New writing

Fiction and prose by established and emerging authors. Send your poetry or fiction to New Writing at skryfwerk@litnet.co.za to be considered for publication on LitNet.

Please note that work previously published in print or on any online media platform will not be considered for selection.

Cry, South Africa

Aloysius Graham 2014-04-08 "The day I saw him on television
I knew where the leaves of democracy had fallen."

Om teen clichés te stry, te swerf en daarmee te groet

Rentia Bartlett-Mohl 2014-04-02

Die laaste sinne van my MA-skripsie wag om geskryf te word. Ek moet dus groet. Dit was groot pret en baie insiggewend om julle skryfwerk te begelei. Dit was heerlik om te sien dat daar soveel aspirantskrywers in Afrikaans en Engels skryf en stelselmatig leer om meer oorspronklik te kyk, dieper te dink en meer te lees.

Livid

Adriaan Coetzee 2014-04-01

"In Camden they brought
flowers, fags, and vodka with
a pomegranate blend
like a bludy munkey"

Oyster

Abigail George 2014-04-01 "The fisherman looks down to see an oyster in his net
that seems to say “Come for me. When will you come for me Saviour?”
I surrender! I climb into the river of silk
hiding the bad talent of a needle and dignified flowering bone."

Japan

Abigail George 2014-03-26 "Their words are as old as a telescope, fossils, totem poles,
tribes, trees, Darwinism, the touch of the hands
of my paternal grandmother, antiques,
the coelacanth, the dishes that are waiting
for me in the sink, the footprint of childhood
On the beach sucking a waterfall of sea."

The Anatomy of a Fall

Heidi Henning 2014-03-26 This fall
Is a graceless arc, a jump into the darkness

SQL setting for a party

Wicus Luwes 2014-03-04

CREATE TABLE “for a memorable party”

The truth

Anthony Martin Andrews 2014-03-04

"An old naked man you are.
Epsom's star bearing humbling
scars."

Entries open for third SCrIBE Scriptwriting Competition

2014-02-14 Entries open on 1 March, closing date for applications is 31 July and the top five scripts will be selected for a week-long staged reading in October, with the opportunity for discussion and feedback from the public and members of the theatre industry.

Ode to the internet

Margaret Clough 2014-02-04 "Its insubstantial web cocoons the globe,
in threads of gossamer. It carries
my messages of love across the seas,"

Hide and seek

Neels Ackroyd 2014-02-04

"Hiding without a soul
unidentifiable
leaving not a breadcrumb
typing as a dumb
amplifying its thoughts
mostly on politics, religion and its Gods
The hiding troll with no soul"

Stargazer

Heidi Henning 2014-01-28

"She looked up, nightly
She looked through the crystal stars
Those gossiping stars
Not giving them any attention
She looked past them, seeing only her pain
Reflected back."

The loud silence

Heidi Henning 2014-01-28

"An unexpressed, swallowed roar
The confluence of a rushing water flow
Suffocated breath"

Lemon people

Heidi Henning 2014-01-21

"I crouch next to her. It smells like moss and lemon verbena. I run my finger over the lemon man. He has freckles from the dust."

Safely saved

Celia Claase 2014-01-21

"In this age when sharpening a pencil has become abrasive and taking up a chisel is absurd we choose to donate our fantasies and ideologies, our conspiracies and our poetry to electronic memories."

Calm

Heidi Henning 2014-01-10

"One small drop of this quiet
Falling from the dappled shade, carried by the breeze"

Song for Aung (For Aung San Suu Kyi)

Babatunde Fagbayibo 2014-01-10 "An ill-defined oasis
within which freedom
finds an identity,
shape,
hue,
texture,
language."

Truth dies

Babatunde Fagbayibo 2014-01-10 "Truth dies
at the doorstep of fragmented "truths",
and the jostle for supremacy
becomes the norm."

The human species

Celia Claase 2014-01-10

"We entered this solid plane like asteroids
on a mission to kill without thought

So we domesticated the buffalo for an easy
merciful cut
befriended wolves to help us sniff rabbits ou"

Whimsical generator

Heidi Henning 2013-12-04

"You and I have a complicated relationship
Like a long unbalanced equation
Requiring a clear mind, in the heat-fatigued night"