Litnet

"At the outset, I must make note, on the subject of identity, that I believe that we as human beings are wired to collect identities (plural) and discard identities, from the day we are born to the day we die, and these go way beyond notions of race, ethnicity, colour and nation."

"The driver was a youthful man with a very hairy back, which I could see through the slight space his shirt left. Thobani was the guy’s name. He was cool. Very hairy, but very cool." This short story was completed during the Kommadagga workshop and residency at Paulet House in KwaNojoli in the Eastern Cape. The workshop was presented by the Jakes Gerwel Foundation in cooperation with LitNet and Huisgenoot.

"The clockmaker watched him, unreadable. 'Back? There is no back. You stared into your clock. Time stared back. You were chosen.'"

"In tackling the hopscotch existence of a complicated man who has generated competing and conflicting opinions, Albert Grundlingh has produced a meticulously researched, highly readable and very well-rounded portrayal of Frederik van Zyl Slabbert."

"Both Namibia and South Africa grapple with high rates of SGBV and gender inequality. A key similarity is the presence of dedicated activists and movements fighting for justice. A significant difference is the legal landscape regarding abortion; South Africa repealed the old law, allowing girls as young as 12 to access safe abortion on request, while Namibia still operates under the restrictive 1975 act."

"The best writers are not merely stylists; they are custodians of sensibility. They bring with themselves the heaviness of culture, memory, grief, humour, private ghosts, inherited silences and the rest of the untranslatable textures of lived experience. They write from the grain of their mother tongue. They write from provincial landscapes that the internet has never indexed, not yet anyway. They write from the pain of exile, from the taste of a city’s dust and from history that refuses to be archived. AI, for all its omnivorous reading, knows only what is online."

Listen to a concise overview of Afrikaans content presented in the form of a podcast-style discussion by (American) AI hosts. | Luister na ’n baie kort oorsig van Afrikaanse inhoud in die vorm van ’n podsendinggesprek deur Amerikaanse KI-aanbieders. 

The early bird gets the coffee and the doughnuts!

"The 22nd of November 2025 is a very special day. It is the 85th anniversary of the Holodomor."

This first comprehensive biography of Cecil Rhodes in a generation illuminates Rhodes’s vision for the expansion of imperialism in southern Africa, connecting politics and industry to internal development, and examines how this fueled a lasting white-dominated colonial society.

The 20th edition of the South African Literary Awards (SALA) honoured 49 South African writers, translators and other literary practitioners across 16 categories at a prestigious ceremony in Johannesburg on 11 November 2025.

"With less of his characteristic reserve and more rampant enjoyment, Sole shapeshifts in this collection, appearing as an old man, as a trogon, as a bee, as the sun, as the beloved – with a sideways wink between author and reader."

"At the heart of the novel lies a painful paradox: education, once a promise of progress, has become a burden in a country where opportunity has collapsed."

For November’s play reading, we’re delving into Love in the time of Labarang Hajj by Tasneem Daniels.  The evening will include a table read of the play by actors, followed by a discussion of the work. The discussion will be led by Melanie O’Connor Horn and a panel of experts. Input from the audience is most welcome! 

"What would Nick Cave do?" Conrad Jamneck, beloved festival director and sound engineer, delves into his lifelong relationship with Nick Cave’s music and writing. A Nick Cave affair – produced by Jamneck and featuring James Smith, Jake Gunn, Anjulie Nock and a special appearance by Andra – will be performed at the PJ Olivier Art Centre in Stellenbosch on 21 November 2025.

"South Africa can learn from other countries and cities. Megacities as diverse as Bangkok, Beijing, Buenos Aires, Cairo, Dhaka, Jakarta, Calcutta, Lagos, London, Manila, Mexico City, New Delhi and Shanghai already use groundwater to varying degrees for water supply."

"The world of Cats is truly immersive, and the illusion of talented humans portraying these delightful feline characters will hopefully be more than enough to hold the audiences’ attention for a few hours of theatrical magic."

"I urgently need a copy of op weg na ku, but unfortunately it’s out of print. Could anyone help me?"

"And yet, of the 122 Nobel laureates in literature from 1901 to date, only 15, or 12%, are playwrights. Many, many more are the writers of fiction and novels. And at literary festival after literary festival here in South Africa, there are novelists galore and only occasionally the odd playwright."

"Beneath its quiet surfaces, Szalay’s novel probes the cultural unease of our time – the exhaustion of liberal optimism, the backlash angst against 'wokeness' and the waning of faith in collective redemption."