Litnet

LitNet has received the programme of Madibaland@Bookbedonnerd from festival director Darryl David.

"The bottom line of Ramaphosa’s state visit to King Charles and new prime minister Rishi Sunak is that adroit footwork is now required by all parties to mitigate the effects of the global polycrisis, defined by historian Adam Tooze as a situation consisting of multiple crises, the whole being more dangerous than the sum of the parts. The danger is the deep global recession now taking shape ...."

On 9 October 2022 the Ingrid Jonker Prize was presented to Jacques Coetzee for his collection An illuminated darkness (uHlanga Press). This is the presentation read to Coetzee at the event during the annual Tuin van Digters poetry festival at the Breytenbach Centre in Wellington.

"But who was the mysterious MAB who, on a visit to Rhodesia, had paid 4/6 to a second-hand bookdealer in Salisbury – either The Treasure Trove or The Book Exchange, according to my informants – and ‘passed it on with warm affection’?"

In this video Amos Nteta talks about the work of Matthew Goniwe, Fort Calata, Sparrow Mkhonto and Sicelo Mhlauli, who jointly became known as the Cradock Four.

"To have taken such inflammable issues, and to have presented them so inoffensively yet so clearly, is a clear pointer to Van Heerden’s remarkable skills as a writer. In Library, he plunges headfirst into fiction with social issues to discuss, and succeeds beyond his hopes, I’m sure. He has amused us, frightened us, titillated us and informed us."

Before entering the AVBOB Poetry Competition, we trust these suggestions will help you sharpen your poems! Submit up to 10 poems in all 11 official languages. Entries close on 30 November 2022.

"The reader is required to assemble and make sense of disparate story fragments and construct meaning in much the same way Thalia tries to make sense of her quest. It’s fascinating, absorbing, challenging and well researched."

"Neither is Steyn professing to write academically, he writes for readers who read for pleasure but who want to be informed. The fact remains the book is an important text and adds richly to South African historiography for an understanding of an era."

"How, one might ask in disbelief, could one of the most civilised countries in the west, the cradle of the Renaissance, throw in its lot with such a dangerous man as Putin? It is almost impossible to imagine such a thing. But that is the question being asked now, and the answer to Italy's future must surely lie in the character and beliefs of the new prime minister."

Mr Entertainment evokes not just Taliep’s life, but also the music and entertainment worlds of the 1950s to 2000s and their diverse and irrepressible cultural traditions.

This month, as the world celebrates World Migratory Bird Day, the AVBOB Poetry Project celebrates a brilliant, challenging new collection by Kelwyn Sole, an award-winning poet and keen bird watcher, with a particular love of pelagic birding.

Bargain Books is giving away a copy of Nothing more to tell by Karen M McManus. You could be the lucky winner, enter now!

Bargain Books is giving away a copy of The bullet that missed by Richard Osman. You could be the lucky winner, enter now!

"Yes, every now and again, you curate the most perfect book festival imaginable. And the Etienne Van Heerden Veldsoirée over the Heritage Day weekend was one such festival. With BookBedonnerd a month away, I'm worried we might have peaked too early."

Do not miss out. Pre-order your copy at Bargain Books. Pieter du Toit investigates whether secret deals were struck between capital and the liberation movement to ensure the status quo remains in terms of economic policy.

"Of course, on a greater soul-journey level, he is teaching me about abandonment, forcing me to deal with my deep childhood terror of facing the idea of 'the end' – of mortality. Of sharing my life with another. He is also training me to be alone. I am teaching him about communication, trust and forgiveness."

Festival director Darryl David shares his pictures of the Etienne van Heerden Veldsoirée which took place from 23 to 25 September 2022 in Cradock.

Eleven talented poets – one for each official language of South Africa – were announced as the overall winners of the 2022 AVBOB Poetry Competition at a gala prize-giving at the Pretoria Country Club on Wednesday 21 September 2022. Here are the winners.

"I was interested to read that several ANC Youth League officials have flown to Russia to monitor the controversial referendum being held to legitimise the 'annexation' of the Ukrainian territory that Putin’s army is occupying. The referendum has been discredited in advance by most of the world as a sham, but this hasn’t deterred the ANC’s intrepid task team from acting as 'international observers'."