Books and writers
Information about the latest books and the people behind them
Book review: Travels with My Father by Karen Jennings
2017-01-06"For me, this book is an unsparing quest for meaning on so many levels and one certainly deserving of the highest accolades."
African Library: Keeper of the Kumm by Sylvia Vollenhoven
2016-12-14"Told with great candour and in her inimitable, forthright style, Vollenhoven’s is one of the most important South African autobiographies to have appeared."
Book launch video: The long wave |Dorado
2016-11-18Tom Dreyer's books The Long Wave (English) and Dorado (Afrikaans) were launched at Die Ouwe Klok last week. Dreyer was interviewed by Dawid de Villiers. Watch the video.
Interview with Dilip Menon - on Learning Zulu and monolingual universities in South Africa
2016-11-16"What Afrikaans has developed, what English developed over a period of time, is the way of being able to teach a complete foreigner the language, and that is what we need for Zulu."
South African Literary Awards 2016: The winners
2016-11-10The winners of this year’s South African Literary Awards have been announced.
Book review: There's always tomorrow by Abner Nyamende
2016-11-08"The title of the novel refers to something that Gabashe is told by Madiba himself: 'There’s no time to spare. The time for suffering in the hands of an illegitimate government is now over. Our uniting slogan says there’s always tomorrow.'”
African Library: The Shadow of Things to Come by Kossi Efoui
2016-10-26"The shadow of things to come is a brief text that packs a mighty punch: it is a finely written and vividly imagined narrative, many of whose details I have not even mentioned in this profile: a grim, brilliant, spell-binding work."
Book review: Emily Hobhouse – Beloved Traitor by Elsabé Brits
2016-10-26"Brits has brought the persona of a remarkable person fully to life in the text. South African Hobhousian historiography has become unspeakably enriched from her writing."
Book review: Going back to say goodbye by Kenneth de Kok
2016-10-25"Going back to say goodbye tells the story of a boy saying goodbye to his childhood as it flits past. It is also the story of a boy saying goodbye to his father and, movingly, to a South Africa that both no longer exists and lingers on in surprising ways."
Ten questions: Arien van der Merwe on the book Managing diabetes and related health challenges
2016-10-11Is diabetes a lifelong death sentence? "It isn’t. My book is a message of hope that this disease can be managed and even healed."
Invitation to book launch: Losing the Plot by Leon de Kock
2016-10-04You are invited by Wits University Press and The Book Lounge, Cape Town, to the launch of Losing the Plot on Thursday 6 October 2016 at 17:30 for 18:00.
Interview: Marianne Thamm on Hitler, Verwoerd, Mandela and me
2016-09-23"I am pleased that the country I grew up in no longer exists."
Established South African writers doing it for themselves
2016-09-15"Self-publishing is rising in popularity with South African writers who have previously released novels through traditional publishers. To get an idea of what the self-publishing landscape in South Africa is like, four local fiction writers – Paige Nick, Joanne Hichens, Janita Thiele Lawrence and Gareth Crocker – were asked to share their experiences."
Review: New Contrast Manifesto Issue
2016-09-14"'Manifesto!' shouts the cover of the 173rd issue of South Africa’s oldest literary magazine, New Contrast. The effect is compelling: the reader is enjoined to listen and engage."
The People Behind the Books: Isobel Dixon, Poet and Literary Agent in the UK
2016-09-13"But prizes, pleasing as they are, are not the pinnacle: the ongoing privilege and pleasure of my job is the stories, the stimulation, the richness of ideas and the precious relationships with my clients."
Invitation: Book launch of The Initiation by Mogorosi Motshumi
2016-09-12You are invited to the launch of The Initiation by Mogorosi Motshumi on the 13th of September in Bibliophilia, Woodstock.
Press release: The Sefika Awards 2016
2016-08-31The annual Sefika awards evening was celebrated by South Africa’s Publishers and Booksellers at the Vineyard Hotel in Cape Town on Tuesday the 30th August 2016.
African Library: The Oldest Orphan by Tierno Monénembo
2016-08-30"My name is Faustin, Faustin Nsenghimana. I’m fifteen years old. I’m in a cell in Kigali central prison. I’m waiting to be executed."
One day at The Star Soweto Literary Festival 2016
2016-08-26"Camaraderie. That is word which comes to mind when I think back to the one day I spent at the fabulous Soweto Theatre, attending the inaugural The Star Soweto Literary Festival."
Book review: Writing what we like: A new generation speaks, edited by Yolisa Qunta
2016-08-26"If there ever was a timely book, Writing what we like is definitely it. It is the brain child of Yolisa Qunta, who over the period of the past two years interviewed and collected essays written by her fellow young black South Africans for this remarkable publication."
