The Enchanting Poet -Gail Dendy (ISSUE XXI)
Gail Dendy has the unique distinction of having been published by Nobel Prizewinner Harold Pinter and of sharing a poetry collection with Peabody Winner and Oscar Nominee Norman Corwin. Her seventh book was Closer Than That. Her collections have appeared, variously, in Britain, South Africa and the United States, and many are held in the National English Literary Museum, Grahamstown; the New Alexandria Library, Egypt; and The Poetry Library, South Bank Centre, London.
Gail has also written plays, short stories, a novel, radio poetry programmes, radio news bulletins, and academic papers and journal articles. Her accolades reflect the diversity of her writing, including, inter alia: Winner: SA PEN Millennium Competition (Playwriting); Finalist: Herman Charles Bosman Award (Poetry), SA Science Fiction Society Award (Short Story); Shortlisted: Thomas Pringle Award (Short Story), Sol Plaatje/European Union Poetry Award 2011 and 2012; Longlisted: Plough Poetry Prize (UK). During 2014 Gail achieved ‘Highly Commended’ in the Poetry Space Competition 2014 (UK), was longlisted for The Twenty in 20 Project (the aim of which was to identify the best South African English-language short stories of the past two decades of democracy), longlisted for Short Story Day Africa 2014, and longlisted for the Sol Plaatje/European Poetry Award 2014.
Gail is an accomplished dancer, having trained with Robyn Orlin, and at the Bat Dor, Alvin Ailey and London Contemporary Dance theatre studios. In 1991 she was nominated for the inaugural AA Vita Award for Best Performer. She is also passionate about human, animal and environmental issues, having participated in a worldwide pro bono project for Lawyers Without Borders (for which she researched human trafficking in various countries in Africa), and contributed poems to the Stop the Serengeti Highway project, the anthology For Rhino in a Shrinking World and the Art of Humanity:Art of Human Rights 2015 project.
Originally from Durban, Gail is married and lives in Johannesburg. She is the Library and Research Manager for an international corporate-law firm.
Gail Dendy has the unique distinction of having been published by Nobel Prizewinner Harold Pinter and of sharing a poetry collection with Peabody Winner and Oscar Nominee Norman Corwin. Her seventh book was Closer Than That. Her collections have appeared, variously, in Britain, South Africa and the United States, and many are held in the National English Literary Museum, Grahamstown; the New Alexandria Library, Egypt; and The Poetry Library, South Bank Centre, London.
Gail has also written plays, short stories, a novel, radio poetry programmes, radio news bulletins, and academic papers and journal articles. Her accolades reflect the diversity of her writing, including, inter alia: Winner: SA PEN Millennium Competition (Playwriting); Finalist: Herman Charles Bosman Award (Poetry), SA Science Fiction Society Award (Short Story); Shortlisted: Thomas Pringle Award (Short Story), Sol Plaatje/European Union Poetry Award 2011 and 2012; Longlisted: Plough Poetry Prize (UK). During 2014 Gail achieved ‘Highly Commended’ in the Poetry Space Competition 2014 (UK), was longlisted for The Twenty in 20 Project (the aim of which was to identify the best South African English-language short stories of the past two decades of democracy), longlisted for Short Story Day Africa 2014, and longlisted for the Sol Plaatje/European Poetry Award 2014.
Gail is an accomplished dancer, having trained with Robyn Orlin, and at the Bat Dor, Alvin Ailey and London Contemporary Dance theatre studios. In 1991 she was nominated for the inaugural AA Vita Award for Best Performer. She is also passionate about human, animal and environmental issues, having participated in a worldwide pro bono project for Lawyers Without Borders (for which she researched human trafficking in various countries in Africa), and contributed poems to the Stop the Serengeti Highway project, the anthology For Rhino in a Shrinking World and the Art of Humanity:Art of Human Rights 2015 project.
Originally from Durban, Gail is married and lives in Johannesburg. She is the Library and Research Manager for an international corporate-law firm.
Editor's Choice -Philip Fried (ISSUE XXI)
Philip Fried has published six books of poetry, the most recent being his book of poems about the national security state, Interrogating Water (Salmon, 2014). He has recently published work in Poetry, Poet Lore, The Warwick Review, and The Poetry Review, and has poems forthcoming in Plume and The Notre Dame Review. In addition to writing poetry, he is the founding editor of The Manhattan Review (1980-present), an international poetry journal.
In "Intercepted Texts," his review of Interrogating Water in the July/August, 2014, issue of The American Book Review, Fred Muratori writes as follows:
"... Should a real apocalypse happen—and each day CNN offers evidence that it's well on the way—a lucky survivor might find a tattered copy of Philip Fried's Interrogating Water to be a ruefully illuminating discovery ... In a time of instantaneously transmitted social and news media, we may no longer need artists to be the 'antennae of the race' as they were for Ezra Pound in 1934, but Fried's poems demonstrate that a poet's acute receptivity to language in all its cultural and political manifestations can isolate and amplify the often unintended messages it conveys, no trivial skill in the rushed, roiling miasma of talking points and reflexive opinionating that constitutes what we call information...
Publishers Weekly called his fifth book, Early/Late: New and Selected Poems, “skillful and memorable,” Tim Liardet writing in The Warwick Review called it “deeply subversive,” and Renee Ashley in The Literary Review declared, “In realms between and including the Almighty and actuarial tables, Fried speaks every language faithfully and eloquently. Rejoice! Read!”
Philip Fried's Web site is www.philiphfried.com
Philip Fried has published six books of poetry, the most recent being his book of poems about the national security state, Interrogating Water (Salmon, 2014). He has recently published work in Poetry, Poet Lore, The Warwick Review, and The Poetry Review, and has poems forthcoming in Plume and The Notre Dame Review. In addition to writing poetry, he is the founding editor of The Manhattan Review (1980-present), an international poetry journal.
In "Intercepted Texts," his review of Interrogating Water in the July/August, 2014, issue of The American Book Review, Fred Muratori writes as follows:
"... Should a real apocalypse happen—and each day CNN offers evidence that it's well on the way—a lucky survivor might find a tattered copy of Philip Fried's Interrogating Water to be a ruefully illuminating discovery ... In a time of instantaneously transmitted social and news media, we may no longer need artists to be the 'antennae of the race' as they were for Ezra Pound in 1934, but Fried's poems demonstrate that a poet's acute receptivity to language in all its cultural and political manifestations can isolate and amplify the often unintended messages it conveys, no trivial skill in the rushed, roiling miasma of talking points and reflexive opinionating that constitutes what we call information...
Publishers Weekly called his fifth book, Early/Late: New and Selected Poems, “skillful and memorable,” Tim Liardet writing in The Warwick Review called it “deeply subversive,” and Renee Ashley in The Literary Review declared, “In realms between and including the Almighty and actuarial tables, Fried speaks every language faithfully and eloquently. Rejoice! Read!”
Philip Fried's Web site is www.philiphfried.com
The Enchanting Poet -(ISSUE XXII)
A poet and novelist Mamang Dai received the state Verrier Elwin Award in 2003 for her book Arunachal Pradesh- the hidden land featuring the culture, folklore and customs of Arunachal’s different communities. She has been featured in several national and international forums, and her poems, fiction and articles have been published in numerous journals and anthologies. In 2011 Dai was awarded the Padma Shri for her contributions in the field of literature and education. Currently she is Member, Arunachal Pradesh Public Service Commission.
Editor's Choice (ISSUE XXII)
E.V.Ramakrishnan is a bilingual writer who has published poetry and literary criticism in Malayalam, his mother tongue and English. He also translates between Indian languages and English. He has three volumes of poetry in English: Being Elsewhere in Myself (1980), A Python in a Snake Park (1994), and Terms of Seeing: New and Selected Poems (2006). He is working on his next volume of English poems. Among his critical books in English are Interdisciplinary Alter-natives in Comparative Literature (Co-edited, 2013), Locating Indian Literature: Texts, Traditions and Translations (2011) and Making It New: Modernism in Malayalam, Marathi and Hindi Poetry (1995). He has five critical books in Malayalam, including Aksharavum Aadhunikatayum (1994) for which he was awarded Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award. He is presently Professor Emeritus, School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies at Central University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar, Gujarat.
Kavita A. Jindal is the author of the poetry collection Raincheck Renewed, published to critical acclaim by Chameleon Press. Her short story A Flash of Pepper won the ‘Vintage Books/Foyles Haruki Murakami’ prize in January 2012. Her work has appeared in literary journals, anthologies and newspapers around the world and has been broadcast on BBC Radio 4. Her poems have been translated into Arabic, German, Punjabi, Spanish and Romanian. She is currently the Poetry Editor of Asia Literary Review.
www.kavitajindal.com
www.kavitajindal.com
A.J.Thomas (b.1952). Indian English poet and fiction writer; translates poetry, fiction, drama and non-fiction prose from Malayalam. Former Editor of Indian Literature. Did M.Phil, and Ph.D., from School of Letters, M.g.University, Kottayam. Was Senior Consultant, IGNOU; taught English in Benghazi University, Ajdabiya Branch, Libya. Germination(poetry, 1989) Bhaskara Pattelar and Other Stories, Manas, (1993), Reflections of a Hen in Her Last Hour and Other Stories (Penguin India), both Paul Zacharia's stories in translation, ONV Kurup’s Ujjayini, a verse-novel (Rupa) and This Ancient Lyre, ONV's poetry collection he edited for Sahitya Akademi, Kesavan's Lamentations, M.Mukundan's novel he translated for Rupa &Co.,are some of his noted contributions. Winner of Katha Award, AKMG Prize (which enabled him to tour USA, UK and Europe in 1997) and Vodafone Crossword Award (2007). Senior Fellow, Department of Culture, Govt. of India and Honorary Fellow, Department of Culture, Government of South Korea. Invited Guest Speaker in writers’ conferences in South Korea(three times), Australia, Thailand, Hong Kong and Nepal. Represented in The Literary Review Indian Poetry (USA-2009) and the HarperCollins Book of English Poetry (2012), The Dance of the Peacock, (2013, Canada) among others. email: [email protected] website:www.ajthomas.in.
