Arja Salafranca’s collection of stories, The Thin Line is due out in April, 2010, just in time for the London Book Fair. Arja’s has received many accolades and prizes for her poetry and short fiction since the mid 90’s. She is currently the editor of the Sunday Independent’s Lifestyle section.
This is what Hamilton Wende has to say about the collection:
These are wonderful stories. They chart a new direction in South African fiction, where each line, each page – each story unfolds subtly, reaching deeper and more intimately into the tender spaces that exist in all our lives between love and doubt. Reading them kept me up late at night, wanting to know more about the characters’ lives. I was enthralled by the clarity and compassion of her insights; and moved by her obvious love for our fragile country and the fierce power of our unrelinquished hopes.
Here is the blurb:
‘Words grow up and reverberate … they come back’
The short stories in The Thin Line show what happens when a writer casts a thin line into a pool of character and situation. Characters assume position, while readers see the lines they have drawn around the selves in the stories. As readers we are lucky – we can then step over these lines and watch from inside the story. We see characters draw battle lines and retreat behind them, mark out their territory with boundary lines and dare others to cross them. We notice as story lines escape from one story to resurface in others, sometimes the merest thread, sometimes a bolder and more definite intrusion. And sometimes we watch story lines loop back on themselves to form circles, or sharply curved ellipses. Some stories are cross-hatched with many lines – webbed and netted – and we watch the people inside these struggle to escape from situations, often of their own making – and often because they didn’t draw the line when they should have. Lines create boxes and keep people lonely and separate from each other. And sometimes, lines fade, are erased, or can be crossed, with happy and satisfying effect.
Whatever may happen inside these stories the reader is hooked from the first one, reeled in on that thin line. And they don’t leave you alone. You get up to make some toast, or check the mail and as you’re walking back to your desk, you’re thinking about the woman artist, or Corinna trapped in her huge teenage body, or Cleo in love with a married man after all these years, or poor skinny Mark, seeing his love teeter away from him.
“Only my love of the straight line keeps me going,” Carmen Herrera (Artist)
Last week about 20 publishers/ book trade people spent 3 days at Roodevallei, north of Pretoria, getting into gear for the London Book Fair. Jane Henshall, the South Africa Market Focus Co-ordinator, organised one of the best training experiences I have ever had. The venue was fabulous, comfortable rooms, with free wifi access, the food was divine, in fact too delicious and it was quite hard to eat in a restrained fashion. I don’t think we could have had a better facilitator than Sheila Lambie, of Oxford Brookes University Publishing Studies, a wonderful woman with years of experience in the UK book trade. Sheila worked us very hard, into the night on the Thursday night, but every minute was worth it. (The only thing that wasn’t absolutely spot on was the weather, it was like Cape Town in winter, only worse.)
Amy Webster, of the London Book Fair was there too, to give us hands on advice about the logistics and practicalities of what we need to do to get ourselves to the Fair. I learnt so much from Sheila, Amy and the other participants, that I felt very full and a little overwhelmed after the workshop. But now that I am back at my desk and have started to tackle some of the tasks, and to think strategically about the LBF, I’m feeling really excited.
I’m planning to select the publishers I want to meet very carefully to pitch rights sales to them. I’m going to pore over the professional seminar programme and choose a few key sessions to attend. Cory Doctorow is a presenter, I certainly won’t miss his session if I can help it. I plan to meet Alexander Leborg of Minuskel forlag who has bought the Norwegian rights to Whiplash by Tracey Farren.
The London Book Fair, a focused trade fair, seems to me to be quite different – tougher, more demanding, but also a giant step into making Modjaji Books sustainable, than our Cape Town Book Fair, a selling fair. The LBF needs careful planning, and I need to set my agenda, my strategic goals and stick to them as far as possible, allowing a little room for serendipity. Before the Roodevallei experience the LBF seemed very far away, now it seems all too soon.
I still can’t quite believe how lucky Modjaji Books and I am to have this once in a lifetime opportunity to be sponsored to go to the London Book Fair, and to be given a stand too, when South Africa is the Market Focus country and when South Africa is on people’s minds because of the 2010 soccer world cup.
Some of the people who were at the training included Debra Primo of UKZN Press, Tim Richman of Two Dogs, Jane Henshall, Amy Webster and Karen Brodie (British Council).
Jelly Dog Days – Erica Emdon Whiplash – Tracey Farren (short-listed for the 2009 Sunday Times Prize) Counting Sleeping Beauties – Hazel Frankel Little Ice Cream Boy – Jacques Pauw
WISER will host a discussion among four authors who have recently published novels.The panellists will engage their novels, each of which deals with a version of dysfunctional domesticity, family implosion and in two, how this has impacted on the adults who emerge. Whiplash and the Little Ice Cream Boy tell the stories of grown-up protagonists from fractured working-class worlds, while Jelly Dog Days that of a young girl who attempts to navigate her way out of a similarly bleak background. In Counting Sleeping Beauties an awful family tragedy is related, which threatens to destroy the neat, tidy suburban world of a middle-class, Jewish family.
The discussion will focus on the themes of marginality within, and the hidden interiority of, families, while also considering certain aspects of the craft of writing, such as the challenges of representing domestic drama, the demands of sustaining first-person narratives, questions of voice, and the ethics of representing disruptive and prospective violence. The writers will also comment on their sense of the particularities of South African domestic histories.
Date: 8 October 2009 Venue: WISER Seminar Room, 6th Floor, Richard Ward Building, University of the Witwatersrand Time: 18:00-19:30
On Wednesday night, the 2nd September, the Book Lounge and Modjaji Books hosted a fabulous party for two Cape Town poets, Sindiwe Magona and Helen Moffett. Veruschka and her team outdid themselves with the decor. The “Please, Take Photographs” installation, the balloons, the festive party atmosphere. Thanks so much for pulling out all the stops.
Helen and Sindiwe both read their poems with great style and verve. The BL was full to capacity, there were people sitting on the stairs, on the floor, standing. Many glasses were broken. Sorry Mervyn….
It was one of those memorable nights, a night of poetry and magic. Helen’s birthday was yesterday, the 2nd September (Happy Birthday, Helen) and Sindiwe’s on the 27th August (Happy Birthday to you too, Sindiwe – she is 66 – she told us, and puts many younger people to shame with her beauty, dynamism, humour, vibrant presence).
Sindiwe started the reading with the first poem she ever wrote, her coming out as a poet poem. She also read “For Maria”, the mother of a friend, an Italian woman, in honour of her 80th birthday. As Sindiwe could speak no Italian and Maria could speak no English, Sindiwe said she didn’t want to be a ‘foei tog’ (sp?) at the party. Somehow I can’t picture Sindiwe ever being a foei tog. She finished her reading with the title poem of her book, ‘Please, Take Photographs’ written about South Africa’s HIV/AIDS crisis while she was still living in New York, working at the UN.
Helen read from Strange Fruit, she told us she was reading ‘the sentimental ones’, some of which were written for members of the audience that evening, two dear friends and her niece. She finished with a poem for Pushkin, a cat that has since passed away but is sorely missed. When the readings were over, we all longed for more. She stuck to the ones which weren’t PG rated as her niece was there.
The birthday celebrants were given big ‘book cover’ cards signed by most of the people at the Book Lounge last night and flowers. The rest of us got soul food, cake and lots of other yummy eats and wine from Leopard’s Leap. Five lucky folk got free tickets to see Sindiwe’s play, “To My Mother’s Mother” which is opening at the Baxter in mid September.
Ten days in Joburg from the 1st – 10th August was a delightful treat. I lived there a long time. It smells and tastes like home, the climate is still and reassuring. It would take too long to write a proper account of all the joys and wonders, but for the Book SA record, these were the highlights:
Meeting Billy Kahora from Kwani? in Nairobi, Martin Njanga from Storymoja Hay Literature Festival and Bibi Bakare-Yusuf from Cassava Republic Press in Abuja, Nigeria. Getting Bibi’s catalogue. I loved their warmth and their “can do” attitudes.
Lunch at Gramadoelas with Louis Greenberg, Kate White, Jassy McKenzie, Dion de Jong, ar, Fiona & Frank Snyckers, Billy Kahora, Phillippa Yaa de Villiers, and Zukiswa Wanner. Wild laughing conversations and confessions amongst virtual friends. Acquiring a signed copy of The Beggar’s Signwriter which I started reading on the flight home. And am savouring.
Seeing poet/publisher friends: Alan Finlay, Robert Berold, Mxolisi Nyezwa, Gary Cummiskey, Vonani Bila, and Allan Kolski Horwitz at the Pan African Indie Publishers meeting hosted by Khanya College at Museum Africa. Buying new editions of Botsotso and Kotaz.
Having Whiplash ordered by David Krut bookstores and then filling the order at the Jozi Book Fair.
Sharing a stand with the beautiful people of Wordsetc.
Meeting Philip Miller, Justice Malala and Fred Khumalo at the Sunday Times Awards. Being at the Awards as the proud publisher of Whiplash. What naches for a first novel published by a new publisher on the block!
Watching the Martin Scorcese doccie on Bob Dylan at my friend, Belinda’s house in Norwood.
Seeing Cape Town friends and colleagues in unfamiliar places, Ben-Editor, Liepollo from Chimurenga, Jane Henshall (British Council) and Robin Malan. Seeing Joburg bookish people in Joburg, instead of at the CTICC or FLF – Arja Salafranca, Tymon Smith, for example.
Remembering the short cut to the airport from Norwood via Orange Grove and Sylvia’s Pass without consulting a map.
Having coffee on the Newtown Square opposite Museum Africa – such a glorious public space. Driving back and forth over the iconic Mandela Bridge, past Wits. Dear old Wits.
On Saturday night Tracey was at home with her newborn baby boy, I was at the Sunday Times Awards Evening. I asked Tracey to write something for the evening, just in case. As you all know, Anne Landsman’s book The Rowing Lesson took the Fiction Crown. Tracey and I join everyone else in congratulating Anne Landsman and Kwela on this fine and well deserved achievement. We were thrilled to be ‘invited the party’, to be on the list. It still seems extraordinarily wonderful, especially as we’ve struggled to get Whiplash read, seen and heard by a range of those that matter. But what mattered to us over the past exciting few weeks was that Whiplash was seen and heard and read and taken seriously by the 2009 Sunday Times Fiction Judges.
This is what Tracey had to say on Saturday about Whiplash:
I asked for a whole lot of things at once, but thought it too presumptuous to specify the timing. So I am at home with a dim night lamp and a week old baby boy, feeling utterly blessed and gladly imagining the evening glitter.
Thanks to my vaudeville publisher, Colleen Higgs, who obeys the whisperings of her cheeky guides. Thanks to my original agent, Ron Irwin and my editor and agent, Maire Fisher for sticking their necks out and defending ‘Tess’ (the character) at every turn.
The shortlisting/award says a lot about our creative freedom in the country. It says that we truly can use whatever language we choose. We can tell a story in beautiful word strokes, like many of the gorgeous books on the list, or we can punch it out from the pavement. Either way, our readers sense beyond the intellect, and allow their hearts resonate with the force of the story.
To the people who loved Whiplash, thank you for acknowledging the passion and the pain that it took to write the novel. Thank you, too, for turning your ear to one of the ‘untouchables.’ Whiplash is about a fallen character living a sordid life, but her readers listened for her spark of laughter, they waited for glimpses of her true beauty, then gladly forgave her mistaken belief about what she was worth.
The recognition of Whiplash says something wonderful about the capacity of South Africans for compassion. We live in a crazy place, where good and evil are hugely amplified. It takes a big heart and an open mind to negotiate healing here. It takes much more than judgement. In a tiny way, this recognition of a fictional, drug addicted prostitute shows the rare ability of South Africans to heal, to see the humanity in even the darkest places and to shine a light on it.
For those who’ve read Whiplash it really felt as though like Tess, we too had made it into the VIP Tent at the J & B Met and then some. (more…)
Rapid Express, Fast Forward, doesn’t begin to describe the past few months for me and Modjaji Books.
The Cape Town Book Fair Sharing a stand with LiveWriting and ‘back room renting’ to Wordsetc and Chimurenga was fabulous, because even though we only had a klein standtjie in the Small Publishers’ Pavilion there was always a buzz at Stand J8.3 and a small crowd of animatedly chatting people in the aisle.
The 4 new poetry books were launched at the Book Fair and were ready two weeks before the Fair, thanks to MegaDigital’s efficiency, and Natascha Mostert who did the book design for the 4 poetry books worked to very tight deadlines and did a brilliant job of the books, including designing the covers of Oleander and Please, Take Photographs. My friend Colleen Crawford Cousins made a beautiful cover for Burnt Offering that I think breaks new ground for poetry book covers. Hannah Morris, once again did a beautiful job of all the hand lettering and of the cover for Helen Moffett’s book, Strange Fruit.
The launch of the 4 new poetry books was a Book Fair hit. It happened at the end of a long two days at 5.30 pm at the DALRO space. All 4 poets were there, 2 of them travelled some distance to get there. Fiona Zerbst flew in from Rustenberg and Joan Metelerkamp drove down from Knysna. Thanks to the Cape 300 Foundation and to MegaDigital for sponsorship and support in publishing these books.
After the launch, a few of us had a post-launch celebration. We, that is to say, Helen, Fiona and some of her friends, Lauri Kubuitsile, Khosi Xaba, Phillippa Yaa de Villiers, Anne Landsman and I celebrated poetry, life, and friendship with bubbles at the Westin Hotel (used to be the Arabella Sheraton).
On the Saturday afternoon of the CTBF I facilitated a discussion and reading organised by the British Council. It featured Sindiwe Magona, Phillippa Yaa de Villiers, Khosi Xaba, Malika Ndlovu and Zena Edwards (UK). Lauri Kubuitsile who stayed with me over the Book Fair loved this session. Here’s her blog. It was wonderful and frustrating, like being at a 45 minute banquet and you don’t have plates. Each poet read one poem and spoke briefly about their work, their inspiratio and what they love. I could have listened to each one for hours. Because it was organised quite late in the day it featured in the programme, but only mentioned Zena Edwards. Lots of people who might like to have been there missed out, although the room was pretty full.
The last 6 weeks or so has seen a lot of publicity for Modjaji authors that I haven’t had time to put up here. So now I am making up for lost time. The Friday before the Book Fair, Gary Cummiskey had 2 articles in The Business Day, one of which was all about small publishing and Modjaji Books. It’s thrilling for me that what I am trying to do with Modjaji is supported so kindly by journalists and media people like Gary, Janet van Eeden, Ben (editor), and Phakama.
During the Book Fair I battled with laryngitis, but managed to keep the upper hand. But afterwards I was brought down with a deep exhaustion – was it the flu or just Post Cape Town Book Fair Stress Syndrome? Finally feeling myself again.
Brilliant to see Hilda Twongyeire from Femrite, Uganda at the Book Fair. I have some Femrite books available for sale if anyone is interested. I will do a separate post one of these days.
Invisible Earthquake Malika Ndlovu’s Invisible Earthquake has been doing really well. We’re into a second print run. Every month since the book has come out, Malika has done a public appearance. In spite of the Book Fair being quite a manic space, there were many in her audience who were so moved by her reading that they were in tears. Litnet, 2nd July 2009 features a wonderful Janet van Eeden interview with Malika about Invisible Earthquake, why she wrote it and how she has experienced the publication of it.
Whiplash Whiplash has been ordered into lots of book stores in numbers unheard of before for this small publisher.
Interested noises coming in for buying the foreign language rights for Whiplash. Please hold thumbs.
August Hugh Hodge has kindly offered August to Modjaji poets, so each Monday in August will see a Modjaji poet at the mic in Obz at Off the Wall.
August will also see Modjaji Books at the Jozi Book Fair, I’m taking a stand there. It will be wonderful to meet up with Jozi bookish peeps and indie publishers. Nice for me to go back to Jozi, it’s my old home town.
August 1st is the date that the Sunday Times Literary Awards announces the winner. Modjaji Books is on the guest list for this occasion. I have to remind myself to breathe. It is a huge honour and thrill to have Whiplash and Tracey Farren on the shortlist. Makes me feel that all I have put into Whiplash was worth it after all.
Other good news for Modjaji Books – the Hiemstra Trust has awarded a small publishing subsidy for the book, Hester se Brood by Hester van der Walt, so that book will definitely be rolling off the presses before the end of the year. It’s great to get the support of a donor with such gravitas.
I’m sure there is more, but it will keep for another post.
At last Whiplash face out in an Exclusive Books - Dec 2008
As a new small publisher, Modjaji Books, I have found the internet invaluable in meeting some of the difficulties and challenges that I face. Creating a name for the company, limited resources, unknown authors, new titles, being outside of the mainstream of publishing and the book world are a few of the challenges.
Ben Williams of Book SA has kindly let me host a micro-site for Modjaji Books within the Book SA site. As a fledgling publisher I aim to make small resources stretch as far as they will go. I know In the future I plan to develop a Modjaji Books website as well, where I can list my books, sell them even, but for now, which has been almost two years, http://modjaji.book.co.za is a good place to be. The blog is an excellent forum to post reviews, news, questions, and information. Because of the blog I have received wonderful letters from possible new authors and people in Book development in other African countries.
I have used the internet to maximise Modjaji’s presence online and to multiply the effect of any PR that my books have received. For example, any time there is a review or an honour for one of my books such as Tracey Farren’s Whiplash being shortlisted for the Sunday Times Award and getting a White Ribbon Award from the Women Demand Dignity advocacy group or Megan Hall winning the Ingrid Jonker prize for Fourth Child – I blog about it on Book SA, and then I put the link to the blog onto my Facebook profile and I paste it to the Modjaji Books group on Facebook. I also Twitter about things I want to publicise like events at the Cape Town Book Fair.
The other bloggers on Book SA act as a kind of support group, most of them are writers. I am a writer and publisher. I see that most publishers don’t blog on Book SA themselves, they use Book SA for PR. Louis Greenberg (who was at Exclusive Books when I wrote the article) is also an author, who blogs on Book SA – he kindly sent me the Exclusive’s Homebru call for submissions for 2009. I found out about them last year, but somehow slipped off the mailing list. I was delighted to be able to submit Whiplash for consideration, it was ‘long-listed’, which means that all the Exclusive Books managers will be looking at Whiplash as a serious contender for Homebru. Sadly it wasn’t selected, but a great many more managers will be aware of Whiplash.
Although I’ve been fairly successful in generating awareness of my authors and their books, I don’t have the resources to market directly to booksellers to the extent that I might like. I did use Bookmark to advertise Whiplash towards the end of last year and I use a distributor. But unfortunately for Modjaji Books my distributor sells over 200 other books, so their reps don’t focus on my books in the way that I would like them to. Direct communication with bookstore staff and managers is a key challenge and one that I haven’t been able to overcome yet. I hear that managers are overwhelmed with emails, so that is not necessarily a good route to go. I wish I could get bookstore managers to visit the Book SA site regularly. The internet doesn’t solve the problem of meeting managers personally and developing a relationship. If anyone has ideas about how to meet this challenge I would love to hear about them.
The internet is also useful for doing research, finding out about trends, authors, issues, making valuable connections with people, sending out information about calls for submissions. Once every couple of weeks I search for reviews of Modjaji’s books for example, I recently came across the African Writing Online review of Megan Hall’s Fourth Child.
Facebook is a useful place to publicise reviews, news, new books, prizes, events. Modjaji Books has a Facebook group of 259 at last count and it continues to grow. I post all my blog entries onto my Facebook group. In January this year I used Facebook, BookSA and direct emailing to advertise the Modjaji Subscription Offer. In this way I have been able to build up a modest cash reserve to offset some of the production costs of my books in advance. The discounts which one has to pay to one’s distributor and to bookshops, and VAT on production costs even when one isn’t VAT registered make the margins very narrow for a small publisher. So doing some direct selling is hugely helpful as here the margins are much higher.
As a new small publisher I have had to think creatively how to make my books visible and to be patient. For example, I published Megan Hall’s book in October 2007, she wanted the book out before she had her baby, due towards the end of November. I knew she wouldn’t be up for major PR, but it was good to launch the book and Modjaji Books. In August 2008 she won the Ingrid Jonker prize for Fourth Child and after that the PR was intense, and then she got invited to Poetry Africa in Durban when her baby girl was almost one. Megan has also now been invited to be on the Poetry International website.
So in summary, I use the internet to build networks, to pass on useful information, to share information and ideas and to ask for favours where necessary. Essentially I see it as a two way street – an opportunity to build up awareness amongst the book buying public and amongst the industry about Modjaji titles and authors, but also a wonderful opportunity to pool resources and to learn, connect and work with others.
In June 2009, Bookmark – local Bookseller’s magazine A slightly older version of this article – the brief asked me to write about how I use the internet as a small independent publisher. I wrote the article in January 2009 and the publication was delayed till now. I’ve just updated the article where necessary for re-publication here.
Sistah Judah blogged about reading Whiplash. Here’s an excerpt of what she says…
Oh my Gosh…. What a book. To quote Tracey’s own words, Whiplash “was inspired by the feisty street workers I met during my journalistic research. I was fascinated by the horror of their daily lives, and the audacious courage that it takes to confront it. The main character, ‘Tess’ was born of my deep curiosity and their indomitable spirit.”
It’s Saturday night and we’re sitting around a huge bon fire. It’s a perfect night, not a breeze in the air. It’s after 9pm and I’m restless. I’m watching Brother Gad kneading together flour, mountain garlic and water, and rolling the dough in his hands to form perfect little rolls to be put directly into the fire ash. Unleavened bread, that’s yeast less bread, a favorite amongst many Rasta people, certainly a favourite of mine.
We’re at the annual Reggae Music Paarl Festival and I’m watching the venue fill up with hundreds of Reggae Music lovers, but all I can think about is Tess and the characters in WHIPLASH.
Inside the main tent, hundreds of people gather to watch the live bands entertain and I smile coz I feel like I know a secret.
I disappear out of the crowd and make my way into our personal tent armed with my book, a torch and a slowboat and I spend the rest of the night with Tess. I have a baby growing in my belly so I’m all too happy to be out of the crowd and on my own for a while.
Last Thursday, 12th March, saw The Citizen give Whiplash its umpteenth bright orange review. Thanks to Isabella Morris for putting us in touch with the right person at The Citizen to send the book to. The interview also has an interview dimension. Hlengiwe Mnguni writes:
At one point, author Tracey Farren asked herself what she was doing in such a dark place.
But the death of one of the women she had interviewed as part of her research spurred her on to dig deep and finish her debut novel Whiplash, a book about redemption in the world of prostitution.
“There was this one woman I was really fond of. She was the sweetest person… had an open personality. She was picked up by a client carved, mutilated, killed and buried at the beach,” says Farren from her Cape Town home.
And brutal scenes like these do make appearances in the pages of Whiplash, particularly in the first half.
Arja Salafranca’s collection of stories, The Thin Line is due out in April, 2010, just in time for the London Book Fair. Arja’s has received many accolades and prizes for her poetry and short fiction since the mid 90’s. She is currently the editor of the Sunday Independent’s Lifestyle section.
