(Robin Malan, pic
courtesy of news 24, and article courtesy of Facebook)
artSMart is sad to report the death of Robin Malan.
Malan has edited more English Alive anthologies - an annual anthology of writing in Southern African high schools and school colleges - than anyone else and is the only reason the publication is still going strong today.
To coincide with this marvellous milestone, Robin launched his new book along the way to where. You can order a copy via email info.junkets@iafrica.com
Malan explains: “English Alive is published by the Western Cape branch of the South African Council for English Education (SACEE). It was founded in 1967 (I was one of the founding editors), and has the distinction of having published every single year since then.
“I was an editor until 1970; then came back as editor in 1995 and have been so until the present, with a two-year break in 2005-6, when Sarah Rowan edited and one other year when Megan Hall edited. As my Assistant Editors I have had Nokuthula Mazibuko and Jerome Damon as long-time helpers, joined by Elaine Davie, and in 2016 by Nicky Karstens and Sue Wigham.
“Each year we invite students at school (and students who have left the previous year) to submit material in whatever form and of any (reasonable) length, by email, submissions coming from their schools or individually. We usually have about 600 - 800 submissions. We sift that down to the 50 - 70 that we publish in an 80-page volume, the cover always featuring artwork by a school student.
“Any number of currently practising published writers had their first work published in English Alive, from Jeremy Cronin through to Shaun Johnson and Henrietta Rose-Innes. Their work was featured in a collection Leaves to a Tree (ed. Robin Malan), David Philip imprint New Africa Books, 2005.
“The target audience for the anthology is current high school students. Many teachers make use of English Alive as stimulus material for their students' own writing, and we have had innumerable requests over the years from publishers wanting to use individual pieces in textbooks, handbooks, resource books, etc.” Robin Malan, Editor
Text taken from FB
article from ESAT:
While taking degrees in Arts and Education at UCT, Robin Malan trained in the Speech and Drama Department.
Since then he has worked in English teaching and theatre-in-education all his life.
Worked at the Space Theatre in the early 1970s. Taught at University of Stellenbosch Drama Department in the 1970's and tutored in the English Department at the University of Cape Town.
In 1974, Malan became artistic director of PACT Playwork theatre-in-education company. He created a symbiotic unity of theatre and education by making Theatre in Education (TIE) the basis of their work. Instead of presenting dramatized versions of literary texts prescribed to schools, the texts were used to address socio-political issues. Management policy and rules laid down by education department led to Malan’s resignation in 1978. He was Assistant Head at Waterford Kamhlaba United World College in Swaziland, and ran a specialist bookshop in Mbabane, Swaziland. He then moved to Botswana to teach.
In 199* he returned to South Africa, settling in Cape Town where he does volunteer work for Triangle Project and writes a monthly column Young Gay Guys for Exit newspaper. He was one of the founding editors of English Alive, is the Series Editor for the Siyagruva Series of novels for South African teens.
Publication
A prolific author, famous for his satirical book on South
African English called Ah Big Yaws?: A
Guard to Sow Theffricun Innglissh, the famous poetry anthologies Inscapes, New Inscapes and Worldscapes; prose collections such as Being here: Modern short stories from
Southern Africa, New Beginnings: Short Stories from Southern Africa and No Place Like and Other Short Stories by
Southern African Women Writers, as well as various collections of writings
by and about Gay men.
Contributions to literary history include Ourselves in Southern Africa: An Anthology of Southern African Writing, Burning a Hole in the Page: A Reader's Guide to 70 South African Writers,
In 2005 he founded Junkets, a small-scale publisher based in Cape Town, South Africa, in association with Snailpress, in order to publish his novel Rebel Angel. Since then Malan has made an invaluable contribution by being instrumental in publishing numerous volumes of poetry, plays and novels under the Junkets imprint that may never have appeared in print.
Contribution to SA
theatre, film, media and/or performance
Work in theatre
Since 1959 he has played many roles at the Little Theatre,
Cape Town. He was very active in youth theatre and was one of the forces behind
the organising of the Theatre for Youth Winter School of Drama in 1964.
One of the founding editors of the short-lived theatre journal Teater/Theatre SA (1968/69).
He has appeared on stage in Death of a Salesman (1962-3), Periandros van Korinthe, The Diary of Anne Frank, King Lear (Maynardville 1966), Major Barbara.
He directed Iphigenia in Tauris (1960), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, When Thou Art King, The Angry Old Man, The Exception and the Rule, 'Tis Pity She's a Whore; directed and acted in That Skelm Scapino (1976).
He directed productions like Miss Los Istrata (1972) and The Fall and Redemption of Man (1973). Devised Workplay and directed A Phoenix too Frequent and Skyvers/Jollers for the Space Theatre, and acted as a judge for the one-act play competition held in 1972-3.
He directed children’s plays such as Old King Cole (written by Ken Campbell) and Winnie the Pooh (A.A. Milne) for PACT Playwork.
As playwright
Wrote and adapted the texts for iHamlet (2012),
Plays and Theatre publications
Play collections are Play
Workshop. Ten One Act Plays, The Distance Remains and Other Plays, S.A. Gay
Plays 1: The Artscape Dublin Festival Plays, Short, Sharp & Snappy 1:
Southern African Plays for High Schools
Books about theatre matters, Drama-teach; drama-in-education and theatre for young people,
Awards
He received the Molteno Medal for lifetime service to literature by the Cape 300 Foundation.
Awarded the English Academy of Southern Africa's Gold Medal for 2014 for his services to English over a long career in education and theatre.
For more information visit https://www.news24.com/life/books/obituary-robin-malan-leaves-legacy-of-words-and-wisdom-as-the-LGBTQIA-advocate-dies-at-84-20240919
Tribute:
When I was serving on the Arts and Culture Trust Board, I
got to know Robin very well and was always amazed at the amount of work he created
to support literature. RIP Robin.
Caroline Smart, Editor/Owner artSMart.co.za
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