Kandidate vir vanjaar se Ingrid Jonker-prys

Die spertyd vir die voorlegging van Engelse debuutbundels vir vanjaar se Ingrid Jonker-prys het hierdie naweek verstryk. Graag maak ons bekend dat ses bundels ontvang is wat onverwyld na die beoordelaars gestuur sal word vir hul oorweging. Die ses kandidate (in alfabetiese volgorde) is: Tyrone Appollis (Train to Mitchells Plain, 2008: Selfpublikasie), Lies Jobson (View from an escalator, 2008: Botsotso Publishing), Bernat Kruger (Never, 2008: Deep South), Sindiwe Magona (Please, take photographs, 2009: Modjaji Books), Helen Moffett (Strange fruit, 2009: Modjaji Books), Tania van Schalkwyk (Hyphen, 2009: UCT Writers Series, No.7).

Inderdaad ‘n indrukwekkende lys. Volgens die onderskeie flaptekste kan die beoordelaars uitsien na die volgende:

“Tyrone Appollis offers us the treasures to be found amongst and within the diverse people of South Africa. He shares an unforgettable journey of people, insights, culture and a commentary of life in the larger Western Cape.” (Linda de Vries)

“Bernat Kruger lives in the farming town of Delmas in Mpumalanga. He writes poems which combine hard-edged realism with a visionary spirituality. The risks he takes with the English language are all the more astonishing given that his mother tongue is Afrikaans.”

“Sindiwe Magona’s poems conspire with her.  Even years after being written, they still seem warm from her lips, and it is this residue of her telling them that draws you into their confidence. From the languid innocence of the poems about her village, to her shattering imgaes of Africa at war, Magona leads you headlong into her fireside circle.”

“Strange fruit is a courageous debut with a remarkable range in theme and tone, from the nostalgic to the comedic to the bawdy, and to the angry, the melancholic and the steadfast and comforting.” (Rustum Kozain)

“Tania van Schalkwyk’s poems are warm, sensuous memories that often shock and surprise at the same time … They are not just on inner sdpace, but are poems of place, as they move from islands to the veld, from cities to the desert.” (Lindsey Collen)

Met Liesl Jobson se bundel is daar egter geen flapteks om as lusmaker te dien nie, maar ek het wel die volgende aanhaling op die internet kon opspoor: “Jobson says her musical training benefits her writing. ‘It gives you the capacity to listen to rythms, to think structurally about your writing, to hold multiple voices and themes together. And there is also the discipline of daily practice,’ something she has transferred to her writing and a discipline she thinks everyone would find useful. ‘If I was president I would make everyone write a poem once a week.'”

Die beoordelingsproses behoort teen die einde van die maand afgehandel te wees en volgens die reëlingskomitee behoort die wenner vroeg in Desember bekend gemaak te kan word en – na die debakel rondom vanjaar se prys – is dit inderdaad iets om voor dankbaar te wees en na uit te sien.

***

Vanoggend is daar weer heelwat bydraes wat sedert Vrydag bygekom het, wat jy kan geniet. Edwin Fagel het ‘n besonderse stuk oor die ‘hermetiese digter’ Hans Faverey gelewer; Desmond Painter skryf oor ‘n liriek van Greg Brown en Charl-Pierre Naudé het dit weer oor kombersterme wat eintlik niksseggend is. In nog ‘n Wisselkaart vertel Luuk Gruwez van ‘n onlangse poësiefees in Mexiko waaraan hy moes deelneem. En dan, ten slotte, is daar weer vyf voorheen ongepubliseerde gedigte van Fanie Olivier ontvang en in sy gedigtekamer geplaas.

Lekker lees en mag die nuwe week ‘n prettige affêre wees.

Mooi bly.

LE