Litnet

"Shaw provides excellent evidence to show that wherever and whenever different societal agents and agencies started moving towards cooperation and collaboration, they started becoming effective. When the agencies of the state started talking to one another and when leadership compelled the institutional actors to collaborate, the situation changed positively."

"If you’ve loved the sparse ironic tone of Amor Towles’s A gentleman in Moscow, you’ll love Beyond the door of no return."

Open Book Festival is thrilled to announce the return of our dedicated Youth Festival. Building on the success of our inaugural Youth Fest in 2023, we are gearing up to host an even more vibrant and impactful celebration of literature and creativity among young minds. This year’s festival is scheduled to take place 13 – 20 March 2024 at schools, public libraries and other venues.

"With his having written Manifesto, his patriotism and determination to make South Africa a better place are indisputable. And his willingness to abandon an obviously successful career to see through his ideals is very unusual in a country now dedicated to 'What’s in it for me?'."

"Thoko Didiza, the minister for land reform, has a master plan for dagga. How about the prickly pear? We believe that this plant could make a difference for many poor people if they had access to knowledge to utilise the fruit and the rest of the plant for numerous purposes."

Today, on the ninth anniversary of André Brink’s death, we pay tribute to his life and work and announce that the Philida Literary Award, established in his memory in 2020, goes to Penny Haw and is awarded to her for an oeuvre of literary excellence.

"In general, a creative nonfiction asks the reader to trust in the author’s voice in revealing the truth. The problem in this is that sometimes the spectrum of a certain experience cannot always be displayed in one recounting of it. That is to say, Off-centre and out of focus cannot be a definitive guideline to all the experiences of coloured bodies in a past or present and perhaps future time, but is rather an enclave."

"With an enthusiasm bordering on sheer abandon, Niki noticed children and entered into their point of view, their world, their strange and terrible and joyful existence, in a way that few children’s writers and illustrators have ever done. This instinct shone on every page of every book he ever wrote or illustrated."

"In contrast to the joint engagement in the 1990s of at least the major political protagonists, it is telling that the scenario process on which this book is based seems markedly less rooted in dialogue among political parties."

"I suggested that it might be useful to think of Modisane’s history like a kind of monstrous Large Language Model (LLM) – a bizarre and monstrous simulacrum of human intelligence trained on our basest reflexes and insecurities."

"When he has a performance in Barcelona a middle-aged lady, Beatriz, who is a university lecturer, is assigned to care for him during his stay. He becomes obsessed with Beatriz, though she is married."

Has any war in history gone according to plan? Monarchs, dictators and elected leaders alike have a dismal record on military decision-making, from over-ambitious goals to disregarding intelligence, terrain, or enemy capabilities. Conflict scholar and former soldier Mike Martin takes the reader through the hard, elegant logic to fighting a conclusive interstate war that solves geopolitical problems and reduces future conflict.

"We have no idea how things are ultimately going to look in the Holy Land, but I believe we can use Blame me on history as a text to think about the durability of the human spirit, how to be witnesses to pain, and how to be witnesses who are also implicated in that pain."

"We have had this hugely informative, picturesque and colourful journey through the history and economics of the developing world. But where are we?"

In the video Bhakti Shringarpure, Hannes Barnard, Raphael Thierry and Tina Kover discuss translated literature.

"If, as an African in particular, you visit China or want to learn more comprehensively about the lives of Africans in China, buy Noo Saro-Wiwa’s Black ghosts. You can thank me later."

"In his genius way, and always with a satirical and humorous tongue in the cheek, the reader is not only confronted with – but also brought up to date with – the latest science and questions about the reality in which we live."

Apart from being a platform on which South Africans from all walks can express themselves, the AVBOB Poetry Library has become an essential resource for readers and writers of poetry, helping aspiring poets to learn their craft and sharpen their skills. In this way, the AVBOB Poetry Project is fostering a community of poets across the country.

"And then, a mother is necessarily also the bridge through which we enter this world. Every single one of us crossed that bridge to get here, irrespective of the relationships we may have with our mothers throughout the rest of our lives."

"The group writes poetry, publishes an anthology and uses the money raised to fund their next anthology."