A Hundred Silences

by Gabeba Baderoon

A hundred silences is the third collection of poetry by Gabeba Baderoon - recipient of the DaimlerChrysler Award for South African Poetry in 2005. In this new selection of poems, the poet explores how every room has its own silences, its own memories and secrets. She speaks of the quiet, gnawing loneliness of hotel rooms in 'Sleeping in hotels', of the ache of longing and how sometimes 'love is in the going away'. She also does not steer away from what is not said, from the silences between words, and how anger can spark 'the taste of blood never too far ... eyes watchful / heavy as bruises'. It is an eloquent, tender collection of poetry, affirming Baderoon as one of the most exciting new voices in South African writing.

Genres: Poetry, African Literature

79 pages, Paperback

First published March 15, 2006

About the author

Gabeba Baderoon is a South African poet. She is the author of four collections of poetry - The dream in the next body (Kwela/Snailpress, 2005), The museum of ordinary life (DaimlerChrysler, 2005), A hundred silences (Kwela/Snailpress, 2006) and The history of intimacy (Kwela, 2018). Her poetry is included in the anthologies Worldscapes, Ten Hallam poets, Voices from all over and Birds in words, and in journals in South Africa, the United States and Europe, including World Literature Today, St Petersburg Review, Fidelities, New Contrast, Carapace, Chimurenga, New Coin, Karavan, Matter, Illuminations, Sable, Sentinel, Post Scriptum and Meridians. Gabeba is the recipient of the DaimlerChrysler Award for South African Poetry 2005 and held the Guest Writer Fellowship at the Nordic Africa Institute in Sweden in 2005. For 2008, she is the recipient of a Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship in Italy and a Writers Residency at the University of the Witwatersrand, funded by Trust Africa. Her debut collection, The dream in the next body, was named a Notable Book of 2005 by the Sunday Independent. A hundred silences was selected for Homebru 2006 by Exclusive Books in South Africa and was short-listed for the 2007 University of Johannesburg Prize and the 2007 Olive Schreiner Prize. Both The dream in the next body and A hundred silences were Sunday Times Recommended Books. The story 'High Traffic', from her collection The museum of ordinary life, appears in Cape Town calling, an anthology of travel writing edited by Justin Fox (Tafelberg, 2007), and 'The history of intimacy' appears in Art South Africa (6.2, Dec. 2007).

http://www.gabeba.com/main/about.htm

Reviews

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection is by South African poet, Gabeba Baderoon, one of the poets at the Civitella Ranieri Residency where I am now (June/July 2008). I had the pleasure of hearing Gabeba Baderoon read her some of poems recently in an evening presentation. She's a stunning reader of her work; if ever you have the opportunity to hear her read, be sure you do so (she lives and works in Pennsylvania). Baderoon's poems are quietly beautiful, meditative. I like her use of language, the way that she can make what may at first seem plain so much richer, more textured and resonant. I particularly like the poems about her father (who died), and her meditations on photographs. Here's one of her poems:

Touch

It must be an inconsequential animal.
The tree must rustle.

A mouse runs
to the lightest outer branches of a tree.

The tree becomes itself
through the touch of the mouse.

Branches come into being or
the tree realises there are branches
when the mouse runs on them.

The mouse creates
the branches by running on them.

Scratch of claw against bark,
the leaves tremble.

[Sean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gabeba Baderoon's voice is clear and usually quiet, whether she is describing the coat her father made for her mother or the sinking of the Estonia, and she seeks out and lays bare in plain, unadorned language the small details and feelings that give meaning to her subject--her father's garden, a library visit gone wrong, a photograph of her mother or of her lover's former lover.

Read Jessica's review for an example of Ms. Baderoon's poetry. Visit www.gabeba.com for many more examples, including a playlist of twelve poems read by the author.

Really excellent, breathtaking poetry. Cannot recommend her highly enough.

[Fleur · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have grown very used, and attached, to feminist or decolonial poetry, and being familiar with baderoon's academic work I expected her poetry to also have a message or purpose. Hence, I was a bit disappointed and failed to really connect to her poetry. However I did appreciate the attention to detail and the way her poems felt almost like whispers instead of something solid.

[l · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lovely collection. 'Old photographs', 'The notes he is not playing ' 'This is not my father's garden' are my favourites.