Books and writers
Information about the latest books and the people behind them
My Mercedes is Bigger than Yours: An exploration of postcolonial society
2011-11-04 Published in the Heinemann African Writers Series in 1975, Nkem Nwankwo’s novel succeeded his highly popular first (comic) novel, Dando (1964).
Big Book Chain Chat #84: JM Coetzee in Texas
2011-11-04 Isn’t it rather dismaying to learn that our (are we right to think of him as “our”?) foremost writer has sold his literary papers to the University of Texas in Austin?
Big Book Chain Chat #83: Where does poetry begin?
2011-10-26 Poetry begins in silence and transcends ourselves. A poem is both a message and a destination. A poem is both a process and an entirety. We are channels and also embodiers of the poem. Where does the poem end and another existence begin?
The Tempest Prognosticator: Enlivened poems worth reading
2011-10-25 I must confess at the outset that I am a huge fan of Isobel Dixon’s work. (I don’t know how else to express it.) Weather Eye is for me a finely crafted evocation of place and intimacy; while A Fold in the Map is a poignant and delicately controlled tribute to memory and to family.
The Other Booker Prize: Amusing, gentle and full of natural wisdom
2011-10-20 Azila Talit Reisenberger has made a name for herself as a poet and short story writer, and also as South Africa’s only female rabbi for the Temple Hillel community in East London. She also heads the Hebrew section of the School of Languages ...
Imagine Africa: Idealism and disillusionment in the imagining of Africa
2011-10-20 Imagine Africa, a collection of essays and literary pieces edited and introduced by poet, writer and activist Breyten Breytenbach, is the first in a projected series of volumes from the Gorée Institute ...
Shafinaaz Hassim in conversation with Janet van Eeden
2011-10-19"The common theme running through the stories is that of disempowerment, either through sexism, poverty, racism or war. The phrase 'belly of fire' refers to the churning anxiety inside each soul whose voice has been suppressed through fear of reprisal."
Copying, circulating, concealing and contesting in Cape Town’s reading cultures
2011-10-13 As an outcome of this boekjol the social movement Equal Education will hand over a fully stocked and functioning library to Matthew Goniwe High School in Khayelitsha. I’m a product of a Cape township high school and I remember that the library was kept under lock and key in the principal’s office, more for the benefit of reporting to the school inspector that no books had been lost or stolen