Colors of New Day: Writing for

An impressive international group of writers has contributed to this collection of 38 short stories and poems to benefit the African National Congress. Among them are: Margaret Atwood, Nadine Gordimer, Allan Gurganus, James Kelman, Joyce Carol Oates, Ben Okri, Wole Soyinka, Edward Upward and Zoe Wicomb. Most of the work is previously unpublished and loosely related to matters of race, apartheid or South Africa. In Oates's ``Black,'' a white man spends an inebriated evening with his ex-wife and her black lover, and the only question is how many drinks it will take before inappropriate words are spoken. Emily Prager's ``The Laundry'' offers a glimpse of the domestic side of life in South Africa: an American guest in Johannesburg receives an ovation from the household's black maids after she insists on doing her own laundry. A man who visits a beauty parlor for make-up and a manicure exemplifies the desire to be what one is not in ``Mary's Regular'' by Mona Simpson. Given the wide range of subjects and writers, there is an inherent diversity and unevenness to the collection, but much of the writing is worthy of note. Lefanu and Hayward are London book editors. (Nov.)