New writing
Fiction and prose by established and emerging authors. Send your poetry or fiction to New Writing at skryfwerk@litnet.co.za to be considered for publication on LitNet.
Please note that work previously published in print or on any online media platform will not be considered for selection.
Not like myself
2012-01-30 I’m not myself today.From the bathroom sink
I lift up a face with its glassy eyes
and pallid flesh, shake off the water,
look again.
No, that’s not me. Definitely.
2013 Maskew Miller Longman Literature Awards
2012-01-24 Maskew Miller Longman invites you to submit your unpublished and original novel/s for the 2013 Maskew Miller Longman Literature Awards.
2012 Maskew Miller Longman Literature Awards Writers Workshops
2012-01-24 Are you a new writer in need of guidance & inspiration or an experienced author seeking tips on how to write a youth novel?
Top 11 2011: Poems
2011-12-14 In no particular order, a list of 11 or so poems that appeared on LitNet in 2011.
The Incident on Heron Island
2011-12-13 It was blazing out in the open countryside, though the calendars said that it would soon be late October. Hilton Ellis mopped his brow with the spotted handkerchief that he had knotted on his head earlier against the unaccustomed UV rays.
A crucial connection
2011-11-29 I was worried. Two months into my new job I had to admit I couldn’t do it. The job was selling water-related apparatus – high-pressure pumps, pH meters, conductivity meters, water filters, spraying nozzles, that sort of thing. Before that, I was in ...
The Exploding Trousers – Part IV
2011-11-23 Preparations for shooting the climactic scene of the film had been continuing since dawn. The set had been built in the barn of an abandoned farmhouse not far, Hilton guessed, from the majestic ruins of Great Zimbabwe. A small town of trailers and
The Exploding Trousers – Part II
2011-11-16 “Dude,” said a voice that seemed to be coming through a plastic megaphone, “dude, wake up!’ Hilton Ellis opened an eye, and was rewarded with a sideways-on view of the gopher, Rory, of course: standing over his bed.
The Exploding Trousers – Part III
2011-11-16 The picture was blurred at first, but gained in clarity as his eyes gradually adjusted to the dim light. It was a black-and-white line drawing, or an etching perhaps, in the style of illustrations in Victorian adventure stories.
Book extract: Bad Sex (1)
2011-11-15 I approach the door of Anna Brink’s rooms in Observatory, Johannesburg, in which her clean-cut therapy chamber is located. I’ve been here before, on a couple of occasions when life – relationships and marriage – got too hot to handle. She knows me well. In fact, she’s like an old friend. I know that, once Anna opens the door, we will go immediately left, into her refuge for the talking wounded.
The Exploding Trousers – Part I
2011-11-02 “There we are, then,” Sandy said, standing back to examine his handiwork.Hilton Ellis had been making an attempt to learn his lines, and he hadn’t noticed the transformation that had been taking place in the mirror under the make-up guy’s subtly flitting fingers. He looked up to find Adolf Dorkman, Mombasa pirate, scourge of the East coast and greasy B-movie sub-plot bad guy, staring bellicosely back at him.
Book extract: Bad Sex (2)
2011-10-11 It was then that I awakened to the fact that Sabina wouldn’t put up with my “poor attitude”.’‘Right, as you pointed out just now,’ says Anna.
The duvet
2011-09-02 The duvet has the brown stainof cat’s paw, of general outside spaces
brought inside along with a dead bird, perhaps,