depiction of the humourless mother is exquisite.”

'Angel Heart' by Kobus Moolman
“Unconventional, with an adventurous play of syntax, and a truly original imagining of Jesus. Bizarre, and intriguing.”

EDITOR’S CHOICE
'Learning a New Language' by Fred Khumalo
“Tongue-in-cheek action which shows up misogyny… and makes a statement as to learning to appreciate women.”

HIGHLY COMMENDED
'Jim Goes to Durban' by Anton Krueger and Pravasan Pillay
“Good, honest, laugh-out-loud slapstick.”

'Number One With A Bullet' by Christopher McMichael
“Truly laugh-out-loud funny, with a satirical edge.”

'The Derby' by Ofentse Ribane
“Written with a sharp energy and an original take.”

'The Viewing Room' by Diane Awerbuck
“A sophisticated, melancholy and quirky story.”

'The Seduction of Ozzie Stone' by Stephen Symons
“The ironies, the plot, it all comes together in easy-flowing, integrated writing, and leaves one smiling wistfully.”

Sunday, May 22, 2016

Saturday, May 7, 2016

Fade Away And Radiate 2 by Gary Cummiskey

Eva Jackson: 0102

Jungle Jim #26


"The Green Ghost" by Pravasan Pillay in the upcoming issue of the pulp magazine Jungle Jim. The early blurb reads: "GHOSTS! VIGILANTES! FEMINISM! JUSTICE! - JUNGLE JIM #26: Coming soon!!!"

The Damned in the Jacaranda City by Percy Zvomuya

"Harare’s streets are expansive. It is as if the god of metropolises, while handing out talents to cities – gold and tsotsis to Joburg; sand to Gaborone; racists to Cape Town; 419 scammers to Lagos – could find nothing to give to Harare and so decided to give it wide streets."

Sunday, April 17, 2016

Gary Cummiskey, Paris 2016

Victoria Williams: 0302

On Trying to Buy a New Dress:
I am dissatisfied, but content with that dissatisfaction. I have slipped into a delicious melancholic restlessness. Nothing pleases me. I am engaged in a search for something that cannot be found. I am confident something else will be revealed in time. In the morning, I’m an eternal optimist, blinded by the sun-filled windows; in the evening, a jaded pessimist, even though the sky is full of stars, but stars are dying, like everything else. I live a complete new life each day; each one turns out to be the same as the last.

Foot-path by Diana Bloem

A Person Cannot Be Illegal by Richard Pithouse

"The Con always celebrates when the smart ones in our extended family get their names on a book cover. At a time when xenophobic attacks appear to be on the rise again in Johannesburg and Durban, we publish an excerpt that examines the violent attacks of 2008 from Richard Pithouse’s recently released collection of essays, Writing the Decline (Jacana)."

Saturday, March 12, 2016

Rising To The Bait by Gary Cummiskey

Victoria Williams: 0301

Unlocked achievement:
Having the world’s slowest heart attack.

Cold Toast

Pravasan Pillay examines the roots of his relationship to toast. 

Sunday, March 6, 2016

Who Are You? by Gary Cummiskey

Congrats!

Congratulations to V. Williams on her 300th post!

Sunday, February 14, 2016

New From Tearoom Books: Don't Stop Until Incinerated by Gary Cummiskey

Gary Cummiskey's Don't Stop Until Incinerated is a short collection of poems that inhabit a desolate, disquieting place, a place in which the fabric of reality is threadbare. Cummiskey has mastered the art of minimalist unease, yet there are also moments of dark humour in these 26 starkly elegant poems, characterised by his iconoclastic surrealism.

Western Cinema’s Racist Heart by Vashna Jagarnath

"The recent challenge to white hegemony in Hollywood has been a long time coming. It’s not just Hollywood that is blind to its racism."

Internet Sentences: 0065

"Don't let the doctors and their worst case Sanrio bring you down."

HT: Eva Jackson

Sunday, January 31, 2016

From The Other Side by Gary Cummiskey

Victoria Williams: 0299










Well *I* am having a rockin' Saturday night...

Three Wheels

Sunday, January 24, 2016

Fearful Deity by Gary Cummiskey