Litnet

 "COVID-19 was the catalyst that kick-started the new world. It has brought about ten years’ change in one month."

"I recommend it – engrossing and tender – to all who face the challenges of letting go, to readers heading for a time of life without children, perhaps without partners, and considering, with hope, what fruitful – also intense and challenging – years may lie ahead."

Why is Ethiopia at war? What is the role of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize? Is this a repeat of 1974, when the people of Tigray led a revolt on Addis Ababa?

"The flight of the bat is an engaging, thought-provoking novella and a valuable addition to the growing genre of South African speculative fiction."

It’s been another helluva year, and who better to make sense of it than Zapiro, cartoonist, political analyst and agent provocateur?

Each year during the first full week of December, we invite publishers, authors, educators, librarians, readers, and book-lovers of all kinds to use the hashtag #ReadingAfrica across social media to highlight posts that celebrate African literature.

The 16th South African Literary Awards ceremony was held on 7 November 2021. Here is the complete list of winners.

"I wanted to make the point that competitive parenting has become a worldwide phenomenon."

"Damon Galgut, after several shortlist nominations, has finally received the global acknowledgement he richly deserves," said Steve Connolly, CEO of Penguin Random House SA and Damon’s local publisher.

Open Book Festival has announced the stellar line-up for its new podcast series which runs from 8 to 24 November.

Cape Town City Ballet leaps into spring with a vibrant new programme that will put a spring in your step. The season will be presented at the Artscape Opera House from 6 until 13 November.

Spier, in association with Third World Bunfight, presents the second iteration of Constellations, a multi-layered outdoor presentation that will take place from 25 November to 18 December 2021.

"This remarkable collection runs to 200 pages of poems by 40 black women, some of whom are familiar crowd-drawers – think Nikki Giovanni, Gabeba Baderoon, Warsan Shire – while others have smaller but no less committed audiences."

OOOTH launched their full Who cares what you think – Acoustic album online and at the same time Jason Oosthuizen decided to take on another pay-it-forward initiative, this time to raise awareness for gender-based violence and farm murders in South Africa. On the night they managed to raise just over a quarter million rand for these two causes.

Karen Jennings, Holland House Books and Karavan Press are delighted to announce a new competition for debut novelists from Africa: The Island Prize. 

"The negotiated settlement of 1994, it is claimed, ended racial domination and created the foundation for a prosperous democracy – but greedy politicians betrayed the promise of a new society."

"No tickets needed! All our talks are FREE. We believe our festivalgoers have to travel so far to join us, how can we saddle them with yet another cost."

"It is a pleasure and a lucky chance to have chosen Gurnah’s latest novel as the topic of this entry’s profile days before his selection as a winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature was announced. ... As an aesthetic achievement, it roundly confirms Gurnah’s worthiness as the world’s – and our continent’s – latest recipient of literature’s highest accolade."

The changing face of colonial education in Africa by Peter Kallaway offers a detailed and nuanced perspective of colonial history. You are invited to the online launch of this publication on 3 November 2021.

Open Book Festival returns with an eight part podcast series celebrating just some of the works of literature to come out of SA this year. The series will run from 8–24 November 2021.