Litnet

The Achmat Dangor Literary Prize is now open to eligible young writers working in all genres (poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction), with applications closing on September 15, 2024.

"We felt that editing the mass of content down to a collection of gems would be a great curated read. We believe it to be powerful (so many parents, not gurus, sharing their experience and wisdom), and we see the trends of what subjects people are concerned about daily. We could and might still publish 10 books. There’s that much."

"Unlike the devolved parliaments of Wales and Scotland, where the nationalists can achieve their goals within a democratic framework, the English nationalists have no uniquely English parliament of their own. They are free only to elect representatives to a British parliament in the broad sense, whereas the Scots and Welsh elect MPs not only to their own national parliaments, but also to the British parliament. Will this constitutional anomaly lead to bottled-up rage and frustration among English nationalists?"

The shortlisted collections of poetry for the Ingrid Jonker Prize 2024 have been announced.

This is the most urgent book ever to appear from the pen of cultural icon Koos Kombuis. Sometimes, when he is in an irreverent mood, Koos writes under the fun-filled pseudonym "Joe Kitchen". This time around, though, he is deadly serious. The death of history is a climate change diary.

"when I walk out of the door
my pink suitcase rattling behind
on broken wheels I thought you would fix"

"In Afrikaans, bedonnerd has pejorative associations. But I used the name to mean 'crazy about books'. I feel that there is no greater word for my memoir than BookBedonnerd."

The programme for this year’s Open Book Festival is now live. The festival, known for creating an inclusive space for important conversations, is set to explore a range of themes including mental health, fatherhood, creativity, and the impact of history on the present.

"Most of these stories are set in Botswana, which in itself is refreshing since there has been a scarcity of stories in that setting since the death of Bessie Head."

The Caine Prize for African Writing, an esteemed annual award honouring outstanding African writers, is pleased to announce the shortlist for the 2024 edition. The five shortlisted stories were carefully selected from a pool of 320 entries originating from 28 African countries.

"Christianity might not own the Last Supper symbolism, but would the symbol have been able to gain so much power and presence without Christianity? Who today knows or remembers the Dionysian feast of the gods, except perhaps some lonely professor of ancient Greek mythology?"

Luitingh Alexander Musical Theatre Academy (LAMTA) announces A streetcar named Desire, Tennessee Williams’s electrifying drama directed by the renowned Chris Weare and starring guest artist Emily Child as Blanche DuBois. The production opens at Theatre on the Bay on 14 August 2024 for a ten-day season. 

You are invited to the book launch of What’s wrong with June? by Qarnita Loxton. Eva Mazza will be in conversation with Qarnita Loxton on 1 August, Wordsworth Books, Stellenbosch Square at 18:00 for 18:30.

The 19th South African Literary Awards ceremony will take place on 7 November 2024. Earlier that day, the 12th Africa Century International African Writers Conference celebrating the 33rd anniversary of the African Union-declared International African Writers’ Day and 30 years of South Africa’s freedom and democracy.

The 2025 AVBOB Poetry Competition officially opens for entries on 1 August 2024. This prestigious contest invites poets from all corners of South Africa to submit their original works in any of the South Africa’s 11 official written languages. With generous cash prizes awaiting the winning entries, this is a golden opportunity for talented wordsmiths to shine.

Open to unpublished playwrights who are over the age of 18 and living anywhere in South Africa, the competition calls for scripts, partial scripts or script synopses with a sample of writing in any of South Africa’s official languages.

Busisiwe Mavuso, CEO at Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA), sketches a very dark picture of the ANC’s monumental failures at providing the basics for a conducive economic environment. However, the GNU represents "the last chance".

"Thank you for mentioning persons with disabilities as part of the future of an inclusive and transformational South African society. Allow me to suggest a few ways in which this laudable aspiration can become a meaningful, specific action plan."

"No, he is not a rock star lawyer, as are some of those mentioned at the top of this note, but he is instead a humbler man who limited his financial ambitions to work rather with the needy and the under-resourced. He did great work here, at no great profit. The best of South Africa is built on such people making such sacrifices."

"The arts give us the space and capacity to express ourselves freely on any topic and any concern, to meet those who are most unlike us, and to understand their points of view" ... "We create conversations that confront and heal. We speak for those who don’t have a voice and take those who need to escape, to far-away places. Audiences leave changed."