Following successful launch and speaking events in Cape Town and at the Franschhoek Literary Festival this past weekend, Soutie Press is excited to launch The interpreters: South Africa’s new non-fiction edited by Sean Christie and Hedley Twidle in Stellenbosch on 29 May 2025. Hosted by Lou-Marié Kruger at the Welgevallen Community Clinic, Sean and Hedley will be in conversation with Jonathan Amid about rare and beloved forms of nonfiction writing emerging from the country over the last 30-plus years.
The interpreters is the first anthology dedicated to gathering the finest examples of creative nonfiction written in, or about, South Africa. The collection includes the country's most celebrated literary voices – including JM Coetzee, Jonny Steinberg, Antjie Krog, and Rian Malan – as well as a new generation of writers like Julie Nxadi, Bongani Kona, Anna Hartford, Zanele Mji and Kimon de Greef. Unusually for a nonfiction anthology, the collection also showcases superb examples of graphic nonfiction by iconic practitioners like Mogorosi Motshumi and Anton Kannemeyer.
Please join us at Welgevallen for wine, snacks, books, and an insightful conversation. Attendance is free but RSVP is essential for catering purposes. Please email your intention to attend to Ingrid Sinclair ingrid@soutiepress.com.
About the discussants
Jonathan Amid is a recovering academic with a background in literary studies. He is an editor, writing consultant, book reviewer and discussant at various book festivals – in both English and Afrikaans. Recently he has specialised in manuscript development and working with both experienced and new authors in developing fiction and nonfiction writing. Jonathan is based in Stellenbosch.
Sean Christie is a journalist and sometime coordinator of emergency responses, who has contributed longform pieces to several South African newspapers, journals and essay collections. His nonfiction book, Under Nelson Mandela Boulevard – life among the stowaways (Jonathan Ball Publishers, 2016), was awarded the 2017 Recht Malan Prize. He is a previous winner of the CNN Multichoice African Journalist Award.
Hedley Twidle is a writer, teacher and researcher based at the University of Cape Town, where he is currently head of English Literary Studies. He is the author of two essay collections, Firepool (Kwela, 2017) and Show me the place (Jonathan Ball, 2024), as well as a study of life writing and the South African transition, Experiments with truth (James Currey, 2019).