Quote of the Month - February 2014

"...i want to thank everybody for the experience of the 2014 writers unlimited festival. it was really a necessary breath for me and it is always essential to meet new people. thank you also for the opportunity to be associated with the other writers and being able to be on stage with antjie [krog]."


E-mail by Andries Samuel, South African poet and participant of the 19th edition of the Writers Unlimited literary festival 

Writers Unlimited winternachten festival Den Haag, 16 - 19 January

What a fantastic literary festival it has been! 

For four days, Den Haag/The Hague (NL) wasn't only the national city of peace and justice, but also host to the international literary festival Writers Unlimited 2014. The festival where writers meet others to discuss on a set of various themes. This year the focus has been on social media with its main focus on "LIKE ME".

Take the discussion on the Friday evening with its headline: "LIKE ME. PLEASE LIKE ME." The literary panel consisted of Amin Maalouf (F/LB), Aminatta Forna (GB/SL; see Quote of the Month - November 2013), Andrés Neuman (ES/AR), Fouad Laroui  (NL/MA). It hasn't been about the newest book by one of the authors - it has been about the various approaches to social media, as facebook, twitter and blogger. As some of the authors explained, they are actually enjoying the exchange of ideas on the internet whereas others openly stated their aversion to it facing the accusation that they are being snobs or arrogant. A discussion totally on the impact of the subject on the authors. The writer as a personality stood in the centre of the discussion and Sheila Sitalsing did a wonderful job as moderator.

According to Ton van de Langkruis, director and founder of the festival, the Writers Unlimited winternachten festival in Den Haag is one of the literary festivals where the author stands central. Not her or his latest publication - though that is a welcome side effect because people certainly get curious about the books. But to Ton, it's the discussion, the exchange of ideas, the various points of view of the various authors that form the centre of the festival. And we, as audience are welcome to join and enjoy!

How did I enjoy those days! Just a few highlights: Antjie Krog from South Africa was one of the outstanding authors that had her poems on her grandchild presented with the headline: "My verre-verste kind" (=my far-farthest child) on Saturday night. What heartbreaking images on being a grandmother to a grandchild that lives miles away talking in a different language. How to connect? How to relate? And Wende, a Dutch singer-songwriter, put Antjie's poems in Afrikaans on music and made an impressive stage performance that certainly was breathtaking. 
Not to mention Antjie's laudatory 'speech' on Tom Lanoye who received the Constantijn Huygens-prijs on Sunday for his complete oeuvre. What a show! What craft! Her own performance has been an excellent proof of her craftsmanship in poetry!

And please, don't tell me that poetry is dead. Arie Boomsma presented various poets: debut poet Kira Wuck (NL) next to honoured poet Alfred Schaffer (NL/SA), Rodaan al Galidi (NL/IQ) and the nominees of the VSB poetry prize Miriam van Hee (NL) and Antoine de Kom (NL). Everybody on the biggest stage of the festival! The hall was packed and everybody stood clapping in the end to Typhoon's musical poetry performance. Poetry has certainly been alive that evening.

But there had been also some serious discussions: 'Don't trust the experts! Question their knowledge!' - Noreena Hertz, British economist and author to the book Eyes Wide Open in discussion with Femke Halsema, former Dutch politician. Everybody probably agreed and didn't think she had something new to tell since Europeans tend to be overcritical. But then the turn in her argumentation: 'WikiLeaks isn't doing a good job - some things need to be secret...!' What an eye-opener, she was just contradicting herself!

Not to forget the side shows: "De tekst van mijn leven / The Text of my Life" where authors had the opportunity to present a text to which they return regularly on behalf of inspiration. An intimate moment with the author in a side wing of the building and a casual meeting with the audience. To which text does an author return to for various reasons? And why? Interesting to learn about the various points of view.

And these are only the highlights - there had been more fantastic programmes with wonderful personalities - check the website of the festival www.winternachten.nl and enjoy the videos (also in English) that had been taped. To those of you being able to read Dutch: there is also a special edition of the literary journal TIRADE with essays and poems by all participants: authors and musicians.

As for one young author - he impressed me so much - that'll be another "Quote of the Month"...

Quote of the Month - January 2014

 

       The silence before

 

       I hear my mother's voice -

 

       New Year's phone call

 

 

From Kiyoko's Sky: The Haiku of Kiyoko Tokutomi (Brooks Books, 2002)

Kiyoko Tokutomi (1929 - 2002)

Sometimes it needs only a few words to express a certain feeling. I liked this simple but strong haiku by Kiyoko for it expresses this rare feeling when children, living away from home, realise that their parents are getting old. Nowadays, a current haiku would focus on the fact that some elders won't realise that they ARE actually online while still checking their computer...

Kiyoko Tokutomi was born in a small farming community called Nabeshima, near Nagasaki, Japan. The family earned their living by raising silk worms. She attended the Saga Girls' High School and enrolled to the Saga Teachers' College. That summer in 1945, America had a nuclear bomb dropped on Nagasaki. The family survived by hiding in caves in the nearby mountains but lost family members. In 1948, Kiyoko majored in Japanese literature with the emphasis on haiku and became a teacher at Nabashima in literature and dance. There she met her future husband Kiyoshi who was born in America. He was sent to Japan earlier on by his Japanese mother when his father had died. A time of hardship followed during wartime and Kiyoko was mainly busy attending to Kiyoshi who had developed tuberculosis. When he had the possibility Kiyoshi returned to America in 1951, inviting Kiyoko to follow. Kiyoko came to America only in 1954 unable to read or speak in English. It took Kiyoko another three years to fully integrate into her new language. Because of her husband's illness, she took on a job and was continually promoted for her accuracy. She was noted for having an eye for details and her well-developed sense of aesthetics is reflected in her haiku.
Later on, she succeeded to win her husband for her passion - writing haiku. In 1975, they founded the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society. They taught English-speaking writers to write haiku focusing mainly on the essence of the kigo, the traditional haiku form, and the importance of simplicity. The cited haiku is a beautiful example for that. Another simple but strong haiku I like is a beautiful 'picture' of the English saying "Take time to smell the flowers":
 

Wisteria:
inside its fragrance
I pause
 

Kiyoshi died in 1987 and Kiyoko continued the work at the society they had started writing haiku in both Japanese and English. In 1999, she was named dojin in Kari, a designation given to the most accomplished members. In 2000, the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society celebrated its 25th anniversary and in September 2001, she read at the celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the United States–Japanese Peace Treaty. That time Kiyoko was also diagnosed with cancer and Alzheimer's disease. Still, she continued writing haiku and visited Japan in August 2002, seeing her hometown, siblings and childhood friends. This would be her final visit to Japan. Kiyoko died on Christmas Day, 2002, two weeks after a final performance at the Yuki Teikei's winter party where the above mentioned book was being presented.

And since haikus are short - here another haiku from Kiyoko from the book haiku mind I've bought at the Scottish Poetry Library in Edinburgh which made me aware of this particular writer:


shaking
the packet of seeds
asking, are you still alive?


Have a wonderful and inspiring year 2014!

Quote of the Month - December 2013

"That first night, his hand in your hand wipes away all you ever knew about yourself and your wounds. Just his hand takes you away, like your father when his arms lifted you up in the air and your tiny body opened to the possibility of worlds it did not yet know. You did not sleep that night. You held a necklace and a bottle of perfume to your breast not sure where to hide them as you are without possessions or a cupboard you can lock. All your secrets are common knowledge, everyone is familiar with your doings and habits: a piece of paper, a cinema ticket hidden in your father's cupboard, in his jacket with the stars on the shoulder, and traces of all the surgery he performed with the scalpel there in the army hospital at Tel al-Kebir while you were still at the aubergine stage."


From Blue Aubergine by Miral al-Tahawy (1998/2002)

Miral al-Tahawy *1968

Another author who has been invited to Writers Unlimited, the International Literature Festival in Den Haag, running from 16-19 January 2014!

Becoming a praised author, being invited to various literary events, discussed and highlighted at universities around the globe, that is certainly not what was apparent on its way for Miral al-Tahawy; quite the contrary: she was born in Sharqiya to a family who is part of the Bedouin al-Hanadi tribe in the Al Sharqia Governorate, north-east to Cairo in Egypt. An old Bedouin tribe with strong traditional structures in which Miral was not allowed to leave her home without the company of a male family member. But she and her sister were lucky: her father, a progressive Bedouin, acknowledged his daughters' right to education and so they were sent to school. Afterwards Miral went to Zagazig University to gain her B.A. in Arabic literature. This gave her the comfort to become a school teacher supporting herself while other young women of the tribe had to marry.
Though supported at first by her father her 'Bildungsweg' clashed severely with her family when Miral decided to continue her education. She moved to Cairo to succeed her studies earning a Master's degree and finally writing her PhD on 'The Desert Novel in the Arabic Literature' at Cairo University.
And though she might seem to be limited in her literary background, remember that many of the folk narratives origin from the orally transmitted folk lores being told in tents, at fireplaces, at bed times; oral literature that has been passed down from one generation to the next giving those who were taught to read and write the opportunity to collect, transform and introduce it to a wider audience.
When Miral published her first book Riem al-barai al-mostahila (The Exceptional Steppe Antelope), a collection of short stories in 1995, she was actually presenting the oral literature her grandmother had passed on to her children and grandchildren.
Her first novel Al-Khibaa (The Tent) was published in 1996 by Hosni Soliman, owner of Dar Sharqiyyat who had already published several acclaimed Egyptian authors. Two other novels followed: Al-Badhingana al-zarqa (The Blue Aubergine) in 1998 and Naquarat al-Zibae (Gazelle Tracks) in 2002. With her second novel Al-Badhingana al-zarga (The Blue Aubergine), Miral won the state's literary encouragement price in 2000 becoming the first female writer in Egypt to win this prize.
In 2007, Miral decided to move further in her education and became assistant professor at the Appalachian State University of North Carolina in the foreign languages department additionally becoming coordinator of their Arabic programme. At the moment, Miral is assistant professor at Arizona State University.
Obviously, her background does not haunt her but encourages her to write about the tradition, the culture, the myths but also the alienation and pain that is cutting through families and its members being confronted with the modern times and its developments.
Her latest novel, Burukilin Hayts (Brooklyn Heights, 2010), depicts the life of an Egyptian women who immigrated to the United States. With this novel, Miral won the prestigious Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature and was nominated for the Arabic Booker Prize in 2011. 
And now, Miral will be present at two events at the Literature Festival in Den Haag: on Friday Night Unlimited and Saturday Night Unlimited. Check their website for more information! 

Quote of the Month - November 2013

 "'Agnes was not always this way,' she says. 'Before she was like you and me. And then she became crossed.' She removes the stool from beneath her, brushes the seat and sets it down.
 'Please.'
 Kai sits.
 She offers him some of the groundnuts and leaves the room with Ishmail. Kai prepares to wait.
 How many hours he sat there he would not later recall. At some point the boy, sleepy and tired of waiting outside, crept in to be with him and Kai allowed him to stay, sheltered beneath the wing of his arm. People were sent for. A neighbour. A young woman without a smile. An older woman with a creased face and white hair. Kai waited and listened without interrupting or speaking except to greet each new arrival, watch while they took a seat and were told what was required of them. He didn't speak even when they faltered; he offered no solace but left it to others. Each person told a part of the same story. And in telling another's story, they told their own. Kai took what they had given him and placed it together with what he already knew and those things Adrian had told him.
 This was Agnes's story, the story of Agnes and Naasu. In hushed voices, told behind a curtain in a quiet room and in the eye of the night, from the lips of many. By the time the last speaker had finished the moon was well past its zenith and Kai understood the storytellers' courage."

From The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna (2010)

Aminatta Forna *1964

From the former student, Evie Wyld, we come to a Professor at Bath Spa University: Aminatta Forna, born in Glasgow, Scotland, UK is holding the position of Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University next to her current post of Sterling Brown Distinguished Visiting Professor at Williams College, Massachusetts in the US. And, and this is in reference to the current subject of The English Book Club that I run, she is also winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize 'Best Book Award' of 2011 with her novel The Memory of Love.
 When I learned about the various places she lived throughout her past life I was wondering, referring to my post in May this year, which place she would call 'home', which place she would 'return to': Aminatta was raised in Sierra Leone, being her father's background, and Britain, being her mother's background, with periods in Iran, Thailand and Zambia. Presently, she lives in London but regularly spends time in Sierra Leone where she has been running a school project, the Rogbonko Project, since 2003.
 She also worked for the BBC as reporter and document maker and is known for several documentaries on Africa. One of my favourites: The Lost Libraries of Timbuktu, the documentary on "its long-hidden legacy of hundreds of thousands of ancient manuscripts" (see 'link' to the BBC).  
 How to present an author showered with awards: her first book The Devil that Danced on the Water (2002) was runner up to the Samuel Johnson Prize in 2003 and chosen for the Barnes & Nobel Discover New Writers Series. Her second novel Ancestor Stones (2006) was winner of the Hurston Wright Legacy Award for Debut Fiction, the LiBeraturpreis in Germany and the Aidoo-Snyder Book Prize, additionally nominated for the International Dublin IMPAC Award. The Memory of Love (2010), Aminatta's third novel, was not only winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize 'Best Book Award', as mentioned above, but also short-listed for the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2011, the IMPAC Award in 2012, the Warwick Prize 2011 and nominated for the European Prize for Fiction in 2013. Her latest novel, The Hired Man had only been published in March 2013 and already highly acclaimed.
 But it is obvious that Aminatta does not work and write for praise or prizes - she is too much concerned and involved about the various forms of private and official conflicts. When I learned about her background, her father had been imprisoned twice and hanged in 1975, and her works, the way she tries to 'handle' guilt, shame, anger and loss after wartimes, it all reminded me of Tahmima Anam (presented here on May 2012) also trying to come to terms with the "wounds that war leaves on souls" (quote by Tahmima, see also May 2012) or as someone once said: "War does not end with a peace contract"(unfortunately, I cannot recall who said or wrote it).
 At the moment, I am reading her third novel, The Memory of Love: about the various characters and their lives in Africa and how they and history weave together leaving no one untouched, not even the expats, thinking to be only observers or onlookers. It's not because the book received all the prizes and praise that I am reading the novel at the moment. My main interest in reading the novel is to be prepared when she will be part of the Dutch literary festival "Writers Unlimited" in January 2014 in Den Haag. Check their site for dates and schedules. I am sure that it will be an interesting meeting with an outstanding author! Expect more from her on my blog.