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.
Siwagawula siwarhuqa
2022-07-05In Xolisa Ngubelanga’s Siwagawula siwarhuqa, a woman recounts how, as a school girl, she fell in love with a handsome gardener, Sakhumzi, and how the experience left her hands covered with thorns. Zikhona Jacobs performs the monologue, directed by Mfundo Zono. English subtitles. Stemme | Voices | Amazwi is LitNet’s series of 15 short, powerful monologues presented in collaboration with Suidoosterfees, NATi and ATKV.
After tears
2022-06-28Stemme | Voices | Amazwi is LitNet’s series of 15 short, powerful monologues presented in collaboration with Suidoosterfees, NATi and ATKV. Watch Buhle Ngaba’s performance of After tears, written by Buhle and directed by Amelda Brand.
Secret
2022-05-16"A love language,
Unhaltered, fragile, fluttering,
Mapped by constellations of emotions,"
A nightmare
2022-05-11"War is a nightmare, a nightmare we never wake up from.
A brutal shift in reality, a broken trust."
Before the Sabbath
2022-04-28"hasten along the graveyard road,
with the body limp and pierced
on a rickety cart –
His soul pawned and distraught"
Collecting psychology and honey like the earth collects rain
2022-04-04"I need the routine
Of the military the precision
I desire it after having sacrificed"
Collecting psychology and honey like the earth collects rain
2022-03-29"About solitude I have this to say
I need the routine
Of the military the precision"
What if this night
2022-02-08"for what if this night
came as a spirit
dimming out the melancholy,
ripples of fear dissolving in a stream"
Tram 23
2022-01-20"Whereas other tram rides are more conventional, follow standard routes, or where one finds oneself somewhat ill at ease – with someone else’s wallet pressed up against your thigh or a few smelly armpits too close for comfort. Tram 23 does not follow suit. Tram 23 is a spaceship of a different breed."
Dark matter
2022-01-20"How can nothing be growing?
The star doctors say it is
Is the nothingness showing?"
Sadness
2022-01-12"sadness cannot be contained
nor repressed
it seeps unceremoniously
through the tiniest slit"
Conclusion
2022-01-05"He died in isolation
Surrounded by sterile strangers
Unknown machines
In an intensive care unit
Without history or memory
Or a warm hand in his."
Pressed against the graffiti wall
2021-12-07"I saw the deaths of twenty-somethings
crawl behind me,
dressed in fire suits"
A different ending
2021-12-07"By an invisible force that will not sway
And its purpose to disrupt and to set asunder
And rob this world of all its wonder"
Lost in my mind
2021-11-28"Of worlds and lands beyond and far away
That place where my soul longs to stay
Further than the moon or even Mars"
Duly unaware
2021-11-28"the fear and dread that astounds me
I let it be
duly unaware of what you might see"
Bullied
2021-11-22"My attraction to food teaches me to forget the emotional pain. It calms me. It wants me. There are so many ways an addict validates what they are doing."