Litnet

"The coin is a book on the psychological stream of consciousness of how to survive in a city that permanently treats you as a foreigner while dealing with its socioeconomic micro-aggressions. It is a short, easy-to-read novel that ticks almost all the boxes for a commercial novel, with quality writing of literary fiction."

"My decision to render my own body, sexual desires and erotic imagination present in this text is an attempt at making the personal and the sexual legible as political and theoretical in the thinking that I am doing."

As we move into the busy festive season, aware that this is a challenging time for many, the AVBOB Poetry Project celebrates the work of Stephanie Saunders, a poet whose work gently makes fun of human beings’ desire for power, love and certainty. Her debut collection, Open Stephanie, was published by Peter Slingsby earlier in 2024.

"Map cards for Africa is basically built on three narrative levels: firstly, the story of Ilze Brüggemann’s reconstruction of a postcard collection, which belonged to her grandmother with the same name; secondly, the clarification of terminology regarding postcards, stamps and maps; and thirdly, a lesson in history and geography, mostly in the South African context."

"Polite society is very much concerned with the appearance of things – how things seem to be – and not how things really are. Therefore, polite society is living a non-reality in real time and making the thing that is not real seem real, and that act of alchemy actually makes a lot of violence that everyone has to be silent about, otherwise the illusion will be destroyed."

The late Hugh Hodge, founder and for many years master of ceremonies at Off the Wall (Cape Town’s longest-running poetry platform), was a master of this form. For many years, he sent a haiku via SMS to his friends almost every day. Although as yet unpublished, they are fondly remembered by those who knew and loved Hugh.

"Who would not be angry? One day, you are descended from royalty; the next day, you are a nobody with absolutely no idea who your parents are."

"Almost everyone in the book, including the unreliable narrator, is delusional in their own unique ways. As the causes of delusion are revealed, we see that at the head of the hydra’s hands of delusion is the greatest delusion this country has ever undertaken: apartheid."

"What I didn’t know was that when I arrived in Amsterdam, Breyten was wandering around Hillbrow with a false French passport and the assumed identity of Christian Galaska."

In The truth about Cape slavery, Patric Tariq Mellet argues that modern South Africa – its economy and politics – is shaped and established on the foundation of chattel slavery just like the United States of America. Cape slavery, rather than minor, was a crucial feature of maritime capitalism. This then moved to become the cornerstone of the Cape’s agricultural economy. Read an excerpt here.

The Springboks made history in France in 2023 when they became the only team to win the Webb Ellis Trophy four times. Who can forget how the Boks won by only one point in three games? Released on the anniversary of this milestone, Twice the glory by Lloyd Burnard and Khanyiso Tshwaku investigates how this remarkable victory was achieved.

It is with deep sorrow that the Breytenbach family announces the passing of Breyten Breytenbach earlier today, Sunday 24 November 2024.

As a young journalist, roped into court reporting to cover Jacob Zuma’s 2006 rape trial, Karyn Maughan could not have known that she would be reporting on Zuma’s legal woes for the next two decades – and would herself become his target.

In 2025, AmaBooks Publishers will publish Tsitsi Mutiti’s translation of Mapenzi by Ignatius Mabasa into English under the title Madmen, while the University of Georgia Press is set to release the translation in North America. Philani A Nyoni talks to Ignatius Mabasa about this new lease of life on his iconic multi-award-winning book, and what it means to him and the zeitgeist after a quarter century in circulation.

The clock is ticking! The annual AVBOB Poetry Competition closes at 23:59 on 30 November 2024. Don’t miss your chance to be part of South Africa’s biggest poetry event! Through the AVBOB Poetry Project, thousands of poems in all 11 official written languages are hosted online, creating an archive where poets of all levels can connect, learn and grow.

This book documents the stories of southern African insects in over 800 pages, with 3 200 beautiful photographs illustrating the rich morphological diversity and biological attributes of the insect species of the region. We emphasise their environmental importance as ecosystem service providers, and narrate, highlight, and illustrate many of the interesting, often remarkable, aspects of their life histories and behaviour, a first for insects of this region.

"Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi and I, as writers who hail from the Eastern Cape, have had the dream of reckoning with the literary history of the Eastern Cape for as long as we have known each other. When, last year, there were celebrations of 200 years of Xhosa in the written word, we thought it an opportune moment to put the idea into action. The Gompo Book and Cultural Festival to be held in East London on 21 to 23 March 2025 is the tentative first step towards accomplishing this goal."

"Hier het ons die geleentheid om ’n kykie in die binnewerke van die man agter die naam te kry, in sy eie woorde en uit sy eie perspektief. Maar terselfdertyd trek hy ook op besonderse wyse die gordyn weg sodat ons kan sien hoe die organisasie waaraan hy sy lewe gewy het, werk."

Maneo Mohale is a poet, feminist writer and editor whose debut collection Everything is a deathly flower (uHlanga, 2019) won the 2020 Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry. Read their extraordinary list poem here and be reminded of poetry’s roots in song, magic and ritual. The annual AVBOB Poetry Competition remains open until midnight on 30 November 2024.