Modjaji Books is proud to announce the publication of Hester se Brood by Hester van der Walt.
This gorgeous book will be out in the first week of December, if you pay now you will get an 18% discount on your signed copy – that is you will pay R155. The book will sell in stores for R190. The book is a wonderful exploration of a handmade life and the preoccupations of the author, Hester van der Walt, in particular her journeying into bread making and moving to and making her new home in McGregor. The book is beautifully designed by Natasha Mostert, cover lettering by Hannah Morris, and Hester’s partner, Lies Hoogendoorn’s delightful drawings enhance the text and give a visual sense of life in McGregor. Lies also did the painting which was used for the cover design.
More about the Book:
Hester se Brood is gesetel in ’n dorpie in die Klein Karoo, waar Hester van der Walt brood in ’n houtbakoond vir die plaaslike mark bak. Soos twee groot geeste van weleer, C. Louis Leipoldt en Martin Versveld, het sy ’n diepgewortelde, intuïtiewe aanvoeling vir die konneksie tussen siel en kos; veral kos wat met sorg, volgens tradisionele beginsels en metodes, voorberei word. Saam met gulhartige porsies sielskos, verskaf hierdie eerlike (en heerlike) plat-op-die-aarde boek ook resepte wat jou gaan wys hoe om klasieke Europese brode, soos ciabatta, focaccia, kitke en baguettes te bak, asook plaaslike gustelinge, soos outydse soetsuurdeegbrood.
’n Fyn sin vir humor, en ’n groot waardering vir die magiese spel tussen vuur en hout, graan en sout, water en gis en tyd – die basiese elemente wat nodig is om goeie brood te bak – maak hierdie boek net so onweerstaanbaar soos die reuk van brood, kraakvars uit die oond.
The publication of the book was made possible by a grant from the Hiemstra Trust.
Please feel free to pass this special offer on to friends and colleagues. The offer is only available until the 27th November 2009. Please email me to place an order and let me know how many copies you are ordering and your postal address.
Modjaji Books Banking details: Modjaji Books CC FNB * Adderley Street Branch * 201409 Cheque Account * Account Number 62148917646 Use your Surname as a reference when you make the payment online
Yesterday, I got an email from Jane Henshall at the British Council, letting me know that Malika Ndlovu, author ofInvisble Earthquake has been chosen by the SA Focus Steering Committee to participate in the London Book Fair next year. This follows closely on the heels of hearing that Modjaji Books received one of the 10 places for smaller, independent publishers. All of this is enormously thrilling, and underlies my sense that it was right to start Modjaji Books; there is a place for a small press focusing on the writing of Southern African women.
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
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.
The African Publishing Book Recordpublished a short incisive review of Fourth Child by Megan Hall last year. Modjaji Books is delighted that Megan Hall, the first author we published, is participating in the Badilisha Poetry X-change, next week in Cape Town.
Megan Hall Fourth Child. Athlone, South Africa: Modjaji Books, 2007. 55pp price not reported pap. ISBN 9780980272901
These are searingly honest poems that cut deep with deceptive simplicity. Megan Hall approaches love with a clinical romanticism, laying bare long-held hopes and illusions. Fourth Child is a complex, carefully constructed collection of poems. The overall effect is of homely comfort: the reader is invited to cuddle up by the fireside with a glass of wine and enjoy some beautiful lines and images, to share in heartbreaks and, ultimately, to savour the wonderful healing power of words. The author has a dark sense of humour that surfaces at unexpected moments where, rather than reflect a pervading sense of abandonment and disillusion, it elicits an enduring sense that hope and love will prevail.
This is a book the reader will return to repeatedly. Fourth Child is recommended for school libraries, special collections and general readers.
Peter Midgeley University of Alberta The African Book Publishing Record Vol 34, no. 4, 2008
Malika wrote a Post Script for Invisible Earthquake during the process of turning the manuscript into a book. The manuscript covered journal entries Malika wrote from 2003 to 2006. The Post Script was written in January 2009. She looks back over the six years since she lost her baby and where she is now. What has changed, how she feels now. You will find this moving account and reflection posted by Adele Hamilton on Parent24.com
January 2009
On the 3rd of January 2006 my mother, five close friends and I gathered on a beach at dawn and sat silently in the disappearing dark, listening to the sea. Witnessing the silhouetted mountain and horizon gradually birthed into the light, we finally broke the hush with a few soft, heart-spoken words. I gave each one a white daisy to cast into the waves and we each in our own time approached the icy water’s edge and made our offerings to the sea and sky. Joy carried me at that moment, filled me with a deep gratitude for each precious one who supported me through my journey of recovery.
When I stepped into the water I walked till it washed up to my knees. As the sea swirled around me tugging at my feet in its retreat, I felt the same sudden powerlessness and aloneness of the moment of that single push that finally flushed her from my womb. I started to cry when an unexpected gust of wind caught my daisy, took it from my hand, helped me let it go. I felt myself open instead of close, felt the glow of her, my daughter, being proud of me.
Just to let you know that i haven’t forgotten about you. I am working on raising funds for the project, as funding I was hoping for didn’t materialise. If any of you have suggestions for funding, let me know by email.
I will be getting in touch with you soon regarding contracts and other practicalities. You will also be engaged in working on your story with an editor.
I know that this process must make some of you feel a little impatient. Please bear with me.
If you have questions other than these ones, you are welcome to be in touch.
We got over 300 stories in the call for submissions. As you can imagine it takes time to do justice to so many stories.
In about a month or so – say mid October we will let writers know whether or not we have accepted their story. There have been a fascinating range of submissions from most Southern African countries.
Please be patient, your story is important to us and we will let you know as soon as we can.
As you can see for a small press we have been busy and having fun! The Book Fair was brilliant for Modjaji Books. Whiplash sold like hot cakes, hand sold by Gus (Snailpress), myself and Maire. Tracey was there quite a bit too, signing books and speaking to people at the stand. I made some wonderful connections, still lots of following up to do. Here are some more pix just to give a sense of it all. If anyone has a pic of the shared Modjaji Book/Snailpress standette Q7.4 – please let me have a copy. I forgot to take a pic, too busy “being in the moment”.
Tracey Farren and Ron Irwin in conversation at the Cape Town Book Fair – pictures by Gary Cummiskey
Modjaji Books is proud to announce the publication of Hester se Brood by Hester van der Walt.
