Books and writers
Information about the latest books and the people behind them
Press release: 2026 Laureate of the 15th Pak Kyongni Prize, Damon Galgut Selected
2026-10-23Known as "Korea’s Nobel Prize in Literature", the Pak Kyongni Prize was established in 2011 by the Toji Cultural Foundation, chaired by Kim Se-hee, as Korea’s first international literary prize and writers’ prize.
Olive Schreiner is not finished with us
2026-10-21"For a woman who died in 1920, Olive Schreiner is having quite a year."
How to stop being a naai: Mphuthui Ntabeni interviews Mia Arderne
2026-10-19Mphuthui Ntabeni talks to Arderne about the inspiration behind the novel, her writing process and how she deals with family and friends who might feel that their stories could just have slipped into these pages. Then Ardene deftly turns the tables and starts asking the questions.
Invitation: Celebratory Seminar – Soweto’s Theatre of Resistance 1984–1994
2026-10-19Unisa’s Department of Afrikaans and Theory of Literature is hosting a seminar to celebrate the publication of the book Soweto’s Theatre of Resistance 1984–1994, by Andile Xaba.
Mini-seminar on AI: AI-generated writing
2026-10-19"In my own opinion, the task before writers, then, is not simply to keep machines out of literature, but to preserve the human responsibilities that literature demands, whether or not machines have become part of the process."
Call for abstracts: Literature Heritage Ecology Conference, indigenous knowledge systems for a new era of enlightenment
2026-10-19Ninth AMAWZI Literature Heritage Ecology Conference, indigenous knowledge systems for a new era of enlightenment exploring the potential of IKS to resolve current social-ecological crises.
Invitation: Road to the ballot
2026-10-19Invitation: Road to the ballot – three leading South African journalists unpack the state of the nation and what it means for us.
On Donica Merhazion’s Born at the end of the world: a gift from the grave of history
2026-10-14"That is a gift from the grave of history, not the promise that the dead can be restored, or that the past can be made innocent, but the knowledge that their lives need not end with them. Someone can still bear witness."
Fresh off the press: Apartheid’s granddaughter by Lidia Rauch
2026-10-07Apartheid’s granddaughter is not a story of guilt or absolution, but of courage and repair. It’s an invitation to white South Africans to face their inheritance with honesty and courage.
Call for papers: Twenty years of Ons komvandaan – reflections on the Legacy of Diana Ferrus
2026-10-06Proposed chapters can be in any language and take the form of creative writing (poems, short stories or other texts), personal reflective essays, academic studies or translations of her poems (three to six poems, with an accompanying reflective or academic essay on the translation process).
Grieving in the first person plural: Writing as we grieve, grieving as we write
2026-10-06"This latest wave of gender-based violence has sent me back to a book I read a few years ago: Cristina Rivera Garza’s Grieving: Dispatches from a wounded country, translated by Sarah Booker. I haven’t been able to put it down since."
First sip: Scorpio rising by Deon Meyer
2026-10-01"She heard the beep of an electronic lock, assuming it was the room next door. Her own room door opened. Shockingly, unexpected."
Scorpio rising: an interview with Deon Meyer
2026-10-01"The problem was that Benny had no intention of sticking to his minor role. Every time he walked onto the page and into a scene, he lit it up and made things happen."
The chronicles of Shalom Court by Allan Kolski Horwitz: A reader’s reception
2026-09-29"It is much more than a singular thriller or whodunnit, having the depth of conflicting and diverse multi-voiced stories that link to Shalom Court in an impoverished society."
The glass island by Patricia Schonstein: An interview
2026-09-28"I give a lot to my readers, treating them as guests who enter my imagined spaces, in the way I would welcome them into my voorkamer, reading to them while offering biscotti and Turkish coffee."
A South African small town (dorp) abecedarius: A reader’s reception of Darryl David’s Doggone days
2026-09-23"Doggone days is an anthology, a florilegium, of vibrant seeing in its colour photos, enhanced by Darryl’s use of the artistic/photographic triangular structure to create powerful vistas, landscapes and portraits."
A reader’s impression of Multitudes by Mphuthumi Ntabeni
2026-09-22"The inclusion of real historical figures and intertextual references add an evocative depth that will linger in the memory of this reader. Nonfiction teaches by means of facts; fiction, by means of imagination. Multitudes confirms this."
Disabled, but by Kirsten Deane: A review
2026-09-21"Deane allows her readers to breathe and take note of their bodies (disabled or not). We look forward to what comes after 'but' from Deane’s pen."
Multitudes by Mphuthumi Ntabeni: A reader’s impression
2026-09-21"Multitudes is home to many things: It is a collection of layered histories, philosophies, thoughts on architecture, intertexts and a place for love stories to nestle."
Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner: a discussion
2026-09-21"Lastly, I am stupefied as to why it took me so long to read Faulkner, and am happy I began with Absalom, Absalom!. We both seem to be using the historical novel to explore how the violence of the past survives within the lives, memories and identities of later generations. Both our novels treat history as a fragmented, contested inheritance, reconstructed through memory, oral stories, silence and competing perspectives."
