Litnet

Open Book Festival has announced the stellar line-up for its new podcast series which runs from 8 to 24 November.

"This remarkable collection runs to 200 pages of poems by 40 black women, some of whom are familiar crowd-drawers – think Nikki Giovanni, Gabeba Baderoon, Warsan Shire – while others have smaller but no less committed audiences."

Karen Jennings, Holland House Books and Karavan Press are delighted to announce a new competition for debut novelists from Africa: The Island Prize. 

"The negotiated settlement of 1994, it is claimed, ended racial domination and created the foundation for a prosperous democracy – but greedy politicians betrayed the promise of a new society."

"No tickets needed! All our talks are FREE. We believe our festivalgoers have to travel so far to join us, how can we saddle them with yet another cost."

"It is a pleasure and a lucky chance to have chosen Gurnah’s latest novel as the topic of this entry’s profile days before his selection as a winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature was announced. ... As an aesthetic achievement, it roundly confirms Gurnah’s worthiness as the world’s – and our continent’s – latest recipient of literature’s highest accolade."

The changing face of colonial education in Africa by Peter Kallaway offers a detailed and nuanced perspective of colonial history. You are invited to the online launch of this publication on 3 November 2021.

Open Book Festival returns with an eight part podcast series celebrating just some of the works of literature to come out of SA this year. The series will run from 8–24 November 2021.

"He was a sardonic man, his expression one of wry amusement. He was exceptionally kind and gentle."

"This concludes what was for me a quite enjoyable book, one which is an important addition to the literature on South African politics, and of which the main subject of importance is Leon’s exposé of the internal DA politics."

"This teaches and encourages the youth of today not only to believe or trust someone because they are a person they love or respect, but also to remain curious and question things for themselves."

In this episode of his monthly podcast David Attwell talks to Mphuthumi Ntabeni about his tour de force, The Wanderers (2021). Ntabeni’s first novel, The Broken River Tent (2017) won the UJ Prize for debut fiction.

Internationally popular writer Deon Meyer will take a break from filming next week for a flying visit to Cradock. His trip is timed for the launch of a new holistic arts town project which encompasses the Schreiner Karoo Writers Festival (SKWF) taking place on 22 and 23 October 2021.

"It is important for us to learn as much as we can of these long-forgotten societies – how they were organised and what happened to them before Africa was divided up by colonial powers into its present form."

Infused with rhythm and melody, Zakes Mda’s new novel invites you to travel from Lesotho’s Mountain Kingdom to the City of Gold through the history of Famo.

Human and Rousseau and Exclusive Books invite you to join the launch via online webinar of Hearty home food.

"An island is an ethically driven and formally accomplished novel."

Captain Ben Booysen, senior investigating officer in the Krugersdorp murders on which the Showmax documentary Devilsdorp was based, writes: "Please note that no investigating officer follows the same route as another one, and my approach I have mentioned does not mean the investigators therefore did something wrong. It is rather that my methodology in identifying the suspect would have been different."

In this deeply personal book, Hlumelo Biko, who was born of Steve and Mamphela’s union, movingly recounts his parents’ love story and how the BCM’s message of black self-love and self-reliance helped to change the course of South African history.

How do we celebrate Heritage Day (24 September) in an unsettled time? In the face of a pandemic, ideas of identity seem as superfluous and dangerous as flames on Braai Day. Simon van Schalkwyk’s debut collection, Transcontinental delay, is the most fitting recommendation in Heritage Month.