Henrietta Rose-Innes's Blog, page 15
August 3, 2015
“The South African novel at 21″: a discussion
On stage in Johannesburg at the Mail and Guardian Literary Festival / Book Fair, discussing the state of the South African novel and literary awards with an all-star line-up of writers: Leon de Kock, Mandla Langa, Niq Mhlongo, Damon Galgut and Ivan Vladislavic.
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July 28, 2015
Green Lion “tells our stories” at the M&G Lit Fest
My Green Lion gets a nice pat on the head in this overview of the upcoming Mail and Guardian Literary Festival / South African Book Fair by books editor and director of the Festival, Darryl Accone:
‘In her latest novel, Green Lion …Rose-Innes evokes the bronze lions of the Rhodes Memorial at several points: precisely, playfully and pointedly … “Now you could sit and drink under the eyes of eight scaled-down copies of the Trafalgar lions, the naked horseman, and Rhodes’s own lugubrious bust in his niche above them all. The old brigand looked dejected, cheek propped on a hand. Above, the mountain rose, dark green from the recent rains, the silver fence necklacing its base.” By way of evoking Scott Fitzgerald, Milan Kundera, Jaroslav Hacek and Josef Skvorecky, here is Rose-Innes telling our stories, all in a mere 57 words.’
SA Book Fair – this weekend in Joburg
The Mail & Guardian Literary Festival, in conjunction with the South African Book Fair, is happening this weekend in Johannesburg. The programme looks great, and I’m very much looking forward to Sunday’s panel, The South African Novel at 21: (Leon de Kock discusses with novelists Damon Galgut, Mandla Langa, Niq Mhlongo, Henrietta Rose-Innes and Ivan Vladislavić. Anglo Auditorium, 1:30 p.m. – 3 p.m.)
July 27, 2015
A cocktail-hour interview on The Good Book Appreciation Society
If you’re not a member of The Good Book Appreciation Society but would like to read the interview I did on the site yesterday, Lisa Lazarus has kindly posted it on the Greg Lazarus blog. We had some fun with it.
“In green Lion I wanted to examine the other side of our relationship with the natural world: the fact that we are also rapidly emptying it of many of our fellow creatures. I wanted to write about how, as we lose these companions, we seem to also revere them more, and give them intense, almost religious or fetishistic significance. Many humans are animal crazy in a way we never were when we actually dealt with animals in our daily lives.”
July 25, 2015
Cocktail Hour at the Good Books Appreciation Society
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This Sunday 26 July I have the pleasure of being grilled by friend and author Lisa Lazarus about my novel Green Lion. (5pm,South African time.) Join us on The Good Book Appreciation Facebook group if you’d like to listen and join in. It’s a closed group, so you need to friend Bea Reader on FB if you want to join – or let me know on my FB page. The GBAS is an excellent and very active group for readers to discuss books, and well worth joining.
July 5, 2015
Bristow-Bovey’s “lion-haunted landscape”
Green Lion gets a mention in Darrel Bristow-Bovey’s latest evocative column about runaway wildlife:
I was reading the novel with a view of the mountainside and I looked up from the page with a quiet thrill of pleasure. Just the thought of Sekhmet on the loose reanimates the mountain, retrieves it from something domesticated and familiar and restores to the landscape its wildness and strangeness. Her uneasy, unseen nearness haunts the prose, making you follow the lines of writing as though tiptoeing up a narrow track following the faint indent of paw prints, glancing over your shoulder and wiping sweat from your eyes.
I couldn’t ask for a better response …
July 3, 2015
M&G Litfest / SA Book Fair comes to Joburg
Coming up beginning of August: The Mail and Guardian Litfest is partnering with the SA Book Fair, which for the first time is happening in Johannesburg. I’m looking forward to the discussion: on 2 Aug, I’ll be on a fantastic panel (with luminaries Niq Mhlongo, Ivan Vladislavic, Damon Galgut and Mandla Langa) on “SA Literature at 21″. Read more about the festival and fair here.
Green Lion – “Reading Matters” podcast
I was recently interviewed by Sue Grant-Marshall, on “Reading Matters”, about my novel Green Lion. Listen to the podcast here.
It’s a story about an escaped lion on the slopes of Table Mountain, but much more than that, it is about freedom, power and loss, examining the borderline between human and animal.
July 2, 2015
Green Lion: The Good Book Appreciation Society cocktail-hour interview
This is only happening in a few weeks’ time, but it should be fun: I’ll be chatting about Green Lion to friend and writer Lisa Lazarus on 26 July. In the meantime, The Good Book Appreciation Society is worth hooking up with – lots of material for book addicts. Find details of the event, and how to join the FB group, right here.
102 Writers and illustrators for Open Book Festival … so far
Squadrons of exciting South African and international writers will descend on Cape Town in September for the Open Book Cape Town festival. I’ll be there …
