Litnet

"Manufacturing in Africa has suffered: firstly, during colonial times, when raw materials were exported, as beneficiation took place abroad; and secondly, today, as China does the same."

"As with several other cases of travellers rounding the Cape, Russian travellers saw it as a convenient stopover, although it became more than that – a place worthy of a visit."

"The Indian community of Kenya comes into strong focus in this recent novel, part family saga, part social analysis and part romance, set mainly in Nairobi and combining idealistic hope with some strongly satirical exposures of the city’s and the society’s ugly underbelly."

You are invited to the launch of Firepool in Cape Town, where author Hedley Twidle will be in conversation with Rebecca Davis.

The 2017 winners of the Sunday Times Literary Awards were announced on 24 June.

"Before answering, let’s clarify the thorny issue of racism first. And let’s be clear – white racism arrived with the arrival of all Europeans in southern Africa. It’s not something that suddenly surfaced in 1948! And it certainly is not something peculiar to southern Africa only!"

"The personal and the political are woven inextricably into each other by her life and in her prose."

"'We’re in the home stretch,' says Darryl Earl David, former Head of Afrikaans at UKZN, founder of South Africa’s national Booktown in the Karoo, and the man heading Durban’s bid for Unesco City of Literature status."

"Friends and residents of the Eastern Cape – and especially book lovers – have a terrific opportunity to learn more about the cultural richness of their region when two local authors bring their poetry and stories to SunKissed, a specialist arts and craft shop at the East London Airport on 15 June."

"The Open Book Festival will be presented from 6 to 10 September 2017, once again offering a world-class selection of book launches, panel discussions, workshops, masterclasses, readings, performances and more."

"Paige Nick has demonstrated a unique talent for taking the pulse of present-day South Africa and weaving a story that offers the country’s zeitgeist to readers in an entertaining, irreverent and enjoyably subversive manner."

You are invited to the launch of foodSTUFF by food writer Tony Jackman, where he will be in conversation with Nancy Richards.

This year's Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award is awarded to Breyten Breytenbach. The ceremony will be held on May 25th and the event will be streamed live. 

"I also wanted to write about an adult love relationship, and in the Cape Town context, it seemed authentic to include an intercultural relationship which raised questions of identity."

“The shortlisted books always reflect what is happening in our society and this year it’s clear that the political has become the personal, and that we have to look at what happened to find out who and where we are today."

You are invited to the launch of Get up! Stand up! in Cape Town, where author Mark Heywood will be in conversation with Redi Thabi.

Your are invited to the launch of A handful of earth by Simon Bruinders on the 10th of May, where he will be in conversation with Hamilton Wende.

"'Now' is all that any of us certainly have, and to waste a moment of it, either enslaving someone else or being held in bondage for someone else’s benefit, is a crime against humanity."

"Helize van Vuuren describes her essays in the field of Bushman studies as a monograph. Perhaps. It is, however, the wide-ranging and delicately intelligent work of a polymath."

"We sense the word 'consciousness' describes levels of human being, but we can’t quite put our finger on what exactly these levels are. The whole concept is like a mirage – there, but untouchable; real, but somehow unknowable."