Litnet

"To read Jeffery’s compelling exposé is to realise that, for the past 30 years, the average South African has been a victim of the greatest imaginable confidence trick."

"For me, Open Book was special in a different way. I have been attending literary festivals around the world as a reader for a quarter of a century, as a writer for almost two decades and as a publisher for the past four years, but never before have I felt that I truly embodied all three of these roles simultaneously and so fully at an event."

"The literary controversy by author Elizabeth Gilbert, of the popular book Eat pray love, seems to have passed unnoticed on South Africa’s literary scene ... She delayed its publication indefinitely after receiving flak from Ukraine supporters and citizens."

Threaded throughout is the beautiful complexity and vulnerability of the planet, and the joy and difficulty of making art, as each poem becomes its own vivid testament to the natural world. 

"I couldn’t put this book down. It now resides at my elbow at breakfast, where I can turn to today’s date and read the relevant quote to my wife. It provides space, as the authors say, to step back briefly from taking part in life, and instead to reflect simply for a while on how we all live. The Shakespearean quotes all strike a chord."

"The many intrigues in these pages are told not only by a great writer, but by the country’s foremost historian; Van Onselen’s work opens new ways to think about a range of issues like the responsibilities of scholarship, the idea of southern Africa, and the roots of South Africa’s foreign policy, among other things."

You are invited to attend the book launch of Statues and Storms: Leading through change by Max Price on 21 September at Exclusive Books, V&A Waterfront in Cape Town. The book offers a gripping insider's account of Max Price’s tenure as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Town during a transformative period in South African higher education. 

Coloured is a reflection on, and celebration of Coloured identities as lived experiences. It is a call to Coloured communities to reclaim their identity and an invitation to understand the history and place of Coloured people in the making of South Africa’s future.

Isobel Dixon will be on tour in South Africa for the first time since Covid. Herewith more information on the respective events.

"The pleasing thing about this graphic novel – or comic book, in the parlance of this old-timer – is how it teaches not only old African beliefs, but also that ancient wisdom can be adopted to support the protection of our ecosystem."

Why do some states thrive, grow their economies and uplift their people while others, facing similar challenges, slide into low growth, social dysfunction and failure?

"I was moved to tears at the sense of torches being passed, comfort given, and of the long and transcendent reach of love."

"I have my doubts that it’s genetic. I think that the anxiety is genetic and the alcohol is a form of self-medication. We also learn from the example set by our parents/caregivers. The whole 'needing a drink to relax' after a stressful day and the adults in our lives having what seems to be a whale of a time when they’re drunk – we learn that that’s how we should behave."

"The downing of Malaysian Air flight MH17 on 17 July 2014, which took the lives of 283 passengers and 15 crew members, started a trail of discoveries through eastern European poetry."

"I listen to Johannesburg move around me, and I wonder how she is still able to act like nothing is wrong. When that is all I can see. Why she is not angry. I’m tired of being angry."

"There is rich nuance in Tanya Zack’s flowing, sensitive narrative and Mark Lewis’s striking photography. The stories they tell are deeply human and individualised, yet cleverly interwoven within Johannesburg’s broader racial, social and economic anomalies."

"Storytelling has always been a way of making meaning of our lives, and of processing what has happened to us, individually and collectively. Many of the traditional stories that have been passed down orally, that are still passed down in some communities, emerged through processing traumatic events that the family or community had experienced."

"These characters are fictional, but they are also a quilt of real memories. With this story, I tried my best not to create archetypal characters or fall into the stereotypes that burden coloured characters in the media. I wanted to show these boys with all of their complexities, faults and facets. I believe that these are the things that make us human."

"When I saw the Short.Sharp.Stories call for submissions, I thought it would be a great idea to take a break from writing my memoir and stretch my imagination a bit, a welcome distraction from my reality."

"The reader of this book will soon find that Head writes as if he is birdwatching while writing. This strategy is an important feature in the book; there is an arrangement of the words, searching meaning, like turning out to watch birds – birds jumping around on the pages, flitting about in all directions."