DiaLoga

Quote of the Month - February 2012

2012-02-01T09:10:00.002+01:00

"Yawning, I shambled downstairs. I thought Lola Nan had stopped hoovering, but when I pushed open the lounge door she was still at it, only the Hoover wasn't switched on. Her head jerked up and she stared wildly at me, shoving the vacuum cleaner back and forth. Her bone-white hair stuck out all over, as if she'd plugged herself into the socket by mistake.
'Want a cup of tea, Lola Nan?' I said.
'I can't hear you!' she shouted.
'Cup of tea?' I shouted back. God, I'd make someone a great husband one day. I was that used to humouring crazy women.

From Crossing the Line by Gillian Philip.

Gillian Philip *1964

2012-02-01T09:00:00.002+01:00

I am not usually reading Young Adult (YA) novels, but a friendly visitor at the EdBookFest advocated Gillian's writings to me (well, actually, he's a friend of Gillian and a barrister with it...). Out of curiosity, I bought one of her books, Crossing the Line, and went to her reading at the festival. So, another 'lesser known' female writer to present:

Gillian Philip was born in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. When she was 11 years old, the family moved to Aberdeen. Besides of spending a lot of time on the beach, she liked to write already from an early age onwards with English being her favourite subject at school. Nevertheless, she chose to read Politics & International Relations at the University, doing odd jobs afterwards, as assisting an aspiring MP who she married in 1989. In 1990, the couple moved to Barbados where Gillian decided to turn to writing seriously. She had several short stories published in magazines but only in 2001, when returning to Scotland, she turned to novels for young adults. Her first full length novel Bad Faith was published in 2008. In the meantime she published several stories covering various genres, including crime, horror and fantasy. She also publishes under the name Gabriella Poole, writing for the 'Darke Academy' series, the 'Rebel Angels' series and 'Shades'. Furthermore she ghostwrites fiction for Evans Brothers, a publisher specialised on books for the UK curriculum.

What I thought about my first YA book: Though there are some flaws in the consistency of the first-person narrator, the seventeen year old Nick ("Ah, hormones and lust, there is no reasoning with them" ???), I was astonished about the intensity of the events taken place and the way the main character handles them. Very dense and emotionally stirring, still the story line stays calm - a very well composed arrangement and well kept to the limited point of view. I was glad to have taken this side path in literature for once.

Quote of the Month - January 2012

2012-01-01T09:10:00.002+01:00

"I made no resolutions for the New Year. The habit of making plans, of criticizing, sanctioning and moulding my life, is too much of a daily event for me."

Anaïs Nin

Anaïs Nin (1903 - 1977)

2012-01-01T09:00:00.001+01:00

A well-fitting quote I thought...

Anaïs Nin, born Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell in Neuilly, France, to the Cuban composer Joaquin Nin and French-Danish singer Rosa Culmell (remember, this is 1903!). When she was eleven, her parents divorced and her mother moved with Anaïs and her two brothers from Barcelona to New York. This is also the time that Anaïs began to write her journals for which she is widely known. In 1923, she married Hugo Guiler and moved to Paris in 1924. Hugo worked for an international bank, allowing Anaïs to live on and off in a studio to herself or even in a houseboat, pursuing her interest in writing. They additionally supported various avant-garde artists which became close friends and sometimes lovers to Anaïs. Her most remarkable affair is with Henry Miller, who strongly influenced her both as a woman and author. Anaïs Nin wrote a number of novels and prose poems in surrealistic style but she is probably best remembered for her diaries. They cover several decades and provide a deep insight into her personal life and relationships. She was also one of the first female writer to explore fully the range of erotic writing and certainly the first woman in Europe to write erotica. The rumor that Anaïs was bisexual was given extra speculation by Philip Kaufmann's film Henry & June. In 1939, Hugo and Anaïs moved back to NY, when American citizens were urged to leave Europe due to the upcoming war. Eight years later she began a relationship with Rupert Pole, sixteen years her junior, dividing her live between NY/Hugo and Los Angeles, where Rupert lived. In 1955, she moved permanently to Los Angeles to live with Rupert until she died of cancer in 1977.
Though she was a popular lecturer during the feminist movement in the 1960s, she refused to be connected to its political aims. Only late, in 1973, she received an honorary doctorate from the Philadelphia College of Art and in 1974 was she elected to the United States National Institute of Arts and Letters.

Quote of the Month - December 2011

2011-12-01T09:10:00.003+01:00

jesus
who was that, please
a chinese woman asked
puzzled in a german lesson

some of them laughed
politely the others
loudly
all of them

baffled

about themselves.
(1992)

May Ayim (1960 - 1996)

2011-12-01T09:00:00.006+01:00

I had May already presented on my old web-log, but since that is broken down, I wanted to have her in focus again and in particular her poem with the celebration of Christ's birth approaching.

During my time at the University of Hamburg, in the early nineties, I was introduced to the forthcoming literature by Afro-American women writers such as Zora Neale Hursten, Alice Walker and Toni Morrison. When I learned about the fact that there is one of their 'sisters' living and writing just 'around the corner' I was the more attracted and interested in her life. May Ayim, born Sylvia Brigitte Gertrude Opitz in Hamburg, Germany, was a poet, educator and activist within the Afro-German movement. Since her parents weren't married her father, a Ghanaian medical student, was denied parenthood and her German mother, unfit to raise her, placed her in an orphanage. After a brief stay, she was moved to Münster to live in foster care. Her foster parents raised her with extra parental pressure on being 'good, orderly and mannerly' since May aroused attention in the early 60's as a 'dark-skinned' child. When she fell short of their expectations their punishment was often physical. While May, a very sensitive child, yearned for love and acceptance she was hit with a wooden spoon. After graduation she went to Regensburg to study Psychology and Education and wrote her thesis on Afro-Germans. In 1986, her thesis was published in a book together with the interviews of Black German women concerning their lifes and backgrounds since a lot of Germans still thought it impossible to be both Black & German at the same time (Farbe bekennen / Showing Our Colors, 1986). Furthermore, she was co-founder of the "Initiative of Black People in Germany". When returning from a visit to her paternal family in Ghana, she moved to Berlin, adopted her father's surname Ayim as pen name and published another book with her poems (blues in schwarz weiss, 1995). She became a lecturer at the Freie Universität Berlin and worked as a speech therapist. Nevertheless, her traumatic childhood kept haunting her and in 1996, she had several severe mental and physical breakdowns. When she was additionally diagnosed of Multiple Sclerosis she felt so forlorn that she committed suicide by jumping off a high-rise.

Because I am still very much impressed by the sensitivity of her poems which are delicate observations, I add an additional poem in memory of her (in German though):

exotik

nachdem sie mich erst anschwärzten
zogen sie mich dann durch den kakao
um mir schließlich weiß machen zu wollen
es sei vollkommen unangebracht
schwarz zu sehen

(1985)

Quote of the Month - November 2011

2011-11-01T09:10:00.002+01:00

"The train journey brought back the hopeful, depressing trips to Kalina to see Narayan, and he felt melancholic; finally he'd understood what life was like, the meetings and partings it entailed. It was a thought that only made him more attached to his life and the people in it. From his window seat he looked with hungry eyes at the dirty worlds next to the tracks: the brightly painted shacks, the grubby faced children, the ugly concrete tower blocks, the smells. It was his city, his world; it might be imperfect, but it was home."

From Saraswati Park by Anjali Joseph

Anjali Joseph (*1978)

2011-11-01T09:05:00.029+01:00

From the well-established Poet Laureate let's turn to a first-time novelist: Anjali Joseph, born in Bombay/Mumbai. At the age of seven, her family moved to England on behalf of her father's work as a research scientist. She went to Trinity School in Leamington Spa and read at Trinity College in Cambridge. Whereas her family returned to India, she stayed in England and moved on to Paris to teach English at the Sorbonne. "Living in France unexpectedly gave me new affection for England; I felt more English", she explains in an interview with The Indepedent (24/10/2011). Nevertheless, while between jobs, she moves back to India and gets a job at The Times of India in Bombay and later becomes Commissioning Editor for ELLE (India). Four years later, she returns to England to do her Master's degree in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, graduating with distinction in 2008. Her first novel Saraswati Park was published in 2010 and already has won her various prizes: the Desmond Elliot Prize for New Fiction and the Betty Trask Prize for first novel written by authors under the age of 35. She was additionally nominated for the Newton First Book Award, reading at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, where I met her.
Her novel is about young Ashish, repeating his final year at college, his life with his uncle and aunt around the fictional place 'Saraswati Park' in Bombay and his sexual awakening. It is a quiet book, with seemingly quiet lives in a quiet part of Bombay. As she mentioned herself, the book had been dismissed mainly by many of the Indian critiques because of it's "everyday crab". But don't be mistaken - the inner lives are roaring, often struggling invisibly with their dreams, hopes and losses. When being interviewed by Namita Gokhale, director of the Jaipur Literature Festival, at the Edbookfest she mentioned Samuel Beckett as a major influence on her writing as well as Indian authors like Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyaya and the grand dame of Urdu fiction, Ismat Chughtai. And still, she finds it strange to 'represent' a national literature, in her case, Indian, while she lives and writes in England. Her second novel, at which she is currently working, will focus precisely on the subject of the 'definition of self' when having lived in various places. Her protagonist will follow a similar route as she had, living in London, Paris and Bombay. It will be interesting how she will handle this issue and I hope that I will be able to mention her in my blog some more times.

Poem of the Month - October 2011

2011-10-01T10:10:00.001+02:00

Mrs Darwin

7 April 1852

Went to the Zoo.

I said to Him –

Something about that Chimpanzee over there reminds me
of you.

From The World’s Wife by Carol Ann Duffy (pub. 1999)

Carol Ann Duffy (*1955)

2011-10-01T10:00:00.002+02:00

Carol Ann Duffy, poet and writer of plays and children’s books, was born in Glasgow,

Scotland

, to an Irish-Scot father and an Irish mother. She is the eldest of five, having four younger brothers. The family moved to Stafford,

England

, when Carol was six, then pursuing a regular school education. At an early age, Carol knew that she wanted to be a writer. She was positively encouraged by her English teachers who assisted the publishing of some of her poems. When Carol was 16, she decided to live with the English poet, Adrian Henri, founder of the poetry-rock group ‘The Liverpool Scene’, writing poetry which characterized the popular culture. To be close to him, Carol applied to the University of Liverpool and started studying philosophy in 1974, receiving an honours degree in 1977. During her time in Liverpool, she also wrote plays which were performed at the Liverpool Playhouse. After graduation, she wrote widely: poetry, television shows, plays. She worked as critic for The Guardian, was editor of the poetry magazine, Ambit, editor to anthologies, children’s books, and plays. In 1996, Carol became lecturer in poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University where she is currently holding the position of creative director of the Writing School. In all those years she received a wide range of awards and fellowships and eventually was nominated poet laureate in 1999. She was missed out and it is assumed that then Prime Minister Tony Blair shied away from Carol’s lesbian relationship with poet colleague Jackie Kay. In 2009, though, she accepted the position as the first female poet laureate in 341 years.

Peggy Hughes from the Scottish Poetry Library had advised me on seeing Carol Ann Duffy at the Edbookfest. When I purchased the ticket to one of her readings, all I knew was that she is the current Poet Laureate. When I finally saw her on stage, presenting her poetry I understood why she holds this official position since 2009. The wittiness, this seemingly playful use of concepts and words and her cunning style are worth savouring. Check on her book of poems The World's Wife and your point of view on 'historical events' will turn...

"Poem" of the Month - September 2011

2011-09-10T13:55:00.000+02:00

You reached out to me

touched a string

and made me hum ~ ~ ~

At EdBookFest 2011

Edinburgh International Book Festival

2011-09-10T13:34:00.002+02:00

Isn't it lovely to start my new blog with the impressions of my stay at the Edinburgh International Book Festival!

For the records: I left Amsterdam Schiphol with a suitcase of 18 kg - two weeks later I returned with 24 kg and a backpack full of books. All in all I brought back 26 books: 17 signed, 14 books by women, eight books of poems with one copy by Carol Ann Duffy (Poet Laureate) exclusively sold at the festival due to be published in October. Ten books are by authors not living in their country of origin, one in German, one book for young adults, one anthology, four books of short stories, one book about life in modern India. And I am proudest of those books that were given to me as token of friendship - my humble thanks for those!

Yet, much more important than statistics: I returned with lots of wonderful impressions of people who love stories - those who tell them, those who write them down and those enjoying reading them; I enjoyed the atmosphere of the word being spread, to meet the authors, to hear them read their stories with their own words, in their own rhythm, their very own voice. I listened to Adam Zagajewski, Hanan Al-Shaykh, Tahmima Anam, Jenny Erpenbeck, Michel Faber, Kamila Shamsie, Manon Uphoff, Kevin Barry, Lucian Teodorovici, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Angela Saini, The Man Asian Literary Prize winner Bei Feiyu, Manu Joseph, Tabish Khair and the Newton First Book Award Nominees Rahul Bhattacharya, Anjali Joseph, Neel Mukherjee, Sanjeev Sahota, Naomi Wood and many more.

I got introduced to young adult stories by Gillian Philips, discussed Canadian poetry with Jim Nason, Ruth Pierson and their fellow poets, laughed along with Don Paterson on Shakespeare's Sonnets, and was taken away at Carol Ann Duffy's presentation. You'll get an impression yourself reading this blog regularly as all female authors will be presented during the next months on my blog - reason to check it every month!
At last a word to those who reached out: many thanks to Peggy and Lilias from the Scottish Poetry Library and the work they do, warm thanks to Ruth and Jim and their poet friends, Ian from London who introduced me to Gillian Philips, Jane from Spain, and John Molleson and his family. And last but not least special thanks to Namita Gokhale, director of the Jaipur Literature Festival in India, chairing some of the events at the EdBookFest, giving me deeper insight on Modern Indian Literature. Now, it's time to read!

Edinburgh International Book Festival
Scottish Poetry Library
Jaipur Literature Festival