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Jonathan Gibbs

Jonathan Gibbs was shortlisted for the White Review Short Story Prize 2013. He has since published a novel, Randall or the Painted Grape (Galley Beggar Press).



Articles Available Online


Jessie Greengrass’s ‘Sight’

Book Review

February 2018

Jonathan Gibbs

Book Review

February 2018

Jessie Greengrass’s debut story collection caught my eye with its delightfully extravagant title, An Account of the Decline of the Great Auk, According to...

feature

May 2016

Cinema on the Page

Jonathan Gibbs

feature

May 2016

Film is a bully. It wants to make its viewers feel, and it has the tools to do so....

After a while you memorise the steps You read the addresses and your calves just know, hey They just know it’s going to be a long morning   These holiday homes on the steps don’t get a lot of mail The German okes who buy them park in Frankfurt all year and only fly in when winter hits Maar dis altyd mooi in die Kaap, né? Who even buys a house they don’t live in? And houses like these, too Most okes don’t see them, so they don’t even know what they’re like But let me tell you what: if I had one of these, on the beach, jir’, I wouldn’t leave   But, ja, anyway – most of these places don’t get a lot of mail Some municipal stuff, some late Christmas cards that’ll sit in their boxes until next December Sometimes I get these double – sealed envelopes met logos van strange banks al oor geskryf Most of these okes dodge tax, heyThey have to No one has that much money   Some of the okes at the depot are jealous of me They all say, ‘O, Piet, all you have to do is walk around all the laanie houses by the beach all day’ But most of them don’t know Clifton, hey They don’t know how many stairs there are Jirre fok, man, all those stairs Next time you go to Clifton 3rd, count the number of houses you pass on the stairs down Ja, and that’s my that’s my what’s the word? Ja, jurisdiction My route Yoh, they would die in a day if they had my job And like, none – none of these houses have driveways No paths All of these houses are on the steps, going down the cliff No other way in   No, you have to chain your bike to the rails on the side of Victoria Road – ja, chain it with a combination lock because the skollies will take it quick – quick, even a Post Office bike, hey , they’ve got no skaam – then take the stairs down Ja, the stairs Fifty down, fifty

Contributor

August 2014

Jonathan Gibbs

Contributor

August 2014

Jonathan Gibbs was shortlisted for the White Review Short Story Prize 2013. He has since published a novel, Randall or...

The Story I'm Thinking Of

fiction

April 2013

Jonathan Gibbs

fiction

April 2013

There were seven of us sat around the table. Seven grown adults, sat around the table. It was late. We had eaten, and we had...

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poetry

July 2015

About Blue: Velestovo

Tatiana Daniliyants

TR. Katherine E. Young

poetry

July 2015

About Blue: Velestovo   1   …when I say the name: Velestovo, I think of deep blue. Of blue...

poetry

April 2012

Jules & moi

Heather Hartley

poetry

April 2012

80% of success is showing up. —Woody Allen   A morning of tiles, park benches & sun, green, un-...

feature

February 2014

Only Responsible to Their Art: Heilan and the Chinese Avant-Garde

Chen Wei

TR. Tu Qiang

feature

February 2014

Heilan was established for a simple reason: over the past twenty years, there has not emerged a single medium...

 

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