Village Explorer
11 April 2017
15
FynArts brings acclaimed authors to Hermanus
T
his year’s Hermanus FynArts Festival, now in its fifth year, will for the first time include a literary component in the form of a Book Trail. Bibliophiles will be happy to learn that, in addition to the variety of art exhibitions, music concerts, talks and workshops, three bookshops and one gallery in Hermanus will be hosting FynArts authors this year. Festivalgoers will be able to meet and greet the authors at these venues, purchase copies of their books and have them signed by the authors on two days: Friday 16 June will be dedicated to writers of children’s books in honour of Youth Day, and Saturday 17 June to writers of books for adults. The authors will be at the venues during two time slots on both days – from 11:00 – 12:00 and from 14:00 – 15:00.
showing that families are what you make them, and love is what matters most.
From left are Corinne Hendry of bookmark, John Morris of The Book Cottage and Beth Hunt of Hemingsways.
The bookshops will also add another dimension to FynArts by staging literary exhibitions throughout the duration of the festival. Browse to your heart’s content as you search for that special gift at these quality secondhand bookshops. At The Book Collector you will find an astonishing collection of rare collectable Africana, Military, History and Antiquarian books as well as highly sought-after Afrikaans fiction and nonfiction, amongst other genres; while Quirk & Leopard stocks everything from glossy cookery books to the classics, biographies, history, art and travel books, as well as graphic novels, comic books and the largest selection of secondhand children’s books in town. bookmark 171 Main Road, Hermanus. Tel: 028 312 2000 The Architect, the Cook and Good Taste Many of the parallels between building and cooking are obvious: the concept, the creation and the coming into being. Experience some of the day-to-day interplay in literature, covering many genres including food, travel and design through the displays at bookmark. Visitors can also take part in a fun competition that requires you to match cat pictures with the Masters who painted them. Friday 16 June: Elizabeth Wasserman is a professor of Medical Microbiology at the University of Stellenbosch whose writing takes children on action-filled adventures of the imagination. She is the creator of the intrepid Dogtective William (Speurhond Willem) who tracks down pirates, abalone poachers and diamond smugglers, and the Anna Atom (Anna Atoom) trilogy, which received the prestigious Alba Bouwer award from the Acadamy of Arts and
Saturday 17 June: Dikgang Moseneke is the author of My own Liberator, which charts the rise of the now retired Deputy Chief Justice as one of the country’s top legal minds. As a young activist in the PanAfricanist Congress, at the tender age of 15, Moseneke was arrested, detained and, in 1963, sentenced to ten years on Robben Island for participating in anti-apartheid activities. His incarceration set the young Moseneke on a path towards a law degree that would provide the bedrock for a long and fruitful legal career that saw him serve his country in the highest court. He not only helped draft the interim constitution but, for 15 years, acted as a guardian of that constitution for all South Africans, and helped to make it a living document for the country and its people. Lembu Gallery 10 Harbour Road, Hermanus. Tel: 028 312 1187
Science. Elizabeth believes that learning should be fun and that science is the most powerful form of magic. Her book Professor Sabatina se Wetenskapboek is a practical guide of fun ways to applying science at home.
Saturday 17 June: Christopher Hope is a prolific journalist, novelist, playwright and poet who has written 21 books. He is best known for his controversial works dealing with racism and politics in South Africa. He has won a number of prestigious writing awards, including the Whitbread Novel Award, Thomas Pringle Prize and Booker Prize for Fiction. His memoir White Boy Running is his story of growing up in South Africa during the apartheid regime. His latest novel, Jimfish, is a kind of fairy tale for adults which delivers fierce commentary on the politics of power.
Hemingways Warrington Place, Harbour Road, Hermanus. Tel: 028 312 2739 A Moveable Feast Ernest Hemingway’s Paris sojourn in the 1920s features at Hemingways of Hermanus, where festivalgoers can reflect on this iconic writer’s life against the background of Paris, its marvellous landscape and culture. “If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you. For Paris is a moveable feast.” Friday 16 June: Mike Bruton is the author of When I was a Fish - Tales of an Ichthyologist. This fast-paced, highly readable book is an account of his adventures as one of the leading fish biologists in Africa and explores the issues he encountered as a scientist, conservationist and educator. He even braved entanglements with crocodiles, hippos and giant snakes to produce his research, which has also allowed him to contribute to international efforts to conserve wetlands and endangered species. Mike has made a major contribution to our understanding of the ways in which fish are adapted
to their watery environments and how they made that epic evolutionary transition from water onto land.
Saturday 17 June: Craig Bartholomew Strydom is a freelance writer and director known for the Oscar-winning documentary film Searching for Sugar Man. He is also the co-author of Sugar Man – The Life, Death and Resurrection of Sixto Rodriguez, the nonfiction book detailing the story behind the film. The book is packed with information not included in the film, about legendary folk singer Rodriguez’s background, relationships and political activities, his tours to Australia, and the recognition that has finally come to him after the film’s success. Craig’s writing has appeared in Rolling Stone and Creative Nonfiction, and he was a Susan Atefat Creative Nonfiction Prize finalist in 2011.
The Book Cottage 17 Long Street, Hermanus. Tel: 028 313 0834 Listen, Watch and Read This iconic Hermanus bookshop has a dedicated music room with a fine selection of opera and ballet on DVD, as well as a wide variety of classical music on CD. Festivalgoers can enjoy browsing through a collection of the finest books about music. This year for FynArts an extensive range of books on different genres of music will be exhibited, including a number of specialised titles you won’t find elsewhere. Friday 16 June: Niki Daly is the author-illustrator of picture books that celebrate the imaginative powers of children and their magnificent everyday lives. Among the many awards Niki has won for his work is the US Parents’ Choice Award for Not so Fast Songololo, which is credited with paving the way for postapartheid South African children’s books. He has the ability to view the world from a child’s perspective and to see the world in a rainbow of shades, reflective of multicultural modern South Africa. His latest work Surprise! Surprise! is a funny and original story
Saturday 17 June: Kobus Moolman is a senior lecturer in creative writing at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and an award-winning poet and playwright. His eighth collection of poetry, A Book of Rooms, won the African Poetry Book Fund’s 2015 Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry. The poems in this collection were described by the judge as “electric, visceral, brilliantly experimental, and profoundly moving.” Moolman himself describes the poems in A Book of Rooms as an “emotionally honest and direct” examination of his personal experiences “growing up as a white South African during apartheid” and “growing up and living with a disability (spina bifida),” facing domestic, psychological, and physical violence. Moolman’s debut collection, Time like Stone, was awarded the Ingrid Jonker Prize, and he is also the recipient of the South African Literary Award, the BBC African Radio Theatre Award and the Macmillan Southern African Playwriting Award.