‘Hot stuff’ stories to give fest a sexy twist

AN OUTPOURING of half a million words about South African love, erotica and sex has come to the Eastern Cape after 135 writers entered the Grahamstown-based National Arts Festival’s second annual Short Sharp Stories fiction competition.

Started over the lunch table in the Grahamstown home of festival CEO Tony Lankester, with Cape Town author-editor Joanne Hichens, the book,

Adults Only, will contain 25 selected entries and is due for publication in July. The book will be launched as part of the festival’s 40th celebrations.

Getting the pitch right will be a huge headache for the judges, who spent long nights this festive season reading, Hichens says.

“We are looking for stories that are raw, dangerous and powerful, as well as those that are delicate, sensitive and funny. Stories that can titillate the senses, or be highly provocative. They could be sacred or profane, playfully perverse or deeply poignant.”

Hichens said that in a country of morbid, alienating, tragic, and horrifying stories of rape, abuse and HIV/Aids, South Africans had forgotten how to love.

“We need to give ourselves permission to write about sex and have fun writing about sex,” she said. “I wanted stories which I call ‘hot stuff’, which can titillate – but I don’t want bad porn – as well as more subtle stories.”

Winners will be announced in March.

Lankester said in 2012, over lunch, Hichens, who was studying for her masters degree in creative writing at Rhodes University and renting their granny flat, bemoaned the lack of a short story competition. By the end of lunch the Short Sharp Stories competition had been launched on a website with its own domain and R75 000 in funds committed.