To the Volcano Archives – Elleke Boehmer

To the Volcano longlisted for the Edge Hill Prize 2020!

Erica — Mon, 06 Jul 2020 14:25:37 +0000

We’re delighted that To the Volcano has been longlisted for the Edge Hill Prize 2020.

The Edge Hill Prize is the only UK based award to recognise excellence in a single authored short story collection.

Read the announcement

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Review of To the Volcano in The Short Story

Erica — Fri, 01 May 2020 07:42:11 +0000

Paul Woodgate has written a wonderful review of To the Volcano for The Short Story. Here’s an excerpt:

Each story, delivered with a minimal grace and a compassionate eye for all points of view, offers a new angle. Powerful, touching and razor-sharp, they provide multiple entry points to view the complex morality change places on us as individuals and the societies we inhabit. Whichever way you turn these stories, the light of experience is clear to see and the emotion rings true.

Read the full review

The post Review of To the Volcano in The Short Story appeared first on Elleke Boehmer.

Stellenbosch Launch of To the Volcano: 4 March 2020

Erica — Mon, 30 Mar 2020 08:30:55 +0000

Wamuwi Mbao of the Stellenbosch University English Department interviewed Elleke about To the Volcano at the Stellenbosch launch of the collection, which took place at the Protea Boekwinkel on 4 March 2020.

A conversation about reading is a journey of exploration. Learned new things about short stories inc my own. Today @ProteaBooks With amazing reader @WamuwiM @JonathanBallPub pic.twitter.com/qPEOhfvW1E
— Elleke Boehmer (@ellekeboehmer) March 4, 2020

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Barbara Boswell hosts Professor Elleke Boehmer’s book launch

Erica — Fri, 27 Mar 2020 08:30:52 +0000

The Book Lounge was host to the launch of To the Volcano in Cape Town last month, where Elleke was in conversation with Barbara Boswell of the Department of English at UCT.

"Delicious, delectable, enchanting, well-crafted, fascinating…" only a few of the adjectives Barbara Boswell used to describe #ToTheVolcano by @ellekeboehmer last night at the @book_lounge launch of the book. pic.twitter.com/coojggWroJ
— Dr Karina M. Szczurek (@KarinaMSzczurek) February 26, 2020

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Tales of the amazing light show of life

Erica — Thu, 26 Mar 2020 08:28:18 +0000

This excerpt comes from a piece by Elleke that appeared in the South African Sunday Times on 15 March 2020.

Southern light – anyone who has experienced it recognises instantly – the blazing, concentrated, white-blue light of the southern hemisphere. It bakes the short stories in To the Volcano, which are set in Argentina, South Australia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa. This light is in many ways their ultimate source.
In my youth, Durban-born, I always took this light for granted, that is, until suddenly I didn’t have it any more. I had moved to a place 51 degrees north and never thought how much I’d miss it. I’ve spent my time since working my way back to it.

Read the full piece

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Just doing their thing: Confronting fractured worlds in Elleke Boehmer’s To The Volcano (TLS review)

Erica — Thu, 26 Mar 2020 08:22:00 +0000

Anjali Joseph wrote an excellent review of To the Volcano for the TLS in February. A highlight:

In their best, often their most surreal moments, Elleke Boehmer’s stories are memorably lifelike.

Read the full review

The post Just doing their thing: Confronting fractured worlds in Elleke Boehmer’s To The Volcano (TLS review) appeared first on Elleke Boehmer.

‘That Glittering Southern Light’: new review of To the Volcano in the LARB

Erica — Tue, 14 Jan 2020 15:02:06 +0000

Gerri Kimber has written a wonderful new review of To the Volcano in the Los Angeles Review of Books.

An excerpt:

Boehmer’s book is a gift of discovery for us all, whether we come from the South or the North, a reminder of the transformative power of acceptance

Read the full review

The post ‘That Glittering Southern Light’: new review of To the Volcano in the LARB appeared first on Elleke Boehmer.

Review of To the Volcano in A Life in Books

Erica — Thu, 07 Nov 2019 08:05:05 +0000

To the Volcano has been reviewed by Susan Osborne in her blog A Life in Books. An excerpt:

These are insightful, intelligent stories full of characters pursuing their dreams but often meeting with disappointment, unable to make a decisive move, pulled back by a longing for home or an inability to escape their past and often left lonely as a result. An enjoyable collection, written with a quietly perceptive insight.

Read the full review

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New review of To the Volcano in the Daily Mail

Erica — Fri, 25 Oct 2019 11:14:49 +0000

Eithne Farry has written a review of To the Volcano for the Daily Mail, calling the stories ‘beautifully crafted’.

Read the review

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To the Volcano, and other stories available for preorder

Erica — Tue, 26 Feb 2019 09:18:53 +0000

In more exciting news for 2019, Elleke Boehmer’s new collection of short stories will be published by Myriad later this year.

These assured, accomplished stories are reports from a world in which unacknowledged dark energies undermine and render hollow our bright, rational self-understanding. With passion and intelligence, and rare moral insight, Elleke Boehmer traces the scars left on the psyche by the tortuous histories of the South.
J. M. Coetzee

Read more and preorder the book on Myriad’s site:

To the Volcano, and other stories

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