Authors, Praxis 2019-2020 Poetry Chapbook Series
We are delighted to announce that JK Anowe has selected seven manuscripts for publication in our 2019/2020 poetry chapbook series, and has also identified three additional manuscripts as noteworthy honourable mentions.
Honourable Mentions:
Joshua Omena (Nigeria): THIS IS WHY YOU WANT TO BE HEARDKamcilla Pillay (South Africa): OVER AND OUTLoic Ekinga (DR Congo / SA): 12 THINGS YOU FAILED AT AS A MAN TODAY
2019/2020 Chapbook Series Selections:
Nkateko Masinga (South Africa):
THE HEART IS A CAGED ANIMAL
Nkateko Masinga was born in Pretoria, South Africa. She is a writer, performance poet, publisher, TEDx Speaker, 2018 Mandela Washington Fellow, World Economic Forum Global Shaper and 2019 Ebedi Writers Fellow. Her written work has appeared in Brittle Paper, Kalahari Review, U.S journal Illuminations, UK pamphlet press Pyramid Editions, the University of Edinburgh’s Dangerous Women Project, and elsewhere. She is the founder and managing director of NSUKU Publishing Consultancy. Her work has received support from Pro Helvetia Johannesburg and the Swiss Arts Council. She is a Contributing Interviewer for Poetry at Africa In Dialogue.
Rotimi Robert (Nigeria):
BIPOLAR SUNSHINE
Rotimi Robert’s a recent graduate, poet and prose writer. His works have appeared in his head, little books he keeps dismissing, then looking for, and the note app on his phone. He has a soft spot for subtexts, and contemporary Chinese and Indian poetry. Even though he’s never read any of his books, he admits he hoards tons of Charles Bukowski quotes: “My ambition is handicapped by laziness—” —Regardless, when the mood hits, he writes about people [mostly real, disguised as imaginary], identity, family, loss, friendship, oppression, Yeye…
Salimah Valiani (Canada / South Africa):
DEAR SOUTH AFRICA
Born in Calgary (Canada) of a mother from Uganda and father from Tanzania, like her parents, Salimah Valiani left home in her late teenage years. She thus began a journey of study, activism and work which included extended stops in Montreal, London (UK), New York City, Binghamton (USA), Toronto, Cape Town, Ottawa, and now Johannesburg. Through all this, she has published four volumes of poetry – breathing for breadth (TSAR: 2005), Letter Out : Letter In (Inanna: 2009), land of the sky (Inanna: 2016) and Cradles (Daraja: 2017). She is also the authors’ editor of The Future of Mining in South Africa (Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection: 2018) and author of the research monograph, Rethinking Unequal Exchange – The Global Integration of Nursing Labour Markets University of Toronto Press: 2012). In 2012 she was awarded the Feminist Economics Feminist Rhonda Williams Prize – an award recognising feminist scholarship and activism in the spirit of the African American economist and advocate, Rhonda Williams. She lives in Johannesburg with her South African partner and their daughter.
Neil Creighton
(Australia):
EARTH MUSIC
Neil Creighton is an Australian poet whose work as a teacher of English and Drama has made him intensely aware of how opportunity is unequally proportioned. His work reflects strong interest in social justice, indigenous issues, the environment and relationships. His poetry has appeared in many places, both online and in hard-copy. He is a Contributing Editor at Verse-Virtual.
Heidi Grunebaum
(South Africa):
BOOK OF THE MISSING
Heidi Grunebaum is a South African writer based at the Centre for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape. She has previously published poetry in Running Towards Us: New Writing from South Africa, Ed. Isabel Balseiro, Botsotso Journal for South African Arts and Cultures as well as New Contrast. One of these poems became the script for a documentary film she made with Mark J. Kaplan in 2013 called, The Village Under the Forest. She is currently working on a new film script about memory-seekers and refugees.
Jarred Thompson (South Africa):
TWILIGHT PEOPLE
Jarred Thompson’s poetry has been published in Typecast Literary Magazine, Type House Literary Magazine, Outcast Magazine, the Esthetic Apostle, Sky Island Journal, Cosmographia Books
(forthcoming), Best New African Poets Anthology of 2016, New Contrast Literary Journal and one of his poems was longlisted for The Sol Plaatje Award and Anthology of Poetry in 2017. His chapbook Universes and Paradoxes was shortlisted for the Kingdom in the Wild Poetry Prize. His fiction publications include Typecast Literary Magazine, New Contrast Literary Journal (forthcoming 2019), The Rainy Day Literary Magazine, ImageOutWrite, the Johannesburg Review of Books and The 2018 Writivism Mentoring Anthology Transcending the Flame. Additionally, his short story Changing I’s was longlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize.
Abigail George (South Africa):
THE ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY
Pushcart Prize nominated for her fiction, Abigail George is a South African-based blogger at Goodreads (link on Piker Press), essayist, poet, grant, novella and short story writer. She is the recipient of writing grants from the National Arts Council, the Centre for the Book and ECPACC. She is the writer of essays, life writing, memoir pieces, novellas, poetry and a self-published story collection. She lives, works, and is inspired by the people and mountains of the Eastern Cape of Southern Africa. She is the poetry editor at AfricanWriter.com and an editor at Mwanaka Media and Publishing.
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