Farouk Asvat

♦ FAROUK ASVAT is a novelist, poet & medical doctor, banned by the South African #apartheid regime.

He was

● awarded the VITA AWARD for his anthology, "A CELEBRATION OF FLAMES";

● nominated an Amnesty International "Prisoner of Conscience";

● awarded the Fulbright Scholarship to the University of California at Berkeley;

● the EOC Scholarship to the Vrije Universiteit in the Netherlands;

● the University of Cape Town Health Care Trust Scholarship;

● the Kwanzaa Honors Certificate by the Africa Network.

♦ He qualified as a Medical Doctor at the University of the Witwatersrand,

and worked at various community clinics and hospitals.

♦ BOOKS by FAROUK ASVAT:

● Sadness In The House Of Love (novel)

● The Gathering Of The Storm (novel)

● I Dream In Long Sentences (poetry)

● The Wind Still Sings Sad Songs (poetry)

● A Celebration Of Flames (poetry): winner of the vita award

● The Time Of Our Lives (poetry)

● This Masquerade (short stories)

● Bra Frooks (poetry)

● The Paanies Are Coming (short stories)

● In The House Of Love (novel)

● Weapons Of Words (literary criticism)

● ''A CELEBRATION OF FLAMES'' by FAROUK ASVAT

♦ WINNER OF THE VITA AWARD

" ''A CELEBRATION OF FLAMES'' is a powerful, impassioned call. The sanity and courage of this collection arises from the poet's unique experiential perceptions of his milieu, making him one of the few who can write about these traumatic times with such lucidity and lyricism. The strength of Farouk Asvat's poetry lies in the way he intertwines the complex elements of social and political conflicts with intense personal relationships. The wide tonal range extends from sensual and delicate insights into the nature of passion to the satiric and humorous use of slang."

● VITA AWARD citation by ● Lionel Abrahams, editor, Purple Renoster & Sesame

"Like hesitating snowflakes his words are fascinating in their capricious wilfulness

- like unexpected strokes of a whip."

● Susanne Baackmann, University Of Albuquerque, USA

"The legend of poet extraordinaire Farouk Asvat: - like vintage wine, proper poetry matures with time, and like vintage art the voice and wisdom of a poet worth the name is timeless."

● Mphutlane wa Bofelo, kagablog

"His love poetry soars with an intense sensitivity, it celebrates lyrically the joys of a most exquisite sensuousness."

● Marcia Leveson, University of the Witwatersrand, The Indicator

"Farouk Asvat writes about love and suffering, about individualism, snobbishness, pretence and pride, about human and environmental beauty and about opposing oppression, and who deploys metaphysical, lyrical and colloquial language, slang and standard diction, all with equal strength and ease."

● Cosmo Pieterse, Culture In Another South Africa

"you almost catch your breath at some of the stanzas - you can re-read it several times and be struck by new ideas, metaphors, elegiac surprises, and the heartfelt poignancy"

● Aggrey Klaaste, editor Sowetan

"Farouk Asvat's award-winning collection of poems crackles with a passionate consuming pace"

● Z B Molefe, arts editor City Press

"Out of an angry silence, a polished poet is born."

● Anton Harber, editor Weekly Mail

♦ ''THE TIME OF OUR LIVES'' by FAROUK ASVAT

'' "The Time of Our Lives'' reveals a writer who enjoys words:

- he has a sense of rhythm close to TS Eliot and an eye for the modern image."

● Brian Rose, Rand Daily Mail

"It bears testimony to the resilience and courage of the oppressed in South Africa ...

His poetry is devastatingly forthright and hard-hitting."

● Tyrone August, The Star

"Asvat's imagery is stark - his poems taut encapsulations of the injustices wreaked on Black people."

● Asha Rambally, The Graphic

"Asvat's poem (‘Possibilities for a Man Hunted by SBs’) is a clear and simple statement of the true state of affairs

- reducible to mathematical terms."

● Mbulelo Mzamane, Perspectives On South African English Literature

"Asvat's poems - with many depths, clever twists and juxtapositions, are exciting, true, and thought-provoking."

● Wendy Vogt & Alan James, Upstream

"an almost palpable tenderness for a country whom the poet alludes to as if she were a lover."

● Neela Alvarez-Pereyre, Commonwealth Essays & Studies

''Beautiful words … poignant … heartbreaking …''

re: ''Cries and Whispers''

● Jill Townsend, Council Of Grandmothers, Ojai, California, USA

● ''THE TIME OF OUR LIVES'' is the historically important anthology whose poems played such a pivotal role in the struggle against the height of oppression in South Africa. This completely revised edition includes several poems that were not in the original collection, and the organisation of the poems into a more coherent order. It accurately portrays what it was like to live and fight, love and die under the discrimination and tyranny of apartheid.

♦ FAROUK ASVAT has been PUBLISHED IN:

UNITED STATES: Berkeley Poetry Review; International Portland Review; Gar; Screens And Tasted Parallels; Processed World; Illuminations; Saasm News; Culture In Another South Africa; African Literature In The Eighties; WherePoetry24; Goodreads; Requiem; Pacific Poetry.

CANADA: Descant.

BRAZIL: Cadernos Do Terceiro Mundo.

KOREA: https://www.jnuri.net/mobile/article.html?no=55397

TURKEYE: Çağdaş Güney Afrïka Şïrï Antolojïsï

SWITZERLAND: Geneve-Afrique.

NETHERLANDS: Vrije Azania, O Nag, Kom Gou, Bly Weg!; Zuid.

The poems from his anthology "A Celebration of Flames", translated into Dutch as ''Een Feest Van Vlammen'', are published @ https://faroukasvat-poems.blogspot.com

FRANCE: Notre Libraire; Europe: Afrique de Sud.

GERMANY: Matatu; Awa-Finnaba; Englisch Amerikanische Studien; Dokumente Texte Und Tendenzen: South African Literature; Crisis and Conflict: essays on southern African literature; Sudafrika-Stipendienfonds; Perspectives 5: South Africa; South Africa: the privileged and the dispossessed.

ENGLAND: Index on Censorship, The Race Today Review, Wasafiri.

SOUTH AFRICA: English Academy Review; Staffrider; Imprint; Izwi; New Classic; Realities; Upstream; Wietie; Sesame; New Contrast; Critique; Writers' Forum; Tribute; The Star; The Sunday Times; The Voice; The Indicator; Sowetan; Muslim News; Exiles Within: Seven South African Poets; Horses: Athlone; Belgravia High School; Benoni Students Movement; Shosholoza; University Students Bursary Committee; Vuka; Western Areas Table Tennis Association; Voices From Within; New Inscapes; Reconstruction; The Return Of The Amasi Bird; Some Roses, a Hamburgher, an AK47 and a Puddle; Poskaarte; Worldscapes; Broken Strings; Ten Years of Staffrider; My Drum; Ourselves in Southern Africa; The Lonely Art; Poetry 2000; A Writer in Stone; The Paperbook of South African English Poetry; The Vita Anthology of New South African Short Fiction; A New University Anthology of English Poetry; Northern Lights, Southern Star; The Lonely Art; Poetry 2000; Botsotso; The Living Tradition; Voices From All Over; kagablog; al Qalam; The Jo'burg Book: a guide to the city's history, people and places; Inleiding Tot Die Reg En Regsvaardighede in Suid-Afrika; & Introduction to Law and Legal Skills (Oxford University Press).

♦ His poems have been extensively reviewed in South Africa and abroad by The Rand Daily Mail, The Star, Sowetan, The Sunday Times, New Nation, The Graphic, The Leader, Natal Post, The Indicator, Lenasia Times, Gauteng Times, Islamic Focus, Financial Mail, Business Day, Style, Upstream, National English Literary Museum News; Grocott's Mail, Staffrider, al Qalam, Sunday Tribune, Weekend Argus, Daily Dispatch, Weekly Mail, Third World Quarterly Literary Review, and Commonwealth Essay & Studies.

♦ His poems have been translated into French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, Turkish and Greek.

♦ He has read his poems at numerous community venues in South Africa and abroad.

♦ He has freelanced as a journalist, columnist and art critic for various newspapers.

[] please check out my blogs @:

poems: https://faroukasvat-poems.blogspot.com

weapons of words: https://faroukasvat-viewpoint.blogspot.com

piquante: https://faroukasvat-piquant.blogspot.com

piqued: https://faroukasvat-piqued.blogspot.com

streetwise: https://faroukasvat-lingo.blogspot.com

quran: https://quran-faroukasvat.blogspot.com

quran lectures: https://faroukasvat-quran.blogspot.com

verse: https://faroukasvat-verse.blogspot.com

notes: https://faroukasvat-notes.blogspot.com

biography: https://faroukasvat-bio.blogspot.com

stories: https://faroukasvat-stories.blogspot.com

reviews: https://faroukasvat-reviews.blogspot.com

books by farouk asvat: https://faroukasvat-books.blogspot.com

[] please join me on:

linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/today/author/farouk-asvat-52a6b642

linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/farouk-asvat-52a6b642

facebook: https://www.facebook.com/faroukasvat

twitter: https://twitter.com/faroukasvat

youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDlracNOh9E/faroukasvat

sa history: https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/mohamed-farouk-asvat

wikipedia: https://en.everybodywiki.com/Farouk_Asvat

amazon kindle author @ https://www.amazon.com/author/faroukasvat

#love #literature #fiction #novel #poetry #southafrica #apartheid #books #classics

#faroukasvat #weapons #of #words #comparative #literature #literary #criticism

● poems @ https://faroukasvat-poems.blogspot.com

● linkedin @ https://www.linkedin.com/in/farouk-asvat-52a6b642

● sa history @ https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/mohamed-farouk-asvat

● wikipedia @ https://en.everybodywiki.com/Farouk_Asvat

● youtube @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDlracNOh9E/faroukasvat