The Empty Chair by PEN SA
By PEN South Africa
The Empty Chair by PEN SASep 28, 2023
S9 E7 Hugo ka Canham & Grace A. Musila: Death, Life & Mpondo Theory
Grace A. Musila asks Hugo ka Canham about his book Riotous Deathscapes. They explore riotous methods, rural Mpondoland, precarity, storytelling, death and life as well as the natural and ancestral worlds.
Grace A. Musila is a Professor in the Department of African Literature at Wits University and the author of A Death Retold in Truth and Rumour: Kenya, Britain and the Julie Ward Murder (James Currey, 2015). She is the editor of Wangari Maathai’s Registers of Freedom (HSRC Press, 2019) and the Routledge Handbook of African Popular Culture (Routledge, 2022).
Hugo ka Canham is a Professor at the Institute for Social and Health Sciences at UNISA. He is the co-editor of Black Academic Voices: The South African Experience (HSRC Press, 2019). His latest book is Riotous Deathscapes (Duke University Press & Wits University Press, 2023).
In this episode we are in solidarity with academic, human rights lawyer and author Dr. Mohammed Al-Roken. We join PEN International and call on the authorities in the United Arab Emirates to free him. You can read more about his case here: https://www.pen-international.org/our-campaigns/day-of-the-imprisoned-writer-2021
As tributes to him, Hugo reads “Rain Falls on the Abstract World” by Gabeba Badperson and Grace reads from Dr Nawal El Saadawi’s essay “Dissidence and Creativity”.
This is the final episode of season nine. We’re so grateful to all our brilliant participants, our listeners for your support, our producer Andri Burnett, our executive producer Lara Buxbaum as well as Bongani Kona, Nadia Davids, Yewande Omotoso, Kate Highman and the whole of the board of PEN South Africa. Thank you to the U.S. Embassy in South Africa for the grant which made the last eight Transatlantic Seasons of The Empty Chair Podcast possible.
We hope you’ll spend time browsing through our archives. All our episodes are freely available on our website or wherever you get your podcasts.
This podcast series is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa to promote open conversation and highlight shared histories.
S9 E6 Gabeba Baderoon, Roger Reeves & Bongani Kona: Intimacy & Interiority
Bongani Kona interviews Gabeba Baderoon and Roger Reeves about their books The History of Intimacy and Dark Days: Fugitive Essays. They remember early transformative encounters with literature and their beginnings as writers. They also confer about essays, poetry, interior lives, family and their current projects. Roger reads from his essay “Reading Fire, Reading the Stars” in addition to his poems “Grendel” and “After the Funeral”. Gabeba reads her poems “Give” and “The Flats”.
Bongani Kona is a writer, editor and lecturer in the Department of Historical Studies at the University of the Western Cape. He is a board member of PEN South Africa.
Gabeba Baderoon is the author of Regarding Muslims: from Slavery to Post-apartheid as well as the poetry collections, The Dream in the Next Body, A Hundred Silences and The History of Intimacy. She's the co-editor, with Desiree Lewis, of the essay collection, Surfacing: On Being Black and Feminist in South Africa. Gabeba is an Associate Professor in Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, African Studies and Comparative Literature at Penn State University.
Roger Reeves is the author of two poetry collections, King Me and Best Barbarian. Dark Days: Fugitive Essays was published by Graywolf Press in 2023. His essays have appeared in Granta, The Virginia Quarterly, The Yale Review and elsewhere. Roger is an Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Texas at Austin.
In this episode we are in solidarity with the collective case of 12 Eritrean writers and journalists imprisoned in 2001. They are: Dawit Isaak, Fessehaye ‘Joshua’ Yohannes, Seyoum Tsehaye, Said Abdelkadir, Methanie Haile, Temesegen Ghebreyesuy, Yousif Mohammed Ali, Amanuel Asrat, Dawit Habtemichael, Matheos Habteab, Sahle ‘Wedi-ltay’ Tsefezab and Said Idris ‘Abu Are’.
We join PEN International, PEN Eritrea in Exile and PEN centres around the world in calling on the authorities in Eritrea to free them. You can read more about their case here: https://www.pen-international.org/our-campaigns/day-of-the-imprisoned-writer-2021
As tributes to them, Gabeba reads “All You Who Sleep Tonight” by Vikram Seth and Roger reads “Preliminary Question” by Aimé Césaire (translated by A. James Arnold and Clayton Eshleman).
This podcast series is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa to promote open conversation and highlight shared histories.
S9 E5 John Marnell, Alejandra Oliva & Kudakwashe Vanyoro: Migration, Refuge & Solidarity
Kudakwashe Vanyoro interviews John Marnell and Alejandra Oliva about their books Seeking Sanctuary and Rivermouth. They deliberate about telling other people’s stories, the experiences of LGBTIQ migrants, immigration policies, translation, faith-based organisations and solidarity.
Kudakwashe Vanyoro is a lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at Wits University. He is the author of the forthcoming book Migration, Crisis and Temporality at the Zimbabwe-South Africa Border: Governing Immobilities (Bristol University Press, 2024).
John Marnell is a Doctoral Researcher at the African Centre for Migration & Society at Wits University. He is the author of Seeking Sanctuary: Stories of Sexuality, Faith and Migration (Wits University Press, 2021) and with B Camminga co-edited Queer and Trans African Mobilities: Migration, Asylum and Diaspora (Zed Books, 2022).
Alejandra Oliva is an essayist, embroider, translator and immigrant justice advocate. Her book Rivermouth: A Chronicle of Language, Faith and Migration (Astra House, 2023) received a Whiting Nonfiction Grant. She was the Yale Whitney Humanities Center Franke Visiting Fellow in Spring 2022.
In this episode we are in solidarity with Crimean Tatar citizen journalist and human rights defender Server Mustafayev. We call on the authorities in Russia to free him. You can read more about his case here: https://www.pen-international.org/our-campaigns/day-of-the-imprisoned-writer-2022
As tributes to him, John reads “Teach the Nation Poetry” by Stella Nyanzi, Alejandra reads “Like You” by Roque Dalton (translated by Jack Hirschman) and Kuda reads an extract from the book he’s writing with his brother, Diaries of Border.
PEN South Africa joins the PEN community in mourning the journalists and writers who have been killed in Russia’s war on Ukraine, including Ukrainian writer Volodemyr Vakulenko and PEN Ukraine member and human rights defender Victoria Amelina. Read more here: https://www.pen-international.org/news/pen-international-mourns-the-killing-of-victoria-amelina
This podcast series is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa to promote open conversation and highlight shared histories.
S9 E4 Camille T. Dungy & Yewande Omotoso: Gardening & Creating a Space of Welcome
Yewande Omotoso asks Camille Dungy about her latest book, Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden. They delve into nature writing, gardening, radical generosity, writing revisions, the ethics of fellowship grants, hope and resilience.
Yewande Omotoso trained as an architect and holds a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Cape Town. She is the Vice-President and Treasurer of PEN South Africa. Her debut novel Bom Boy (Modjaji Books, 2011) won the South African Literary Award First Time Author Prize. Yewande was a 2015 Miles Morland Scholar. Her second novel The Woman Next Door (Chatto and Windus, 2016) has been translated into Catalan, Dutch, French, German, Italian and Korean. An Unusual Grief (Cassava Republic, 2022) is her third novel.
Camille T. Dungy is the author of Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden (Simon & Schuster, 2023). She has also written Guidebook to Relative Strangers: Journeys into Race, Motherhood, and History (W.W. Norton & Company, 2017) and four collections of poetry, including Trophic Cascade (Wesleyan University Press, 2017). Dungy edited Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry (University of Georgia Press, 2009). She is a University Distinguished Professor at Colorado State University.
In this episode we are in solidarity with Egyptian poet and lyricist Galal El-Behairy. We call on the authorities in Egypt to free him. You can read more about his case here: https://www.pen-international.org/news/poet-galal-el-behairy-marks-two-years-in-arbitrary-pre-trial-detention
As tributes to him, Camille reads extracts from El-Behairy’s “A Letter from Tora Prison” and Yewande reads Camille’s poem “Trophic Cascade”.
This podcast series is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa to promote open conversation and highlight shared histories.
S9 E3 LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs, Sihle Ntuli & Vuyokazi Ngemntu: Tracing Lineages & Imagining Futures
Vuyokazi Ngemntu invites LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs and Sihle Ntuli to reflect on their poetic practice, language and dispossession, literacies, influences, rootedness, Black women’s histories and music.
Vuyokazi Ngemntu is a writer-performer situated in Cape Town. She has received awards for her short stories and her work has appeared in The Kalahari Review, Herri, Ake Review and elsewhere.
LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs is a writer, vocalist and performance/sound artist. She is the author of the poetry collections TwERK (Belladonna, 2013) and Village (Coffee House Press, 2023). She lives in Harlem and teaches part-time at Brooklyn College and Stetson University.
Sihle Ntuli is a poet from Durban and a recipient of the 2023 JIAS Writing Fellowship for his poetry. He is the editor-in-chief of New Contrast. He is the author of the poetry chapbooks Rumblin’ (Uhlanga, 2020) and The Nation (River Glass Books, 2023) in addition to the full-length poetry collection Zabalaza Republic (Botsotso, 2023).
In this episode we are in solidarity with writer and activist Wai Moe Naing. We call on the authorities in Myanmar to free him. You can read more about his case here: https://www.pen-international.org/news/myanmar-pen-member-now-serving-54-year-prison-sentence
As tributes to him, LaTasha reads “American Sonnet 61” by Wanda Coleman, Sihle reads his poem “The National Screening of Sarafina, Every Year on June 16th” and Vuyokazi reads her own untitled poem.
PEN South Africa joins the PEN community in mourning the passing of writer, photographer, artist, and President of PEN Myanmar, Nyein Chan (known by his pen name, Nyi Pu Lay). You can read more about him here: https://www.pen-international.org/news/myanmar-pen-mourns-the-passing-of-pen-myanmar-president-nyi-pu-lay
This podcast series is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa to promote open conversation and highlight shared histories.
S9 E2 Ashwin Desai, Goolam Vahed & Betty Govinden: Durban’s Casbah – “A City Within a City”
Ashwin Desai and Goolam Vahed talk with Betty Govinden about their book Durban’s Casbah. They reflect on personal and collective pasts, bunny chows and bioscopes, critical nostalgia, indentured labour, migration, jazz and the Casbah today.
Betty Govinden is a retired academic, researcher, writer, poet and critic. She was awarded the English Academy of Southern Africa Gold Medal for distinguished service in 2022. Her published works include Sister Outsiders – Representation of Identity and Difference in Selected Writings by South African Indian Women (Unisa Press, 2008).
Ashwin Desai is a Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Johannesburg. He is the author of Wentworth: The Beautiful Game and the Making of Place (UKZN Press, 2019) and Reading Revolution: Shakespeare on Robben Island (Unisa Press, 2012) among many others.
Goolam Vahed is a Professor in the Department of History at the University of Kwazulu-Natal. His recent publications include Chota Motala. A Biography of Political Activism in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands (UKZN Press, 2018). He is the co-author with Ashwin Desai of Colour, Class and Community – The Natal Indian Congress, 1971-1994 (Wits University Press, 2021) and Durban’s Casbah: Bunny Chows, Bolsheviks and Bioscopes (UKZN Press, 2023).
In this episode we are in solidarity with journalist José Rubén Zamora Marroquín. We call on the authorities in Guatemala to free him. You can read more about his case here: https://www.pen-international.org/news/guatemala-jose-ruben-zamora-marroquin-must-be-released
As tributes to him, Goolam reads “A Prison Evening” by Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Ashwin reads from Mafika Gwala’s poem for A.K.M. Docrat “A Stalwart – August 1977” and Betty reads from Maria Ressa’s How to Stand Up to a Dictator as well as a poem she wrote for José Rubén Zamora Marroquín.
This podcast series is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa to promote open conversation and highlight shared histories.
S9 E1: Sarah Lubala, Mahtem Shiferraw & Phillippa Yaa de Villiers: Writing Across Time
Phillippa Yaa de Villiers interviews Sarah Lubala and Mahtem Shiferraw about their poetry collections, A History of Disappearance and Nomenclatures of Invisibility. Sarah and Mahtem read several of their poems and contemplate language, ancestors, writing for a collective, migration, loss and awe.
Phillippa Yaa de Villiers lectures in Creative Writing at Wits University. She is the author of the poetry collections Taller than Buildings, The Everyday Wife, which won the 2011 South African Literary Prize, and ice-cream headache in my bone. She co-edited Keorapetse Kgositsile: Collected Poems (2023) alongside Uhuru Phalafala.
Sarah Lubala is a Congolese-born poet. She has been shortlisted twice for the Gerald Kraak Award, and once for The Brittle Paper Poetry Award. She is the winner of the 14th edition of the Castello Di Duino prize. Her debut collection, A History of Disappearance, (Botsotso Publishing, 2022) won a Humanities and Social Sciences Award in 2023.
Mahtem Shiferraw is a writer and visual artist from Ethiopia and Eritrea. She is the author of three full-length poetry collections: Fuchsia which won the Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets, Your Body is War and Nomenclatures of Invisibility (BOA Editions Ltd., 2023). She is the founder and executive director of Anaphora Arts. She also serves on the Editorial Board of World Literature Today.
In this episode we are in solidarity with writer and human rights defender Teesta Setalvad. We call on the authorities in India to drop the charges against her. You can read more about her case here: https://www.pen-international.org/news/india-writer-and-human-rights-defender-teesta-setalvad-faces-imprisonment-after-gujarat-high-court-refuses-bail-plea
As tributes to her, Sarah reads "If They Come for Us" by Fatimah Asghar, Mahtem reads “If They Come for Me: After Fatimah Asghar” and Phillippa reads “Black Things” by Heather Robertson
This podcast series is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa to promote open conversation and highlight shared histories.
S8 E7 Jade Song & Mia Arderne: Mermaids, Body Horror & Becoming
Mia Arderne asks Jade Song about their debut novel Chlorine. They discuss beliefs about mermaids, girlhood, magical realism, mental illness, writing about violence and sexual assault, reclaiming one’s body, queer narratives and advice for writers.
Mia Arderne is the author of Mermaid Fillet (Kwela, NB Publishers, 2020). Mia holds an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Cape Town. She has bylines in the Mail & Guardian, Daily Maverick and New Frame among others. Her narrative essay "1000 Nights in Silence" appears in the anthology Touch: Sex, Sexuality and Sensuality (Kwela, 2021). She has also written several children's stories published by Penguin Random House.
Jade Song is an artist, art director, and writer in New York City. Their stories and essays have appeared in Teen Vogue, Electric Literature, and various literary magazines. Their debut novel Chlorine, a New York Times Editor’s Choice, is out now from William Morrow/HarperCollins (US) and from Footnote Press (UK). Their art direction work has been awarded by and featured in Campaign US, The Shortys, Bustle, and AdAge, among others.
In this episode we are in solidarity with French-Turkish sociologist, feminist and writer Pınar Selek. We call on the Turkish authorities to drop the charges and end the decades long judicial harassment of Pınar Selek. You can read more about her case here: https://www.pen-international.org/news/trkiye-end-the-decades-long-judicial-harassment-of-pen-member-pnar-selek
As tributes to her, Mia reads an extract from Mermaid Fillet and Jade reads an extract from “Postcolonial Love Poem” by Natalie Diaz. (Natalie Diaz was a guest on our podcast in season five episode four.)
This podcast series is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa to promote open conversation and highlight shared histories.
S8 E6 Jarred Thompson, Tyriek White & Khanya Mtshali: Debut Novels, Social Critique & Mortality
Khanya Mtshali asks Jarred Thompson and Tyriek White about their novels The Institute for Creative Dying and We Are a Haunting. They share their experiences of publishing their first novels and muse about craft, literary influences, religion, death, transatlantic history and creative responses to infrastructural decay.
Khanya Mtshali is a writer and critic from Johannesburg. She has an MA in Cultural Reporting and Criticism from New York University and has been published in The New Yorker, Africa Is a Country, The Johannesburg Review of Books and other places. She is the author of It's Not Inside, It's On Top: Memorable Moments in South African Advertising (Tafelberg, 2021) and she has published an introduction to the book, Last Interview and Other Conversations: Billie Holiday (Melville House, 2019).
Jarred Thompson is a literary and cultural studies researcher and educator and works as a lecturer in the English Department at the University of Pretoria. He was the winner of the 2020 Afritondo Prize and has been the recipient of several prestigious scholarships. His debut novel, The Institute for Creative Dying, is published through Picador Africa and Afritondo UK.
Tyriek Rashawn White is a writer, musician, and educator from Brooklyn. He is currently the media director of Lampblack Lit. He has received fellowships from Callaloo Writing Workshop and the New York State Writer's Institute, among other honours. He earned an MFA from the University of Mississippi and is the author of the novel, We Are a Haunting (Astra House, 2023).
In this episode we are in solidarity with detained Chinese writer and journalist Dong Yuyu. We call for his freedom. You can read more about his case here: https://www.pen-international.org/news/pen-international-joins-pen-centres-worldwide-in-call-for-release-of-chinese-writer-and-journalist-dong-yuyu.
As tributes to him, Tyriek reads from “On My Way out I Passed over You and the Verrazano Bridge” by Audre Lorde, Jarred reads “Still at War with the Stoics” by Jacques Coetzee and Khanya reads “Twenty Questions for your Mother” by Mahtem Shiferraw.
This podcast series is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa to promote open conversation and highlight shared histories.
S8 E5 KB Brookins & Maneo Mohale: Dreaming of Freedom & Centring Trans Joy
KB Brookins talks with Maneo Mohale about their poetry collection Freedom House. They contemplate poetry, social justice, community, police brutality, Blackness and transness as well as hope.
They both read poems from Freedom House. Maneo reads “Black Life circa 2029” and “T Shot #1” and KB reads “He/they in the streets, them/them in the sheets” and “T Shot #5: Ode to my Sharps Container”.
Maneo Mohale is a South African editor, feminist writer and poet. They have been long-listed twice for the Sol Plaatje European Union Poetry Anthology Award, and their debut collection of poetry, Everything is a Deathly Flower was published by uHlanga in September 2019. The collection was shortlisted for the Ingrid Jonker Poetry Prize, later winning the 2020 Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry. They currently serve as a research associate with the Centre for the Study of Race, Gender and Class at the University of Johannesburg.
KB Brookins is a Black, queer, and trans writer, cultural worker and artist from Texas. They are the author of How to Identify Yourself with a Wound (Kallisto Gaia Press 2022), winner of the Saguaro Poetry Prize and an American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book in Literature, and Freedom House (Deep Vellum 2023), which has been recommended by Vogue among others. KB’s writing is published in Poets.org, HuffPost, Poetry Magazine, and elsewhere. They are currently a National Endowment of the Arts fellow. KB’s debut memoir Pretty (Alfred A. Knopf) releases in 2024.
In this episode we are in solidarity with Cuban journalist Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca. We call for his freedom. You can read more about his case here: https://cpj.org/2022/08/cuban-journalist-lazaro-yuri-valle-roca-sentenced-to-5-years-in-prison/.
As tributes to him, KB reads “To the Young Who Want to Die” by Gwendolyn Brooks and Maneo reads “Love, Again” by Sarah Lubala.
This podcast series is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa to promote open conversation and highlight shared histories.
S8E4 Bronwyn Law-Viljoen, Idra Novey & Sean O’Toole: The Exhilaration of Visual Art
Sean O’Toole asks Bronwyn Law-Viljoen and Idra Novey about their novels Notes on Falling and Take What You Need. They discuss the emotional repertoires of their characters, the political context of their work, art-making as well as writing about mothers and daughters.
Sean O’Toole is a writer, editor and curator based in Cape Town. His two books are Irma Stern: African in Europe - European in Africa (2021), and The Marquis of Mooikloof and Other Stories (2006). He is the editor of three volumes of cultural essays, most recently The Journey: New Positions on African Photography (2020).
Bronwyn Law-Viljoen is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Adelaide and the former Head of Creative Writing at Wits University. She has doctorates from New York University and the University of the Witwatersrand. Her first novel, The Printmaker, (Umuzi, 2016) won the 2018 Olive Schreiner Prize. Her second novel, Notes on Falling was published by Umuzi/Penguin-Random House in 2022.
Idra Novey's most recent novel is Take What You Need (Viking, 2023). She is the author of Those Who Knew (2019) and Ways to Disappear (2016). Her poetry collections include Exit, Civilian, The Next Country and Clarice: The Visitor. Her works as a translator include Clarice Lispector’s novel The Passion According to G.H. and a co-translation with Ahmad Nadalizadeh of Iranian poet Garous Abdolmalekian, Lean Against This Late Hour. She teaches fiction at Princeton University.
In this episode we are in solidarity with Cuban artist and activist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara. We call for his freedom. You can read more about his case here: https://www.pen-international.org/news/pen-international-and-pen-america-condemn-cruel-and-inhumane-prison-sentences-imposed-without-legal-merit-on-cuban-artist-activists-luis-manuel-otero-alcntara-and-maykel-osorbo-castillo-prez and his art here: https://artistsatriskconnection.org/story/luis-manuel-otero-alcantara.
As tributes to him, Idra reads from Aimé Césaire’s “Notebook of a Return to the Native Land” (translated by A. James Arnold and Clayton Eshleman), Bronwyn reads two poems by Francisco Márquez, and Sean reads from “The Artist as Hostage: Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara” by Coco Fusco.
This podcast series is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa to promote open conversation and highlight shared histories.
S8E3 Manuel Muñoz and Lester Walbrugh: "The Real Mystery of Everyday Stories"
Lester Walbrugh asks Manuel Muñoz about his latest collection of short stories: The Consequences. Manuel reflects on his Mexican-American identity, working on farms as a young boy and embracing his family’s stories. He discusses deportation, silence and queer codes, community, being seen and the inclusion of Spanish in his writing.
Manuel and Lester also explore parallels between their lives in the Central Valley in the U.S. and Grabouw in South Africa.
Lester Walbrugh is from Grabouw in the Western Cape. His acclaimed short stories have been published in, among others, the anthologies of Short.Sharp.Stories and Short Story Day Africa, New Contrast and, most recently, Hair: Weaving & Unpicking Stories of Identity. He has lived in the UK and Japan and is currently back in his hometown. Let It Fall Where It Will is his debut short story collection. Elton Baatjies is his first novel. Both are published by Karavan Press.
Manuel Muñoz is the author of The Consequences: Stories (Graywolf Press, 2022). He is the winner of the 2023 Joyce Carol Oates Prize, and the collection was a finalist for the Aspen Words Literary Prize and was shortlisted for The Story Prize. The author of two previous collections of short stories, Zigzagger and The Faith Healer of Olive Avenue, and a novel, What You See in the Dark, Muñoz has been recognized with a Whiting Writer’s Award, three O. Henry Awards and two appearances in Best American Short Stories. A native of Dinuba, California, Muñoz currently lives and works in Tucson, Arizona.
In this episode we are in solidarity with Kyaw Min Swe, a news editor and journalist detained in Myanmar. We call for his freedom. As tributes to Kyaw Min Swe, Manuel reads “This Bright Day” by A. R. Ammons and Lester reads an extract from Lethokuhle Msimang’s The Frightened.
UPDATE: We welcome reports that journalist Kyaw Min Swe was released on 7 July 2023. Info and background here: https://www.pen-international.org/news/myanmar-arrest-of-journalist-latest-example-of-juntas-ongoing-repression-of-peaceful-expression
This podcast series is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa to promote open conversation and highlight shared histories.
S8E2 Cristina Rivera Garza and Stacy Hardy: Femicide, Justice and Love
Cristina Rivera Garza is in conversation with Stacy Hardy about her book Liliana’s Invincible Summer. Cristina reflects on the experience of writing this book – a celebration of the life of her sister Liliana, who was murdered in 1990 by an ex-boyfriend.
She considers alternative forms of justice, love, freedom, genre, the power of writing and language, subverting the narrative of patriarchy and the profound connections between the living and the dead.
Stacy Hardy is a writer, researcher and editor. Her first short fiction collection, Because the Night, was published by Pocko, London in 2015, and a new collection, An Archaeology of Holes, was released in translation by Rot-Bo-Krik in France in 2022 and is forthcoming in English via Bridge Books, USA. Her plays and librettos have been performed globally. Hardy is also a lecturer in Creative Writing, a partner in Saseni, and a founder of Ukuthula, a pan-African initiative that develops new writing from and against gender-based violence. She is currently a research fellow at The University of Chicago.
Cristina Rivera Garza is the award-winning author of The Taiga Syndrome and The Iliac Crest, among many other books. Rivera Garza is a recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship and the Sor Huana Inés de la Cruz Prize. She is the M. D. Anderson Distinguished Professor in Hispanic Studies, and director of the PhD program in creative writing in Spanish at the University of Houston. Her most recent book is Liliana’s Invincible Summer (Hogarth, 2023).
In this episode we are in solidarity with journalist Víctor Ticay, imprisoned in Nicaragua. Cristina and Stacy share moving tributes to Víctor and we call for his freedom. You can read more about his case here: https://www.pen-international.org/news/nicaragua-pen-international-condemns-the-imprisonment-and-charges-against-journalist-vctor-ticay
This podcast series is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa to promote open conversation and highlight shared histories.
S8E1 Charif Shanahan and Bongani Kona: Racism, Positionality and A Life in Poetry
Bongani Kona asks poet Charif Shanahan about his latest collection Trace Evidence: poems (Tin House, 2023). Charif reflects on his family background, the intricacies of mixed-race identity in America, Morocco, the meaning of home, his education as a poet, love, shame and the worth of poetry. He reads ‘Colonialism’ and ‘ “Mulatto” :: “Quadroon” ’ from Trace Evidence.
Bongani Kona is a writer, editor and lecturer in the Department of History at the University of the Western Cape He is a member of the board of PEN South Africa.
Charif Shanahan is the author of two collections of poetry: Trace Evidence: poems (Tin House, 2023) and Into Each Room We Enter without Knowing (Crab Orchard Series in Poetry/SIU Press, 2017), which was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry and the Publishing Triangle's Thom Gunn Award. His work has appeared in American Poetry Review, The Nation, The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine and in various other publications. He is the guest editor of the summer 2023 issues of Poetry Magazine. Charif lives in Chicago, Illinois and is an Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing at Northwestern University.
In this episode we are in solidarity with imprisoned Rwandan journalist Dieudonné Niyonsenga, who also goes by the name Hassan Cyuma. We call for his freedom. You can read more about his case here: https://cpj.org/data/people/dieudonne-niyonsenga/. As a tribute to Dieudonné, Charif reads Lucie Brock-Broido’s poem “The American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act”.
This podcast series is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa to promote open conversation and highlight shared histories.
S7E8: Noni Jabavu - Hiding in Plain Sight
Victoria J. Collis-Buthelezi asks Athambile Masola and Makhosazana Xaba about their book Noni Jabavu: A Stranger at Home.
They reflect on when they first encountered Noni’s writing, her life and her family, the origins of the phrase “I write what I like”, the difference between living abroad and exile, Black women travelling, transnational archives and the challenges of biographical research.
Victoria J. Collis-Buthelezi is an Associate Professor in English, and Director of the University of Johannesburg’s Centre for the Study of Race, Gender and Class.
Athambile Masola is a writer, researcher and an award-winning poet based in the Department of Historical Studies at the University of Cape Town.
Makhosazana Xaba is an award-winning multi-genre anthologist, short story writer and poet. She is an Associate Professor of Practice at the Centre for Race, Gender and Class based at the University of Johannesburg.
Athambile and Makhosazana collaborated on a collection of Noni Jabavu's Daily Dispatch columns from 1977, A Stranger at Home (Tafelberg, 2023).
Our participants also warmly remember Prof Bhekizizwe Peterson (1961-2021), a professor of African literature at Wits University and co-editor (along with Makhosazana and Khwezi Mkhize) of Foundational African Writers: Peter Abrahams, Noni Jabavu, Sibusiso Nyembezi and Es’kia Mphahlele (Wits University Press, 2022).
In this episode we are in solidarity Andrzej Poczobut, imprisoned in Belarus. You can read more about his case here: https://www.pen-international.org/news/belarus-free-writer-and-journalist-andrzej-poczobut
As tributes, Athambile reads from Mongane Wally Serote’s “Third World Express”, Makhosazana reads Lindiwe Mabuza’s “Voices that Lead” and Victoria reads an extract from Beah Richards’s “A Black Woman Speaks … Of White Womanhood, of White Supremacy, of Peace”.
This is the final episode of the season. We’ll be back with season eight after a short break.
This podcast series is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa to promote open conversation and highlight shared histories.
S7E7: Darryl Pinckney Remembers Elizabeth Hardwick and 1970s New York
Angelo Fick asks Darryl Pinckney about his book Come Back in September: A Literary Education on West Sixty-seventh Street, Manhattan.
Darryl remembers his friendship with critic and author Elizabeth Hardwick, who taught him that writing is a matter of reading. He reflects on his diaries, avant-garde New York in the 1970s, Robert Lowell, feminism and Black politics, The New York Review of Books and aging.
Angelo Fick is the Director of Research at ASRI. For two decades he taught across a variety of disciplines in the Humanities and Applied Sciences in universities in South Africa and Europe. He has written widely on post-apartheid South Africa’s political economy.
Darryl Pinckney is a long-time contributor to The New York Review of Books. He is the author of two novels, several works of nonfiction and has contributed to numerous other publications. His theatrical collaborations with director Robert Wilson have appeared internationally and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. His most recent book is Come Back in September: A Literary Education on West Sixty-Seventh Street, Manhattan (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022).
In this episode we are in solidarity with Mahvash Sabet and Fariba Kamalabadi. In November 2022, they were both unjustly sentenced to a second decade in prison in Iran. You can read more about their case here: https://www.pen-international.org/news/mahvash-sabet-sentenced-to-ten-years-in-prison
As tributes to them, Darryl reads “Hello Again” and “Lights Out” from Sabet’s Prison Poems as well as “Jerusalem” by James Fenton. Angelo reads Sabet’s poem “To Fariba Kamalabadi”.
This podcast series is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa to promote open conversation and highlight shared histories.
S7E6 Barbara Masekela and Sisonke Msimang in Conversation: “The Great Secret of History”
Sisonke Msimang interviews Barbara Masekela about her memoir Poli Poli. Barbara remembers her childhood home with her grandmother and honours her generation of Black women. She contextualises her family’s life in the history of dispossession, mobility, apartheid and reflects on her exile in the U.S. and transatlantic cultural ties.
Barbara also mentions her friendship with the late Keorapetse “Bra Willie” Kgositsile, who is celebrated in episode four of this season.
Sisonke Msimang is the author of two books: Always Another Country: A memoir of exile and home, and The Resurrection of Winnie Mandela. She has written essays and articles for a range of international press, and she works as a curator and storyteller. Sisonke is also a member of the board of PEN South Africa.
Barbara Masekela is a South African poet, educator, mother, and activist. She has served as ambassador to the United States and France, and has held various executive and non-executive directorships, including at Standard Bank, the South African Broadcasting Corporation and De Beers. Her memoir Poli Poli was published by Jonathan Ball in 2021. She lives in Johannesburg.
In this episode we are in solidarity with academic and activist Dr Abduljalil Al-Singace. You can read more about his case here: https://www.pen-international.org/news/free-dr-abduljalil-al-singace
As tributes to Dr Al-Singace, Barbara reads an extract from Margaret Walker’s “For My People” and Sisonke shares a quote about courage from Maya Angelou.
This podcast series is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa to promote open conversation and highlight shared histories.
S7E5: Robin Coste Lewis and Bongani Kona in Conversation: “Exploding the Myth of Time”
Bongani Kona hosts Robin Coste Lewis for a discussion of her award-winning poetry collections To the Realisation of Perfect Helplessness and Voyage of the Sable Venus.
This capacious conversation includes a reckoning with mortality and a homage to the dead, brain damage and memory loss, poetry and metaphor, mentors, time as a tool of oppression, the life of Black Arctic explorer Matthew Henson, diaspora, Western art and visual culture, Robin’s grandmother’s photo album, unknowability and new ways of looking.
Bongani Kona is a PhD candidate and lecturer in the Department of History at the University of the Western Cape. He’s also on the board of PEN South Africa.
Robin Coste Lewis won the National Book Award for her first collection of poetry Voyage of the Sable Venus and Other Poems (Knopf, 2015). Her second book, To the Realisation of Perfect Helplessness (Knopf, 2022) won the 2023 PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry Collection. Robin is the former poet laureate of Los Angeles. She holds a PhD in Poetry and Visual Studies from the University of Southern California
In this episode we stand in solidarity with İlhan Sami Çomak. He has been imprisoned in Türkiye for 28 years. You can read more about his case here: https://ilhancomak.wordpress.com/. A selection of his poems Separated from the Sun was published in September 2022: https://smokestack-books.co.uk/book.php?book=223
As a tribute, Robin reads İlhan Sami Çomak’s “I Give Praise to Flight” translated by Caroline Stockford and “There but for the Grace” by Wisława Szymborska.
This podcast series is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa to promote open conversation and highlight shared histories.
S7E4: Celebrating Keorapetse Kgositsile: “Without Love There Is No Revolution That Matters”
Sandile Ngidi and Uhuru Phalafala honour the life and legacy of Keorapetse “Bra Willie” Kgositsile.
Sandile asks Uhuru about Kgositsile’s exile in the U.S., his impact on the Black Arts Movement and the significance of Pan-Africanism. Uhuru also emphasises several influences on Kgositsile’s poetics and politics: his mother and grandmother, Setswana literature and language, music, as well as Amílcar Cabral.
Sandile reads Kgositsile’s “June 16 Year of Spear”, Uhuru reads “For Gloria Bosman” and they both reflect on his poems “Red Song” and “No Serenity Here”.
Sandile Ngidi is a poet, art critic and Zulu/English literary translator. He is committed to researching the role of black intellectuals as critical producers of emancipatory knowledge, practices and thought especially in colonial and apartheid South Africa. In 2018, Mahlephula Press published his poetry chapbook, You Can’t Tell Me Anything Now.
Uhuru Phalafala is a senior lecturer in the English department at Stellenbosch University. She is a co-editor along with Phillippa Yaa de Villiers of Keorapetse Kgositsile: Collected Poems, 1969–2018 (University of Nebraska Press, 2023). Uhuru is the author of Mine Mine Mine (University of Nebraska Press, 2023), a mythopoetic epic on the migrant labour system. One of her forthcoming books is a monograph on former national poet laureate Keorapetse Kgositsile.
In this episode we stand in solidarity with Chinese poet, Zhang Guiqi (known by his pen name Lu Yang). You can read more about his case in an article by PEN America https://pen.org/press-release/grave-concern-for-poet-zhang-guiqi-sentenced-to-six-years-in-prison-for-calling-on-xi-jinping-to-step-down/ and an interview with his daughter: https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/poet-aughter-08052022092139.html
As tributes to Zhang Guiqi. Uhuru reads “I Belong There” by Mahmoud Darwish and Sandile reads one of his own poems in Zulu and English.
This podcast series is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa to promote open conversation and highlight shared histories.
S7E3: Steve Biko, Black Consciousness and the SASO/BPC Trial
Ekow Duker asks Millard Arnold about his book The Testimony of Steve Biko. They consider the significance of Biko’s four and a half days on the witness stand in 1976, at the trial of nine student leaders from South African Students' Organisation (SASO) and the Black People's Convention (BPC).
Millard also reflects on his early life and education in the US, Ernest Cole’s House of Bondage (1967), his work for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and Biko’s legacy.
Ekow Duker is an oil field engineer turned banker turned writer based in Johannesburg. He is a previous board member of PEN SA and the author of four novels: White Wahalla, Dying in New York, The God Who Made Mistakes and Yellowbone.
Millard Arnold has been a lawyer, diplomat, deputy assistant secretary of state, chairman and director of companies, professor of law, author, journalist, poet, actor, artist, prize-winning photographer and recipient of the US government’s Gold Medal for Distinguished Achievement in the Foreign Service. He edited The Testimony of Steve Biko (Picador Africa, 2017) and No Fears Expressed: Quotes from Steve Biko (Picador Africa, 2017).
In this episode we stand in solidarity with linguistics scholar and activist Hany Babu. You can read more about his case here: https://www.pen-international.org/news/international-mother-language-day-2022. Listen to an ABC Radio feature on him: https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/dr-hany-babu-and-india-s-political-prisoners/101713914
As tributes, Millard shares his poem “My India” that he wrote for Hany Babu and Ekow reads from Millard’s words in The Testimony of Steve Biko.
This podcast series is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa to promote open conversation and highlight shared histories.
S7E2: Remembering Regina Gelana Twala
Nosipho Mngomezulu asks Joel Cabrita about her groundbreaking new book Written Out: The Silencing of Regina Gelana Twala. Together, they discuss Twala’s life in South Africa and Eswatini, her writing (ethnography, fiction, letters and newspaper columns), academic gatekeeping, systems of oppression, Twala’s subversive politics as well as her family and legacy. Joel reflects on her own positionality, the ethics of biography, legal and copyright issues, and the hope that Twala’s words finally find the audience she was denied in her lifetime.
Nosipho Mngomezulu is a lecturer in the Anthropology Department at the University of the Witwatersrand and a Research Fellow in Science Communication at Stellenbosch University’s Journalism Department.
Joel Cabrita is the Susan Ford Dorsey Director of the Center for African Studies and an associate professor of African history at Stanford University. She is also a senior research associate in the Department of Historical Studies at the University of Johannesburg. Her most recent book is Written Out: The Silencing of Regina Gelana Twala (Ohio University Press and Wits University Press, 2023).
In this episode we stand in solidarity with Salma al-Shehab, a PhD student, women’s rights activist and academic. You can read more about her case here: https://www.pen-international.org/news/saudi-authorities-must-release-womens-rights-activist-salma-al-shehab
Nosipho and Joel share powerful messages and tributes for Salma. Nosipho reads an extract from “An Otherwise” by Solmaz Sharif and Joel reads “When the Copperplate Cracks” by Imtiaz Dharker. (You can hear Imtiaz read it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkAhvoUzakE)
This podcast series is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa to promote open conversation and highlight shared histories.
S7E1: Reflections on Black History Month
Mandisa Haarhoff interviews Jaclyn Cole in the first episode of our Black History season. This episode airs on 28 February, the last day of Black History month 2023, and provides an opportunity to reflect on the meaning of this month.
Among other topics, Mandisa and Jaclyn consider the significance of Howard University, African American studies, Carter G. Woodson’s The Mis-Education of the Negro (1933), Octavia E. Butler’s Parable Series and collective grief. Jaclyn also reads her “Creators’ Manifesto”.
Mandisa Haarhoff is an assistant professor of comparative literature at Penn State University and a board member of PEN SA. Jaclyn Cole is a career diplomat with over fifteen years in the U.S. Foreign Service currently serving as the Public Affairs Officer at the U.S. Consulate General Durban.
In this episode we stand in solidarity with Burundian journalist Floriane Irangabiye. You can read more about her case in articles by Amnesty International https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/afr16/6414/2023/en/ and Human Rights Watch https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/02/02/burundi-journalists-conviction-violates-free-speech-rights
Mandisa reads the poem “Democracy” by Langston Hughes, and Jaclyn reads extracts from Butler’s The Parable of the Talents as tributes to Floriane.
This podcast series is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa to promote open conversation and highlight shared histories.
S6E4 Historical Fiction and Complicated Families
Thando Njovane chairs a discussion with Rešoketšwe Manenzhe and LaToya Watkins about their debut novels Scatterlings and Perish, respectively. They reveal which authors influenced their work, contemplate the transatlantic legacy of slavery and the South African Immorality Act (1927), de-centring whiteness, inter-generational trauma, stories of mothers and daughters, and possibilities of healing.
Thando Njovane is a lecturer and an Andrew Mellon early career scholar in the Department of Literary Studies in English at Rhodes University. Rešoketšwe Manenzhe is a South African villager and storyteller. Her award-winning novel Scatterlings was first published by Jacana Media in 2020. LaToya Watkins was born in Texas and received a PhD from the University of Texas at Dallas. Perish was published by Tiny Reparations Books in August 2022.
In this episode we stand in solidarity with Zimbabweans Tsitsi Dangarembga and Julie Barnes. You can read more about their case here: https://pen-international.org/campaigns/day-of-the-imprisoned-writer-2022 and read PEN SA’s statement on their conviction here: https://twitter.com/pen_southafrica/status/1575822947335344128
This podcast series is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa.
S6E3 Crime Fiction: Searching for a Resolution
Angela Makholwa interviews Margie Orford and Marcie Rendon about their latest novels The Eye of the Beholder and Sinister Graves, respectively. They reflect on what first attracted them to the crime fiction genre. They grapple with violence against women, ongoing trauma, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, police brutality and which bodies matter. They also celebrate the Little Earth Protectors and the significance of The PEN International Women's Manifesto.
Angela Makholwa is the author of five novels, including Red Ink (Pan Macmillan, 2007). Margie Orford is the former president of PEN South Africa and currently lives in London. She is the author of the Clare Hart novels. The Eye of the Beholder (Jonathan Ball Publishers, 2022) is her latest book. Marcie Rendon is an enrolled member of the White Earth Nation. She lives in Minneapolis and her crime novels Sinister Graves, Girl Gone Missing and Murder on the Red River are available through Soho Crime.
In this episode we stand in solidarity with José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, a renowned journalist detained in Guatemala. You can read more about his case here: https://pen-international.org/campaigns/day-of-the-imprisoned-writer-2022
This podcast series is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa.
S6E2: Climate Crisis & Compassion in the Digital Age
Akil Kumarasamy and Alistair Mackay talk to Abdul-Malik Sibabalwe Oscar Masinyana about their novels Meet Us by the Roaring Sea and It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way, respectively. They explore ways of writing about the future and imagination as resistance. Their expansive conversation refers to climate collapse, Artificial Intelligence and technology, popular culture, care and hope.
Abdul-Malik Sibabalwe Oscar Masinyana is a writer of short fiction, essays and children’s books and is currently working on his debut novel. Akil Kumarasamy is the author of the novel, Meet Us by the Roaring Sea (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022), and the linked story collection, Half Gods, (FSG, 2018). She is an assistant professor in the Rutgers University-Newark MFA program. Alistair Mackay is the author of It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way, published by Kwela in 2022. He lives in Cape Town.
In this episode we stand in solidarity with Egyptian poet and activist, Ahmed Douma. You can read more about his case here: https://pen-international.org/news/prison-writing-by-ahmed-douma
Update: Ahmed Douma was released from prison in August 2023. We celebrate his freedom! Info: https://www.pen-international.org/news/egypt-pen-international-welcomes-the-release-of-poet-and-activist-ahmed-douma
This podcast series is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa.
S6E1: Storytelling: A Way to Make Sense of the World
Baeletsi Tsatsi interviews Sheila Arnold and Philippa Namutebi Kabali-Kagwa about the art of storytelling.
They propose definitions of storytelling, reflect on its value, their lineages, how to teach storytelling, the importance of creating community and intergenerational conversation. They also share stories.
Baeletsi Tsatsi is a storyteller, writer and story coach. Sheila Arnold is a teaching artist and full-time storyteller, who resides in Hampton, Virginia. She is Artistic Director & Co-Founder of Artists Standing Strong Together (ASST). Philippa Namutebi Kabali-Kagwa is a storyteller, published writer and poet. She is co-founder of The Story Club Cape Town.
In this episode we stand in solidarity with Server Mustafayev, a Crimean Tatar citizen journalist and human rights defender. You can read more about his case here: https://pen-international.org/campaigns/day-of-the-imprisoned-writer-2022
This podcast series is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa.
S5E8: Queer Utopia and Activism
Efemia Chela asks Mark Gevisser and Sarah Schulman about their books The Pink Line and Let the Record Show, respectively.
They share lessons from the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), debate visibility politics, the idea of a queer utopia, the relationship between legal reform and social change as well as how to avoid burnout.
Efemia Chela is a Zambian-Ghanaian editor living in Johannesburg. She has an MA in Development Studies from the University of the Witwatersrand. Mark Gevisser is the award-winning author of Thabo Mbeki: The Dream Deferred, Lost and Found in Johannesburg: A Memoir and The Pink Line: Journeys across the World’s Queer Frontiers (Jonathan Ball Publishers, 2020). Sarah Schulman is a novelist, playwright, screenwriter, nonfiction writer and AIDS historian. She is the author of 20 books, most recently Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP, New York 1987-1993 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2021).
In this episode we stand in solidarity with the 15 journalists and one media worker currently held in pre-trial detention in Diyarbakır, Turkey. Their names are: Lezgin Akdeniz, Safiye Alagaş, Serdar Altan, Zeynel Abidin Bulut, Ömer Çelik, Suat Doğuhan, Mehmet Ali Ertaş, Ramazan Geciken, Mazlum Doğan Güler, İbrahim Koyuncu, Abdurrahman Öncü, Aziz Oruç, Mehmet Şahin, Remziye Temel, Neşe Toprak and Elif Üngür. You can read more about their case here: https://pen-international.org/news/turkey-journalists-held-in-diyarbakir-must-be-released
This is the final episode of season five. We’re taking a break and will be back with season six. Thank you so much for listening!
This podcast series is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa.
S5E7: Visual Memory, Artistic Practice & Haunted Spaces
Dylan Valley interviews Kitso Lynn Lelliott and Bayeté Ross Smith about their artistic practice and projects.
Kitso reflects on her PhD, "South Atlantic Hauntings: Geographies of Memory, Ancestralities and Re-Memberings”, and Bayeté discusses “Red Summers VR”, his 360 immersive media project about racially motivated domestic terrorism in the U.S. from 1917 to 1921.
It’s an expansive conversation that engages with unresolved histories, racial and epistemological violence, the Atlantic Ocean, identities, the afterlives of colonialism, photography, how bodies relate to the world and claiming space.
Dylan Valley is a documentary filmmaker and a lecturer at the Centre for Film and Media Studies at the University of Cape Town. Kitso Lynn Lelliott’s practice moves between video installation, film and writing. She is currently a senior lecturer in History of Arts with the Wits school of Arts. Bayeté Ross Smith is an interdisciplinary artist, photographer, filmmaker, and educator. He is a faculty member at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and Columbia Law School’s inaugural artist-in-residence.
In this episode we stand in solidarity with writer and legal scholar Xu Zhiyong, imprisoned in China. You can read more about his case here: https://pen-international.org/news/china-pen-centres-call-writer-xu-zhiyongs-immediate-release
This podcast series is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa.
S5E6: A Language of the Otherwise & the Meaning of Home
PEN SA board member Bongani Kona interviews Claire Schwartz and Matthew Wilhelm-Solomon.
They address issues of state violence, complicity, the role of the law, migration, the influence of Black studies and the possibilities of poetry, relations of care and imagining new ways of living alongside one another.
Bongani Kona is a writer, editor and lecturer in the Department of History at the University of the Western Cape. Claire Schwartz is the author of the poetry collection Civil Service published by Graywolf Press in 2022 and the culture editor of Jewish Currents. Matthew Wilhelm-Solomon has worked as a lecturer and researcher at the University of the Witwatersrand over the past decade. The Blinded City: 10 Years in Inner-City Johannesburg (Pan Macmillan, 2022) is his first sole-authored book.
In this episode we stand in solidarity with Perhat Tursun, a Uyghur author who was forcibly disappeared in Xinjiang in 2018. You can read more about his case here: https://www.uyghurpen.org/free-perhat-tursun/ and here: https://pen-international.org/creative-witnesses-take-action-for-writers-at-risk-in-the-asia-pacific-region
This podcast series is funded by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa.
S5E5: The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs
In this special episode, PEN SA president Nadia Davids invites Justice Albie Sachs to reflect on his first book, The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs (1966) – a testament to his resistance and resilience during the harsh deprivations of imprisonment.
Albie shares his experience of spending 168 days in solitary confinement, his struggle to convey the boredom and depression of detention as well as how he found beauty in writing about it.
Albie Sachs is an activist, writer and former judge on the Constitutional Court of South Africa (1994 – 2009). He is the author of several books, including The Jail Diary of Albie Sachs, Justice in South Africa, Sexism and the Law, Soft Vengeance of a Freedom Fighter and The Strange Alchemy of Life and Law. His latest books are We, the People: Insights of an Activist Judge (2016) and Oliver Tambo’s Dream (2017).
In this episode we stand in solidarity with publisher, human rights defender and civil society leader Osman Kavala. In April 2022, he was sentenced to life in prison in Turkey. Albie has a personal and deeply moving message for Osman, and reads from Nâzım Hikmet’s poem “On Living” as a tribute to him.
You can read more about his case here: https://pen-international.org/news/ruling-in-the-gezi-case-the-darkest-day-for-the-judiciary-of-turkey
This podcast series is funded by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa.
S5E4 Writing Water
Nikiwe Solomon and Lucas Bessire share their experiences of researching and writing about rivers in Cape Town and aquifers in Kansas. They contemplate the language of denialism, depletion and toxicity, anthropology as activism, redefining value, and responding to the planetary crisis.
Nikiwe Solomon is an early career researcher and lecturer in the Environmental Humanities South programme, working at the interface of science, technology, politics and urban river and water management in the Anthropology Department at the University of Cape Town.
Lucas Bessire is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Oklahoma. He is the author of Behold the Black Caiman: a Chronicle of Ayoreo Life (University of Chicago Press, 2014). His recent book, Running Out: In Search of Water on the High Plains (Princeton University Press, 2021), was a finalist for the 2021 National Book Awards.
In this episode we stand in solidarity with Venezuelan writer Milagros Mata-Gil. You can read more about her case here: https://pen-international.org/news/venezuela-drop-charges-against-milagros-mata-gil-and-juan-manuel-munoz
Update: We are deeply saddened to learn that Milagros Mata-Gil passed away on 7 July 2023. We join the PEN community in mourning her and send our condolences to her loved ones. You can read more about her life here: https://www.breakinglatest.news/world/remembering-the-life-and-legacy-of-venezuelan-journalist-and-writer-milagros-mata-gil/
This podcast series is funded by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa.
S5E3 Remembrance and Justice
Julie Otsuka talks to Bongani Kona about her three novels: When the Emperor was Divine, The Buddha in the Attic and The Swimmers. Their capacious conversation engages with painting, memory, community, the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War 2, book bans, writing in the first person plural and more.
Bongani Kona is a PEN SA board member. He is a writer, editor and lecturer in the Department of History at the University of the Western Cape. He edited Our Ghosts were Once People (Jonathan Ball Publishers, 2021).
Julie Otsuka lives in New York City and is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her first novel, When the Emperor Was Divine, won the 2003 Asian American Literary Award and the 2003 American Library Association's Alex Award. Her second novel, The Buddha in the Attic, was an international best seller and won the 2012 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and the 2011 Langum Prize in American Historical Fiction, among other awards. Her newest novel is The Swimmers.
In this episode we stand in solidarity with Meral Şimşek, a Kurdish writer and poet from Turkey, and a member of Kurdish PEN. Julie shares a powerful message for Meral and reads an extract from a performance piece by Vietnamese American writer lê thị diễm thúy as a tribute. You can read more about Meral Şimşek’s case here: https://pen-international.org/news/turkey-verdict-expected-in-trial-of-kurdish-pen-member-and-writer-meral-simsek
In her introduction to the episode, PEN SA president Nadia Davids condemns the terrifying attack on Salman Rushdie on 12 August and sends good wishes to Rushdie for his recovery.
This podcast series is funded by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa.
S5E2 The Art of Paying Attention
Wamuwi Mbao asks Julian Lucas about the role of the critic, the value of criticism, working outside the academy, his writing process and what he’s reading next. Wamuwi Mbao is a literary critic with the Johannesburg Review of Books. He is editor of the collection Years of Fire and Ash: Poetry of Decolonization (Jonathan Ball Publishers, 2021) and lectures in English literary studies at Stellenbosch University.
Julian Lucas is a staff writer at The New Yorker. His essays and criticism focus on the representation of history in art, literature, games, and music. His writing on contemporary culture has included profiles of artists and writers such as El Anatsui and Ishmael Reed as well as features on historical re-enactment. He was a finalist for the 2020–2021 Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing.
In this episode we stand in solidarity with Aliaksandr Fiaduta, a writer, editor, journalist, political analyst, and literary critic from Belarus. You can read more about his case here: https://pen-international.org/news/belarus-concerns-detention-aliaksandr-fiaduta
This podcast series is funded by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa.
S5E1 Girlhood, Bodies and New Possibilities of Being
Zethu Matebeni chairs a conversation with Venita Blackburn, Thenjiwe Mswane and Lindiwe Nkutha. Our guests contemplate the depictions of girlhood, family life, bodies without compromise, and intimacy in their work. They also read short extracts from their books. Listen to the Bonus Episode to hear the extended readings.
Professor zethu Matebeni is an activist in the academy. She is the SARChI chair in Sexualities, Genders and Queer Studies at the University of Fort Hare. Venita Blackburn is the author of Black Jesus and Other Superheroes (University of Nebraska Press, 2017) and How to Wrestle a Girl (Macmillan Publishers, 2021). She is an Associate Professor of creative writing at California State University, Fresno. Lindiwe Nkutha’s debut collection of short stories is 69 Jerusalem Street (Modjaji Books, 2020). She is a 2021 Atlantic Fellows for Racial Equity fellow. Thenjiwe Mswane’s debut novel All Gomorrahs Are The Same was published in 2021 by Blackbird Books. She is a PhD fellow at SWOP (Society, Work and Politics Institute) at Wits University, Johannesburg.
In this episode we stand in solidarity with: Cuban poet and activist María Cristina Garrido Rodríguez. You can read more about her case here: http https://latin-american.news/a-cuban-court-sentences-the-writer-maria-cristina-garrido-to-7-years-in-prison/
This podcast series is funded by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa.
S5 Bonus Episode: Readings by Venita Blackburn, Thenjiwe Mswane & Lindiwe Nkutha
In this bonus episode, Venita reads "Smoothies" from How to Wrestle a Girl; Lindiwe reads the opening section titled ‘Anna’ from the story “Jocasta's Hairballs” in 69 Jerusalem Street and Thenjiwe reads Chapter 21 “Nonhle” from All Gomorrahs Are The Same.
You can listen to shorter versions of their readings as well as their scintillating conversation with zethu Matebeni in episode one of season five.
This podcast series is funded by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa.
Grassroots Movements, Housing and Hope
In our final episode of season four, Edward Webster chairs a conversation with Akira Drake Rodriguez and Trevor Ngwane about their books.
Edward Webster is the Distinguished Research Professor at the Southern Centre of Inequality Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand.
Akira Drake Rodriguez is an Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Weitzman School of Design. She is the author of Diverging Space for Deviants: The Politics of Atlanta’s Public Housing (University of Georgia Press).
Trevor Ngwane is the Director of the Centre for Sociological Research and Practice at the University of Johannesburg and the author of Amakomiti: Grassroots Democracy in South African Shack Settlements (Jacana Media).
They discuss grassroots organising in South Africa and the USA, the history of the struggle for housing, Black participatory geographies, racial capitalism, and hope. In this episode we stand in solidarity with Moroccan Journalists Soulaiman Raissouni and Omar Radi. You can learn more about their cases here: https://pen-international.org/news/morocco-authorities-must-ensure-prominent-journalist-soulaiman-raissouni-a-fair-trial-and-release-him-pending-the-outcome-of-his-appeals and here: https://pen-international.org/news/morocco-authorities-must-ensure-prominent-journalist-omar-radi-a-fair-trial-en
This podcast series is funded by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa.
Behind the Scenes at Africa Is a Country & The Johannesburg Review of Books
In our sixth episode of season four, Sindi-Leigh McBride interviews Sean Jacobs and Ben Williams. Sindi-Leigh is a writer from Johannesburg, and a PhD candidate at the Centre for African Studies at the University of Basel, Switzerland. Sean is an Associate Professor of International Affairs at The New School in New York City and founding editor of Africa Is a Country. He was born and grew up in Cape Town, South Africa. Ben is the Publisher of The Johannesburg Review of Books and is currently based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He has been involved in South African and African literature, books and publishing for two decades.
They reflect on the history of Africa Is a Country and The Johannesburg Review of Books, magazines and online publications which inspired them, funding, as well as cultural ties between South Africa and the United States.
They also commemorate Palestinian journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh.
In this episode we stand in solidarity with author and investigative journalist Christopher Acosta Alfaro and director and editor of Penguin Random House Peru, Jerónimo Pimentel Prieto. You can learn more about their case here: https://pen-international.org/news/peru-author-christopher-acosta-and-publisher-jeronimo-pimentel-sentenced-for-publishing-book
This podcast series is funded by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa.
A Language for Healing and Tenderness
In our fifth episode of season four, Barbara Boswell interviews Natalie Diaz and vangile gantsho about their poetry.
Barbara Boswell is an author, Associate Professor and Head of the Department of English Literary Studies at the University of Cape Town. Natalie Diaz is Mojave and an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Tribe. Her first poetry collection is When My Brother Was an Aztec (Copper Canyon Press), and her second book is Postcolonial Love Poem (Graywolf Press). vangile gantsho is a healer, poet and co-founder of impepho press. She is the author of two poetry collections: red cotton (2018) and Undressing in Front of the Window (2015).
They contemplate art and healing, sensualities, the violence of the English language as well as how it is transformed by those who speak it.
In this episode we stand in solidarity with Go Sherab Gyatso, a Tibetan monk, writer, educator and public intellectual. You can learn more about his case here: https://gosherabgyatso.com/
This podcast series is funded by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa.
Resistance, Revolts and Resilience in Graphic Novels
In our fourth episode of season four, Hlonipha Mokoena chairs a conversation with Rebecca Hall and Richard Conyngham about their graphic novels.
Hlonipha Mokoena is an associate professor and researcher at WiSER (Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research) at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Rebecca Hall is an historian, activist, lawyer, educator, and the author of Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts (Simon & Schuster). She has a PhD in history from Berkeley and is based in Salt Lake City. Richard Conyngham is a Pietermaritzburg-born scholar and writer who lives in Mexico City. He is the author of All Rise: Resistance and Rebellion in South Africa – A Graphic History (Jacana Media).
They discuss historical revolts and acts of resistance, working with archival records, pedagogy, and the relationship between illustration and written narratives. In this episode we stand in solidarity with Belarusian journalist and poet Andrei Aliaksandrau and journalist Irina Zlobina. You can learn more about their case here: https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2022/01/belarus-join-the-campaign-to-free-our-friends-andrei-aliaksandrau-and-irina-zlobina/
This podcast series is funded by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa.
The 70th Anniversary of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man
In our third episode of season four, Sikhumbuzo Mngadi and Aretha Phiri assess the South African legacy of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, 70 years after it was first published. Our chair, Sikhumbuzo Mngadi is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at the University of Johannesburg. Our guest, Aretha Phiri is an Associate Professor in the Department of Literary Studies in English at Rhodes University. Sikhumbuzo asks Aretha about her chapter in the book Global Ralph Ellison, teaching Invisible Man in South African universities, the appeal of difficult texts, appropriating Ellison, writing Blackness, humanism, and James Baldwin. In this episode we stand in solidarity with Arnon Nampha, a poet and human rights lawyer from Thailand. You can learn more about his case and read his speeches here: https://pen-international.org/news/thailand-pen-international-releases-booklets-speeches-thailand-protest-leaders
This podcast series is funded by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa.
SA and US Foreign Policy, the Russia-Ukraine war and the United Nations
In our second episode of season four, Dr Shingi Mtero chairs a panel of expert political analysts: Prof Suzy Graham, Prof Gilbert Khadiagala and Prof John Stremlau. They discuss South Africa’s and America’s foreign policy in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, address charges of hypocrisy, evaluate South Africa’s voting record at the United Nations and the efficacy of the current UN system.
Shingi Mtero serves on the Knowledge Network of the United Nations Office of the Special Adviser on Africa. Suzy Graham is Associate Professor at the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Johannesburg; Gilbert M. Khadiagala is the Jan Smuts Professor of International Relations and the Director of the African Centre for the Study of the United States (ACSUS) at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg and John Stremlau is Honorary Professor of International Relations at the University of the Witwatersrand.
In this episode we stand in solidarity with two prominent Iranian writers: Reza Khandan Mahabadi and Narges Mohammadi. You can read more about their cases here: https://pen-international.org/news/iran-pen-international-raises-concerns-over-writers-return-to-prison
This podcast series is funded by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa.
District Six: A Landscape Of Memory
In our first episode of season four, Nadia Davids, the President of PEN South Africa, interviews Ciraj Rassool, Senior Professor of History at the University of the Western Cape.
Together, they explore the history of District Six, forced removals, restitution, artistic representation, memorialisation, and consider the connection between the District Six Museum and the Tenement Museum in New York City
In this episode we stand in solidarity with three activists from Egypt: writer and blogger Alaa Abdel Fattah, human rights lawyer Mohamed al-Baqer and blogger Mohamed “Oxygen” Ibrahim. You can read more about them here: https://pen-international.org/news/egypt-retaliatory-verdicts-following-an-unjust-emergency-trial-must-be-quashed
Update: Mohamed al-Baqer was released from prison in July 2023. We celebrate his freedom but continue to call for the release of Alaa Abdel Fattah and Mohamed Ibrahim. Read about his pardon here: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/7/19/el-sisi-pardons-egyptian-researcher-patrick-zaki-lawyers
This podcast series is funded by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa.
Moving Through Cities and Sentences
In our seventh episode, Cape Town-based writer, editor and lecturer Masande Ntshanga interviews Renee Gladman, an American writer and artist.
Masande asks Renee about her Ravicka novels (Dorothy, a publishing project), Samuel R. Delany, experimental poets, drawing and writing cities, her forthcoming book about Black futurity, Plans for Sentences (Wave Books), and what it means to be a Black person writing.
In this episode we stand in solidarity with renowned Belarusian philosopher Uladzimir Mackievič. On 17 February it was reported that he had ended his hunger strike, but he remains in pre-trial detention in Minsk. You can read more about his case here: https://pen-international.org/news/belarus-philosopher-uladzimir-mackievic-on-hunger-strike
This is the final episode of Season Three. We’re taking a break and will be back with Season Four. Stay tuned!
This podcast series is funded by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa.
Community Radio: WRFG Atlanta, Bush Radio and Alex FM
Our sixth episode is devoted to community radio in South Africa and the USA.
Jacob Ntshangase, head of Wits Radio Academy at Wits University, Johannesburg, chairs the conversation. He is joined by guests from Atlanta, Cape Town and Johannesburg. Dázon Dixon Diallo is producer and host of “Sisters’ Time/WomxnSpeak” on WRFG. Brenda Leonard is Bush Radio’s Managing Director and Takalane Nemangowe is Station Manager of Alex FM.
They reflect on their stations’ history and radio as a voice of resistance; the vital role played by community radio; reproductive, racial and social justice; the impact of COVID-19 and lockdown; collaboration and the power of conversation.
In this episode we stand in solidarity with journalist, editor and writer Paola Ugaz, from Peru. She is facing a campaign of harassment, threats, and defamation lawsuits, including allegations of crimes, due to her investigative work. You can read more about her case here: https://pen-international.org/news/peru-author-paola-ugaz-at-risk-of-arrest
This podcast series is funded by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa.
Home, Identity and Belonging
In our fifth episode, PEN SA Vice President Yewande Omotoso asks author Nicole Dennis-Benn about the meaning of nationality, immigration, navigating multiple identities, coming out, her novels (Here Comes the Sun and Patsy) and the search for a sense of belonging.
In this episode we stand in solidarity with writer and prominent human-rights defender Ales Bialiatski. He is currently in pre-trial detention in Belarus. You can read more about his case here: https://pen-international.org/news/belarus-free-writer-and-human-rights-defender-ales-bialiatski
This podcast series is funded by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa.
Photography and History
Welcome to the fourth episode of Season Three of The Empty Chair Podcast: A Transatlantic Conversation.
Our chair is Patricia Hayes, NRF SARChI Chair in Visual History & Theory at the Centre for Humanities Research, University of the Western Cape. Our guests are John Edwin Mason, who teaches African history and the history of photography at the University of Virginia, and Stefanie Jason, a South African researcher, writer and curator who is currently an Art History PhD student at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
Their conversation refers to South African photographer Mabel Cetu, late 19th- and early 20th-century portraits of Black Virginians in the US, Black women and visual culture, studio portraits, public and private archives, absences and silences, historiography, Gordon Parks, and imagination.
In this episode we stand in solidarity with news editor, reporter and poet Nedim Türfent. He is imprisoned in Turkey and you can read more about his case here https://pen-international.org/news/turkey-global-appeal-marks-2000-days-in-prison-for-nedim-turfent
Update: PEN South Africa welcomes the news that Nedim Türfent was released from prison on 29 November 2022. We celebrate his freedom. Read more about his release here: https://pen-international.org/news/turkiye-nedim-turfent-released-from-prison
This podcast series is funded by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa.
Jazz and Freedom
Welcome to the third episode of Season Three of The Empty Chair.
Writing teacher, editor, freelance cultural writer and music industry researcher Gwen Ansell chairs a conversation with pianist, composer and songwriter Thandi Ntuli; saxophonist, improviser and composer Linda Sikhakhane and composer, instrumentalist and scholar Prof Salim Washington.
They explore shared experiences, history and collective cultural memory in South Africa and the USA. They also discuss jazz, freedom, their recent projects and the connections between music and politics.
In this episode we stand in solidarity with Rwandan poet Innocent Bahati who has been missing since 7 February 2021. You can read more about him here: https://pen-international.org/news/rwanda-investigate-and-publicly-account-for-the-whereabouts-of-poet-innocent-bahati
This podcast series is funded by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa.
Revolutionary Reading
In the second episode of Season Three of The Empty Chair, Mandisa Haarhoff, lecturer in English and Literary Studies at the University of Cape Town, chairs a wide-ranging conversation with C.A. Davids, author of How to be a Revolutionary (Penguin Random House South Africa & Verso Books) and Prof Farah Jasmine Griffin, author of Read until you Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature (W.W. Norton).
They discuss their reading histories, the transatlantic legacy of Langston Hughes, literary archives, the importance of community, women in the struggle, rage and resistance, jazz, freedom of expression, surveillance, banning books and Black History.
In this episode we stand in solidarity with author, journalist and human rights activist Pham Doan Trang. In December 2021, she was sentenced to nine years in prison in Vietnam. You can read more about her case here: https://pen-international.org/news/vietnam-crackdown-on-critical-expression-continues-as-pham-doan-trang-sentenced-to-nine-years-in-prison
This podcast series is funded by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa.
Black History Month and Children's Literature
In the first episode of Season Three of The Empty Chair, Mandisa Haarhoff, lecturer in English and Literary Studies at the University of Cape Town, interviews Jehan Jones-Radgowski, author and Acting Public Affairs Officer for the US Consulate General in Cape Town.
Jehan explains the origins and significance of Black History Month, which is celebrated annually in February in the US.
They also discuss Jehan’s books (including The Escape of Robert Smalls: A Daring Voyage Out of Slavery, John Lewis: Get to Know the Statesman Who Marched for Civil Rights and The Emancipation Proclamation Inkstand: What an Artifact Can Tell Us About the Historic Document), the challenges of writing about history for young readers, diversity and representation in children’s literature, and centring children’s experiences – in the past and in the present.
In this episode we stand in solidarity with poet, lyricist and activist Galal El-Behairy. He should have been released in July 2021 after he served his full sentence of three years of imprisonment. However, he remains in arbitrary pre-trial detention in Egypt. Read more about his case here: https://pen-international.org/news/day-of-the-imprisoned-writer-2019-galal-el-behairy
This podcast series is funded by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa.
The Empty Chair Season Three Trailer
Introducing Season Three of The Empty Chair, a podcast from PEN South Africa.
Our long transatlantic conversation continues in Season Three as we host writers, musicians, historians and representatives from historic community radio stations, based in South Africa and the USA.
This season focuses on Black History Month, which is observed annually in February in the US, and we reflect on and provoke questions about archives, memory, remembrance, freedom, revered ancestors, constructed identities, literary influences, our reading histories, how we tell the stories of our past and also celebrate those working to make the world a better place in the present.
Each of our episodes is dedicated to an imprisoned writer or a writer who has been harassed, detained, and sometimes tortured by the state. The first episode of Season Three will be released on 3 February 2022. This podcast series is funded by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa.