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.

After tears

Buhle Ngaba New writing 2022-06-28

Stemme | Voices | Amazwi is LitNet’s series of 15 short, powerful monologues presented in collaboration with Suidoosterfees, NATi and ATKV. Watch Buhle Ngaba’s performance of After tears, written by Buhle and directed by Amelda Brand.

Uncertain

Tommy Koekemoer New writing 2022-06-27

"Soon I will be dead
It’s uncertain
When is the final curtain?"

Windmill

Heidi Henning New writing 2022-05-23

"She plays a sound
Drawn from a deep-water source
She holds power"

Secret

Heidi Henning New writing 2022-05-16

"A love language,
Unhaltered, fragile, fluttering,
Mapped by constellations of emotions,"

A nightmare

Akosile Lookman New writing 2022-05-11

"War is a nightmare, a nightmare we never wake up from.
A brutal shift in reality, a broken trust."

Before the Sabbath

Ferdi Wheeler New writing 2022-04-28

"hasten along the graveyard road,
with the body limp and pierced
on a rickety cart –
His soul pawned and distraught"

Collecting psychology and honey like the earth collects rain

Abigail George New writing 2022-04-04

"I need the routine
Of the military the precision
I desire it after having sacrificed"

Collecting psychology and honey like the earth collects rain

Abigail George New writing 2022-03-29

"About solitude I have this to say
I need the routine
Of the military the precision"

What if this night

Morné du Preez New writing 2022-02-08

"for what if this night
came as a spirit
dimming out the melancholy,
ripples of fear dissolving in a stream"

Tram 23

Pieter Lübbe New writing 2022-01-20

"Whereas other tram rides are more conventional, follow standard routes, or where one finds oneself somewhat ill at ease – with someone else’s wallet pressed up against your thigh or a few smelly armpits too close for comfort. Tram 23 does not follow suit. Tram 23 is a spaceship of a different breed."

Dark matter

Basil Sadler New writing 2022-01-20

"How can nothing be growing?
The star doctors say it is
Is the nothingness showing?"

Sadness

Karin Walker New writing 2022-01-12

"sadness cannot be contained
nor repressed
it seeps unceremoniously
through the tiniest slit"

Conclusion

Heidi Henning New writing 2022-01-05

"He died in isolation
Surrounded by sterile strangers
Unknown machines
In an intensive care unit
Without history or memory
Or a warm hand in his."

Origin

Philene van Rooi New writing 2021-12-14

"I retraced
My steps
Back to the days
Before I lost all of my ways"

Pressed against the graffiti wall

Neo Mehlomakulu New writing 2021-12-07

"I saw the deaths of twenty-somethings
crawl behind me,
dressed in fire suits"

A different ending

Liam Hugo New writing 2021-12-07

"By an invisible force that will not sway
And its purpose to disrupt and to set asunder
And rob this world of all its wonder"

Lost in my mind

Liam Hugo New writing 2021-11-28

"Of worlds and lands beyond and far away
That place where my soul longs to stay
Further than the moon or even Mars"

Duly unaware

Tammy-lee Lakay New writing 2021-11-28

"the fear and dread that astounds me
I let it be
duly unaware of what you might see"

Bullied

Abigail George New writing 2021-11-22

"My attraction to food teaches me to forget the emotional pain. It calms me. It wants me. There are so many ways an addict validates what they are doing."

Teenage survival

Rochelle Sekels New writing 2021-10-13

"Since day one, I had only one
And I guess it was better than having none
But as the years went by,
He left just like the rest"