Litnet

"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."

The Midlands Literary Festival takes place during the first weekend of September 2023 at the Yellowwood Café in Howick. Here is the programme.

"I’ve always been much better at writing in the first-person narrative; being able to visualise my characters through their own eyes makes it easier for me to know what their next move will be or how they’ll react to a situation."

Travellers, explorers, meanderers ... come to the launch of The fall by Hans Pienaar.

"This fast-paced dystopian thriller, written by Di Mier, is fiction – not all events are based on reality. However, it is written in such a clever way, and some facts are so close to reality, that it all seems true."

"When the remains of Endurance were found, Knowledge Bhengu was the captain of Agulhas. Bristow-Bovey tells, in a sympathetic way, how a young black boy from rural KZN ended up being a marine captain of note. The book is researched comprehensively, its narrative style topically eclectic and lyrical tonally. The book is a mixture of natural sciences, geography, polar adventures and historical facts that are told in accessible language, in chapters with personal memoirs and other curiosities."

"[The Copyright Amendment Bill] will do inestimable damage to our law of copyright and related areas. Perhaps worst of all, if made law, they will cause immense harm to the very people they purport to be assisting, namely the authors, the composers, the artists and generally the creative persons who seek to produce new and better works and make a livelihood from doing so."

The first volume is already being shared by school children in South Africa. They choose sketches from the revues of the 1980’s and give them life. ... Volume Two could raise similar questions for readers with humour, surprises and the enjoyment of the Mandela years. No wonder it was being launched on Madiba Day 18 July 2023.

"The ability to see ourselves in our myths allows us to be critical of ourselves and the world as we know it. This encourages us to envision a better world, in which we too are better versions of ourselves in our interactions with one another. At the root of it all are empathy and transference."

"I realised the characters, incidents and interactions were all derived from real-life experiences – you just cannot make that *insert swear word here* up. From the first sentence I was right back there in a government hospital."

“I was inspired to write this story after reading about the Aversion Project, a medical torture programme in South Africa during apartheid which identified gay soldiers in the South African Defence Force and forced them to submit to ‘curing’ their homosexuality. The doctor in charge later fled to Canada.”

"And maybe A place to call home might have been produced by my subconscious, trying to work through that grief. They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, and leaving Howick made the life I lived there just so vivid. In many ways the story of my Egyptian geese is the story of my life."

"It is a beautiful, flowing work that echoes both the serenity and tempestuous character of the ocean."

"It is difficult to read about all the injustice that accrued and how some missionaries were funded by slavery, but it is also a beautiful story about people who were able to see beyond race, culture, beliefs and societal status."

"With the help of Maggie’s enterprising grandchildren they start a Boomers’ Rights Campaign which catches the attention of the press. They demand freedom of movement, among other things."

"Is this a good book? Yes, it is a bloody good book. Is it a masterpiece, as was A Man of Good Hope? No, its descriptions are, but its analysis is sometimes flawed. Would I recommend it as a purchase and as a read? Without a doubt."