Litnet

This year's Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award is awarded to Breyten Breytenbach. The ceremony will be held on May 25th and the event will be streamed live. 

"So, there are only really two options … in politics. You somehow make the changes in the interests of most of the big players. So, you would somehow persuade the ANC, the EFF and the DA that these pieces of change are in their interest – which is, at the very least, a complex process. It’s not reachable because, generally speaking, people in politics, and particularly in South Africa, have a conservative bent; they want to keep things as they are."

"I also wanted to write about an adult love relationship, and in the Cape Town context, it seemed authentic to include an intercultural relationship which raised questions of identity."

"This simple and accessible campaign is a fundraising drive inviting the public and the business sector to join them in turning a 40-year legacy into an 80-year commitment, thereby ensuring that this illustrious legacy will continue for future audiences and artists."

“The shortlisted books always reflect what is happening in our society and this year it’s clear that the political has become the personal, and that we have to look at what happened to find out who and where we are today."

"I admit my heart once again fluttered when I sat down and ogled the fans, lights and race car-type seats. Would going to the movies become an experience again? Would I anxiously anticipate the release of intriguing titles?"

"Local film Krotoa will only be released in South Africa in August, yet it has already managed to conquer the hearts of international film lovers and critics."

You are invited to the launch of Get up! Stand up! in Cape Town, where author Mark Heywood will be in conversation with Redi Thabi.

"And we must give guidance to our young people, who have many questions and feel that our culture – and, indeed, our people – are marginalised and maybe even oppressed by the majorities."

Your are invited to the launch of A handful of earth by Simon Bruinders on the 10th of May, where he will be in conversation with Hamilton Wende.

"'Now' is all that any of us certainly have, and to waste a moment of it, either enslaving someone else or being held in bondage for someone else’s benefit, is a crime against humanity."

"Helize van Vuuren describes her essays in the field of Bushman studies as a monograph. Perhaps. It is, however, the wide-ranging and delicately intelligent work of a polymath."

"We sense the word 'consciousness' describes levels of human being, but we can’t quite put our finger on what exactly these levels are. The whole concept is like a mirage – there, but untouchable; real, but somehow unknowable."

"It is our responsibility as amaXhosa, as academics, to ensure that Xhosa gets the recognition that it deserves. For it to develop it needs to be used; we can borrow words and phonologise them into Xhosa."

"Booking has opened for Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s seven-time Tony Award-winning musical EVITA, coming to the Artscape Opera House from 1 December 2017."

You are invited to the launch of Bending the rules by Rafique Gangat in Johannesburg, where he will be in conversation with Tim Cohen, editor of Business Day.

"The Afrikaans language, Joubert’s instrument of literary creation, is under siege and in the process of being dispensed with as a university language of instruction, signalling the eventual loss of its higher functions. It may be that this translation will one day be the only way to access the autobiography of a courageous writer who, in 2002, was considered one of the best writers on the African continent."

"So, in the cemetery in Philippolis, I pretended I was the Queen, and all the people, the little children lying beneath the slabs and angels, the doves and little lambs, were all my loyal subjects. They loved me and obeyed me. I loved them and ordered them about. I was the Queen of the Free State."

"Brief as it is, and with some of the naïveties of a first novel, Mukasonga’s narrative packs a powerful punch without exploiting the Rwandan tragedy for merely melodramatic effects."

You are invited to the launch of The shallows by Ingrid Winterbach in Cape Town, where she will be in conversation with Karin Schimke.