TRIBUTE EVENING: GUS FERGUSON

Monday 22 March 2021 at 19:30 SAST

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Born in 1940 in Stornoway in the Hebrides, Gus Ferguson moved to South Africa at nine years old, living in Harrismith, Durban, and Cape Town where he graduated as a pharmacist. He worked in the pharmacy industry until his retirement in 2011.

Gus was a much-loved poet, cartoonist, publisher, and mentor, renowned for his offbeat, incisive and empathetic sense of humour. His own writing and drawing spurred him into a parallel career as publisher and literary magazine editor for which he won the SAFIKA Against All Odds Publisher award (2000), the Molteno Medal (2001) and the English Academy Gold Medal for Distinguished Services to English (2009) as well as the AA Vita and Eleanor Anderson awards.

Gus published two magazines: the whimsical Slug Newsletter, (later Slugnews) and the subsequent Carapace, a mix of poems, drawings, cartoons, and short reviews that lasted for over 100 issues, featuring many prominent South African writers. Book publishing followed under the imprints Snailpress, Firfield Press, and Carapace Poets. Dozens of volumes were published, often in combination with other small presses, such as Kwela and Crane River.

In 1979 he published his first collection, Snail Morning, followed by Doggerel Day (1982), Carpe Diem (1992), Icarus Rising (1994), The Herding of the Snail (1995), Light Verse at the End of the Tunnel in (1996), Stressed-Unstressed (2000), Dubious Delights (2006), Holding Pattern (2010), Arse Poetica (2010) and Holding Back (2014). Many collections included cartoons and drawings. He published two children’s books — In the Land of the Upper-Ping and The Land of Pong. There were also three books of cartoons — Love Amongst the Middle-Aged (1997), Waiting for Gateau (2004) and Dubious Delights: of Aging and other follies (2006).

In his own words, "Gus Ferguson should be martyred / But not with wood and nails / He should be wrapped in lettuce leaves / And thrown amongst his snails."

After a protracted illness Gus passed in December 2020.

We have a list of wonderful poets and authors who will be reading Gus's works on 22 March:

• JM Coetzee (Recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize for Literature)

• Keith Gottschalk

• Ingrid de Kok

• Elisa Galgut

• Ken Barris

• Antjie Krog

• Jonty Driver

• Isobel Dixon

• Moira Lovell

• Michael Cope

• Marcia Leveson

• Geoff Haresnape

• Douglas Reid Skinner

See you there!

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DORIAN HAARHOFF

Monday 15 March 2021 at 19:30 SAST

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Dorian Haarhoff is a poet, storyteller, mentor, and former Prof. of English (Namibia). Passionate about developing innate creativity and imagination, he believes in the power of poetry to create new realities. He has been participating poet at Poetry Africa, SA, and at the International Poetry Festival in Colombia, South America. Dorian has edited student productions and recorded a poetry CD. His wordshops are based on his workbook The Writer’s Voice. Dorian has published several volumes (via official publishers and self-publication.) He presents regularly at the McGregor Poetry Festival (his 2019 entry placed third) Poems appear in diverse journals such as the recipe book The Cake the Buddha Ate.

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CHRISTINE COATES

Monday 8 March 2021 at 19:30 SAST

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Christine Coates, a poet and writer from Cape Town, holds an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Cape Town. Her poems and stories have been published in various local and international literary journals. She has published three collections of poetry. Her debut collection Homegrown (2014, Modjaji Books), received an honourable mention from the Glenna Luschei Prize. Her second collection, Fire Drought Water, was published by Damselfly Press, 2018 and The Summer We didn’t Die by Modjaji Books, 2020. Christine’s poems have been selected for all the EU Sol Plaatje Poetry anthologies, 2011 – 2019, Coming Home: poems of the Grahamstown diaspora 2019, “New” African Poets Anthologies 2015 – 2017, and the Cambridge Conference of Contemporary Poetry Review 2002, Africa Focus. She has participated in the Alan Paton Literary Festival, Blown Away by Books Festival, Franschhoek Literary Festival, McGregor Poetry Festival, Rutanang Book Festival, Open Book Festival Cape Town.

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