Book cover: Human & Rousseau
A whistling of birds
Isobel Dixon
Human & Rousseau
ISBN: 9780798184144
Isobel Dixon will be on tour in South Africa for the first time since Covid. Below is more information – and Isobel elaborates a little on each respective event.
Wednesday 6 September, A whistling of birds reading @ Red Wheelbarrow
7.30pm at The Commons, Muizenberg, Cape Town
Isobel thanks Jacques Coetzee and The Red Wheelbarrow Poetry Collective for this invitation. She will be reading largely from her new collection A whistling of birds (with possibly a couple of poems from earlier collections) for about 30-35 minutes, followed by some Q&A. There will then be an open mic session after the break.
Time: 7.30pm on Wednesday 6 September (SAST).
Venue: The Commons, Surfers' Corner, Beach Rd, Muizenberg, Cape Town, 7970
Tel: +27 83 799 8294 | Email: thecommons.muizenberg@gmail.com
Friday 8 September, Two Events at Open Book Festival, Cape Town
Isobel is excited to return to this wonderful festival in Cape Town, always a fascinating weekend. She was happy to launch The tempest prognosticator at the 2011 Festival in conversation with the late, great Gus Ferguson, wonderful poet and artist and publisher of her debut collection Weather eye. Her new collection A whistling of birds is dedicated to Gus. She’s also happy that these events coincide with Human & Rousseau's official publication date for A whistling of birds.
Friday 8 September, Open Book Festival: Writing the Natural World
4pm at the Avalon Theatre, HCC Homecoming Centre, District Six Museum
Isobel Dixon, Pieter Odendaal and Bridget Pitt explore questions of writing, creativity and spiritual connections to the land in the company of Kanya Viljoen.
Time: 4-5pm, Friday 8 September (SAST)
Venue: Avalon Theatre, HCC Homecoming Centre of the District Six Museum
Corner Buitenkant St & Caledon St, District Six, Cape Town, 8001
Tickets: R50 — book here.
Friday 8 September, Open Book Festival: Salon Hecate at Open Book
5pm at The Electric (close to the Homecoming Centre)
Join Helen Moffett for a Salon that will switch focus from local authors and creatives to a global line-up. This event will feature Sipho Banda, Isobel Dixon, Sarah Lubala, Athambile Masola and Hilda Twongyeirwe.
Time: 5-6.30pm, Friday 8 September (SAST)
Venue: The Electric, 48 Canterbury St, District Six, Cape Town, 7925
Tickets: R50 — book here.
NB: Please note that The Electric is just 5 minutes from the Avalon Theatre at the Homecoming Centre.
Tuesday 12 September, Cape Town launch for A Whistling of Birds:
A reading by Isobel Dixon, & a discussion with Finuala Dowling
5.30 for 6pm, Exclusive Books, Cavendish Square, Cape Town
Time: 5.30 for 6pm, Tuesday 12 September (SAST)
Venue: Exclusive Books Cavendish, Lower Mall, Cavendish Square, Vineyard Road, Claremont, Cape Town.
Finuala Dowling will introduce Isobel Dixon and her new collection A Whistling of Birds, Isobel will read from the collection and there will be a conversation and Q&A, after which Isobel will sign copies.
All welcome! Free, but booking essential.
Please email events@exclusivebooks.co.za to reserve your seat.
Refreshments will be provided — and of course, copies will be on sale.
More information below:
A whistling of birds by Isobel Dixon
with images by Douglas Robertson
(Human & Rousseau, 8 September 2023)
“In this collection, creature-rich, the poems themselves are creaturely – sinuous and revelatory, bearing entire landscapes and architectures. To write them, Isobel Dixon has been near to, in the company of, enchanted by, for a long time, a hoard of paintings, phantasms, writing – animal-besotted and world-mad all – to which she calls us close in these verses. I can almost not breathe for being in their presence.” – Gabeba Baderoon
Lyrical, vigorous, inventive, A Whistling of Birds shares points of creative contact with DH Lawrence’s iconic collection, Birds, Beasts and Flowers, but also ranges widely through the worlds of other writers, artists and musicians, in moments closely examined and delicately drawn. Emily Dickinson to Elizabeth Bishop, Glenn Gould and Ted Hughes; Albrecht Dürer to William Blake, Albert Adams and Georgia O’Keeffe. Syrian roses, an abundance of apricots in Santa Fe, the dancing of a friend; bats, bees, tortoises, snakes, the generous body of a whale. Threaded throughout is the beautiful complexity and vulnerability of the planet, and the joy and difficulty of making art, also in times of war and displacement.