Collection
Yes, I am!
writing by South African gay men q
compiled by Robin Malan and Ashraf Johaardien
First Edition First Impression 29 April 2010
First Edition Second Impression: 23 June 2010
TO ORDER: email info.junkets@iafrica.com
Taking its cue from ‘the first time’, this is a collage of what it’s
like to be South African, and male, and gay.
The experiences of some forty writers come together, in
stories, poems, letters, diary-entries, SMSes and emails …
Among the stories they tell are of first love in the face of
colour legislation that outlaws it, love that blossoms despite
religious injunctions against it, a chance finding of a condom
in the jacket pocket of a life partner, the sheer fun of being
young and gay in an early-morning that makes Cape Town
look gorgeous …
Brushing shoulders with a swathe of new and emerging
writers are two actor Knights (Sir Antony Sher and Sir Nigel
Hawthorne), two winners of the Alan Paton Non-Fiction
Award (Edwin Cameron and Jonny Steinberg), the
Dean of Cape Town Rowan Q Smith, novelists Damon
Galgut, André Carl van der Merwe, Gerald Kraak and
K Sello Duiker, legendary TAC activist Zackie Achmat,
theatre director David Lan, literary agent Tony Peake,
playwrights Peter Krummeck, Nicholas Spagnoletti and
Pieter Jacobs, arts journalist Shaun de Waal, imam Muhsin
Hendricks, defrocked and then reinstated DRC minister
Laurie Gaum, Delmas Treason Trialist Simon Nkoli, actor
Blaise Koch … and the alter-ego of that phantom
ex-Ambassadress Evita Bezuidenhout, Pieter-Dirk Uys.
Among the newer voices are Fabian Ah-Sing, Shaundré
Balie, Fourie Botha, Alisdair Campbell, Kyle Carson, Steve
Colborne, Peter Damm, Roger Diamond, Pieter Fourie,
Imraan Jaffer, Twanji Kalula, Kai Lossgott, Drummond
Marais, Mothusi Mathibe, Andy Mullins, Marius Roux,
Tshetlo Selebalo, Werner Ungerer, D Watson,
and Rahiem Whisgary.
Contents Foreword: Edwin Cameron
Ashraf Johaardien: Queer theory
Coming out Peter Damm: Coming out – onstage
Peter Krummeck: Nineteen Sixty-Seven
Andy Mullins: Andy’s SMS
Antony Sher: I will tell her today
Pieter Jacobs: Zam-Buk boy
Drummond Marais: Coming out to my wife
Pieter Fourie: Second coming (out)
Roger Diamond: Friday Trivia: a corporate coming-out
Imraan Jaffer: Imraan’s email story
Nigel Hawthorne: We were ‘outed’ just before the Oscars
Facebook Group: When did you first come out?
Finding out & speaking out Marius Roux: Jacobsdal
Shaun de Waal: Justin shares his problem
Zackie Achmat: A boy grows up in Salt River
Robin Malan: Sweet is the night air
Tshetlo Selebalo: The first time I touched another man
Fourie Botha: My first Barbie
D Watson: The first time I went to watch a gay movie
André Carl van der Merwe: Weekend pass
Twanji Kalula: It’s none of your business
Shaundré Balie: Well I never!
An inspired youngsta: Untitled
Antony Sher: Gay Sweatshop’s first season
Edwin Cameron: ‘An openly gay man’
Muhsin Hendricks: A letter by way of explanation
Rowan Q Smith: ‘Who told you so?’
Laurie Gaum: Gay in the image of God
Encounters
Zackie Achmat: Danny and Ida and Mr Jordan
Tony Peake: History lesson
Antony Sher: Bill Clinton might disagree
Pieter-Dirk Uys: Fun and fear in 1966
Tshetlo Selebalo: The first time I told my boss that I love him
Damon Galgut: Lappies
Kai Lossgott: The secret body of Barry B Jones
K Sello Duiker: First night at work
Blaise Koch: Nameless
Gerald Kraak: Matt’s first leather bar
Werner Ungerer: The morning after
Hate
Steve Colborne: Still here
André Carl van der Merwe: Moffie
Jonny Steinberg: My first HIV test
Rahiem Whisgary: Aadil
Love
Nigel Hawthorne: Some day I would find someone
Fabian Ah-Sing: First love
Nicholas Spagnoletti: Alan and Zahir
André Carl van der Merwe: Me and Ethan
Simon Nkoli: Letters from prison
Shaun de Waal: Could it mean …?
Kyle Carson: Delusion
David Lan: Ten thousand Indians
Mothusi Mathibe: The first time I discovered that ‘he is not that into me’
Alisdair Campbell: ‘Passion chokes the flower till she cries no more’
Publication date: 29 April 2010
ISBN 978-0-520-45828-3
Soft cover perfect bound 176 pages 137 x 210 mm
Retail price R250.00
TO ORDER: email info.junkets@iafrica.com
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