Litnet

South Africa faces severe femicide, and most murderers evade justice. Prisons fail by perpetuating crime; harsher sentences do not help. Edwin Cameron, after visiting prisons, advocates for reform. Along with colleagues, he suggests abolishing minimum sentences, cash bail, and decriminalising drug use to improve safety and justice.

Mannequin Pictures has optioned the screen rights to the political thriller Good Hope, the debut novel of South African author, political advisor and communications specialist, Nick Clelland, for adaptation into a series.  

Soutie Press is excited to launch The interpreters: South Africa’s new non-fiction edited by Sean Christie and Hedley Twidle. Hosted by Lou-Marié Kruger at the Welgevallen Community Clinic in Stellenbosch on 29 May 2025, Sean and Hedley will be in conversation with Jonathan Amid about rare and beloved forms of nonfiction writing emerging from the country over the last 30-plus years.

U word hartlik uitgenooi na die boekbekendstelling van Ill at ease deur Francois Verster op Saterdagoggend van 11:00 tot 13:00 op 14 Junie in Welgemoed. Francois Bloemhof sal in gesprek met die skrywer wees.

You are invited to the book launch of The lucky ones by Alistair Mackay at Love Books in Melville, Johannesburg, on 26 May 2025 from 17:30 for 18:00. Jarred Thompson will be in conversation with Alistair Mackay.

"Though our focus is on black history – because it has been neglected and deliberately suppressed – we tell the entire history, including the over-represented colonial and Afrikaner history. From the booklet, you learn not only about Governor Somerset and Bruintjieshoogte, but also about what was there before the European arrival. You learn who Nojoli was, and how all these histories interlock and are joined at the hip, despite our pretensions."

"The notion of home is intimately tied to an individual’s sense of self. ... This dual meaning of home is certainly a useful way of looking at the new collection of autobiographical poems by Frank Meintjies, A place to night in."

"Two new books add to the published oeuvre of South Africa’s pioneering psychoanalyst, Wulf Sachs [who] was out to demonstrate two things. First, that black urban migrants were in a terrible plight, not of their making, and one with which they were lamentably ill-equipped to cope. And, secondly, that the exciting new thought package of Freudianism successfully straddled the apparent crevasse between Western modernity and African traditionalism."

"Instead of one person speaking, many did. Instead of long speeches, we heard numerous poets reading for ten minutes each."

The 2025 Island Prize, the fourth year it has been running, has once more attracted nearly 200 entries from across the continent, and the range of subjects, styles, and genres has been greater than ever before. Now, rather than one winner, we have had to name two: Night dancer by Zabu Wamara of Uganda, and In the valley of bones by Kristien Potgieter of South Africa.

Calling all birds of a feather to bookmark together at this year’s Kingsmead Book Fair. Kingsmead College will host the 13th annual Book Fair on Saturday, 24 May 2025 at Kingsmead College campus in Melrose, Johannesburg from 09:00 to 18:00.

"It’s a daring book.  He shows – and tells – with every word a song’s note, an ingredient that stirs flavours within, and the result is both delicate and rich."

"It’s like a batsman playing his last test and scoring a hundred in the second innings. Or a bowler ending with 10 wickets in his last game."

We are delighted to announce the 2025 Island Prize shortlist.

Writer and alumna of the Jakes Gerwel/Oude Leeskamer residency programme, Lebogang Mazibuko, talks with our guest writer, Sihle Qwabe, about his writing process and the life experiences that inform his writing. Join us on 6 May from 15:30 to 17:00 for this conversation in Jannie se Leeskamer in exploration of Qwabe’s debut novel, The Resurrection.

"I asked if I could interview him about directing before he returned home, and he readily agreed. I opened a bottle of Beaujolais Nouveau and turned on the tape recorder. I was 32 and Athol was 49."

Die wenners van die onderskeie pryse en toekennings van die Andrew Murray Desmond Tutu-prysfonds is nou bekend.

"Decima is a triumph of moral and aesthetic ambition. By entwining a species’s extinction with personal and national identity, Venter crafts a story that is simultaneously urgent and timeless. Its greatest achievement lies in making readers feel the weight of ecological collapse not as abstract data, but as the sum of countless individual tragedies, human and animal alike."

This arrangement promises to bring increased global visibility to Modjaji authors while maintaining Modjaji’s distinctive editorial vision and established local presence.