Books and writers
Information about the latest books and the people behind them
Cape Town: Launch of Rachel's Blue by Jakes Mda
2014-09-09 Join James Woodhouse in conversation with Jakes Mda at the launch of his new book, Rachel's Blue on Thursday, 18 September.
Launch in Kalk Bay: A Man of Good Hope
2014-09-08 Kalk Bay Books and Jonothan Ball invite you to a launch of A Man of Good Hope by Jonny Steinberg on 23rd September.
Launch in Kalk Bay: The Keeper
2014-09-08 Kalk Bay Books and Penguin SA invite you to a launch of The Keeper by Marguerite Poland on Wednesday 17 September.
Interview: Balthasar's Gift by Charlotte Otter
2014-09-05 "I grew tired of reading crime novels that began with a sexy corpse."
I am a white South African … apparently
2014-09-05 "My name is Annzra Denita Naidoo. Although my ID defines my race as Indian, I have discovered that I am actually a white South African."
Interview with Brent Meersman of Missing Ink Publishers
2014-09-03"If I have to compromise on how and what I write according to somebody else’s views based on their hunches ... about sales – well, I’d rather not write."
A Reading of Claudius’s "State of the Nation Address" in Hamlet
2014-09-02 Shakespeare Against Apartheid: "Those of us who seek an equitable, just and democratic South Africa ... need to recognise that there is no neutral territory for Shakespeare studies in present-day South Africa."
18th Poetry Africa International Poetry Festival
2014-09-01 The Poetry Africa festival, from 13 to 18 October, brings some of the world’s finest poets and musicians to Durban.
African Library: The Case of the Socialist Witchdoctor and Other Stories by Hama Tuma
2014-08-29 "In his author’s note to this text, Hama Tuma declares his belief 'that Ethiopian reality is stranger (and more horrible) than fiction'."
Whoever fears the sea by Justin Fox
2014-08-29 Gerrit Rautenbach reviews this book by an intrepid traveller and travel writer.
The Midlands Literary Festival – a veritable feast
2014-08-28 "The crowds left the festival with smiles on their faces. Many who had planned to attend only some of the Saturday sessions drove all the way back to Howick on Sunday as well, some from a fair distance away."
Queer Movements: Sexual Desire, Space and Home in Damon Galgut’s In a Strange Room and Phaswane Mpe's Welcome to Our Hillbrow
2014-08-27Writing South Africa Now: Twenty Years On is a graduate conference on South African literature that took place at the University of York, UK, in June 2014. Read Sanja Nivesjö, "Queer Movements: Sexual Desire, Space and Home in Damon Galgut’s In a Strange Room and Phaswane Mpe's Welcome to Our Hillbrow".
Invisible Others by Karina Szczurek
2014-08-20 "In the time that Cara ekes out to Konrad she reveals little about herself and her 'invisible others', Lucas and Dagmar, who have marked her."
Review: Garden of Dreams by Melissa Siebert
2014-08-20 Karina Szczurek reviews Garden of Dreams by Melissa Siebert.
Interview: Garden of Dreams by Melissa Siebert
2014-08-18 Melissa Siebert discusses her debut novel with Jonathan Amid.
Inexplicable Present: Post-Apartheid Subjectivity in Vladislavic?’s City
2014-08-14 Writing South Africa Now: Twenty Years On is a graduate conference on South African literature that took place at the University of York, UK, in June 2014. Read Thando Njovane's abridged paper, "Inexplicable Present: Post-Apartheid Subjectivity in Vladislavic?’s City".
Sinister Surfaces: Contemporary South African Horror (On Stage and Off)
2014-08-14 Writing South Africa Now: Twenty Years On is a graduate conference on South African literature that took place at the University of York, UK, in June 2014. Read Esthie Hugo's abridged paper, "Sinister Surfaces: Contemporary South African Horror (On Stage and Off)".
Interview: I See You by Ishtiyaq Shukri
2014-08-13 "I am the people I know, the books I have read, the countries in which I have lived – and very nearly died. In January I visited the Yemeni island of Socotra. It is truly the most remarkable place I’ve even been to."
Ken Barris + Michael Cope = Cope Barris
2014-08-12 "We worked the way we did because we’re the personalities we are, and we approach writing as we do, and the alchemy came from that wonderful unlikely combination."