Monday 22 March 2021 at 19:30 SAST
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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