The JRB latest
[The JRB Daily] Nigerian writer Lesley Nneka Arimah wins the 2019 Caine Prize—‘We African writers must centre the African gaze’
Lesley Nneka Arimah has won the twentieth edition of the Caine Prize for African Writing for her short story ‘Skinned’….
[The JRB Daily] 2018 Short Story Day Africa shortlist announced—‘we’ve never seen such a photo finish’
The shortlist for the Short Story Day Africa Prize for Short Fiction has been announced. The JRB is delighted that our regular…
The Johannesburg Review of Books Vol. 3, Issue 7
Jacob Dlamini • Lauren Beukes • Mphuthumi Ntabeni • Wamuwi Mbao • Zanta Nkumane • TC Farren • Siphiwe Gloria…
Writing queerness as mythology—Zanta Nkumane reviews Ocean Vuong’s debut novel, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
Zanta Nkumane reviews Ocean Vuong’s devastatingly beautiful debut On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, a novel about living in the margins,…
[Sponsored] Read an excerpt from The Enforcers, revealing a brazen plot to assassinate Nelson Mandela at his inauguration
Jonathan Ball Publishers has shared an excerpt from The Enforcers: Inside Cape Town’s Deadly Nightclub Battles by Caryn Dolley. Find out more…
How to write beautifully about our horrible, hysterical present—Jennifer Malec reviews Ali Smith’s new novel, Spring
The JRB Editor Jennifer Malec reviews Spring, the third book in Ali Smith’s Seasonal Quartet, a strange beast. SpringAli SmithHamish Hamilton, 2019…
‘I was trying to catch an echo of a memory I never experienced’—Mphuthumi Ntabeni chats to Zoë August about his novel, The Broken River Tent
Zoë August discusses The Broken River Tent, the rise of the African historical novel, and African literature’s trajectory in general,…
[Sponsored] Now available as audiobooks—Sue Nyathi’s The Gold Diggers and Craig Higginson’s The Dream House!
According to a recent report by the Association of American Publishers, audiobooks are growing faster than any other format—including print and…
New short fiction: ‘Beginnings.’ by Wamuwi Mbao
The JRB presents new short fiction by Editorial Advisory Panel member and regular contributor Wamuwi Mbao. ~ ~ ~ Beginnings….
‘To know the African wild was to know the African subject’—What training as a field guide taught Jacob Dlamini about culture, nature, power and race
The JRB presents a new essay by Jacob Dlamini. For Dlamini, what began as a research project on the labour…
[Sponsored] Cover reveal! An Image in a Mirror by Ijangolet S Ogwang is the latest novel to receive a BlackBird Books redesign
BlackBird Books has revealed its latest cover redesign—featuring the publisher’s bold new look! The book getting the treatment this time…
[The JRB exclusive] Read an excerpt from Ungirls, a new disturbing and provocative story by Lauren Beukes [Plus: Sample the audiobook]
The JRB presents an excerpt from Ungirls, a new short story from Editorial Advisory Panel member Lauren Beukes. Ungirls is…
‘I always tell myself, this might be the last time that I am performing’—Kagayi Ngobi chats to James Murua about his protest poetry (Plus: Read two of his poems)
Ugandan writer Kagayi Ngobi was the featured artist at the June 2019 edition of the Artistic Encounters series at the…
[Sponsored] Read an excerpt from David Barclay Moore’s magnificent debut novel The Stars Beneath Our Feet
Penguin Random House has shared an excerpt from The Stars Beneath Our Feet by David Barclay Moore. ‘The right story at the…
[The JRB exclusive] ‘No Speaking Vernacular! (Woloolo)’, a poem by Kagayi Ngobi
The JRB presents ‘No Speaking Vernacular! (Woloolo)’ by Ugandan poet Kagayi Ngobi in its complete form. Read about Ngobi and…
New poetry by Robin Moger—Two versions of ‘Poem Six’ from The Interpreter of Desires by Ibn Arabi
The following two translations are responses to the sixth poem in The Interpreter of Desires, a cycle of sixty-one poems…
[Photo Editor] Original portraits of Ahmed Essop and Don Mattera by Victor Dlamini
Victor Dlamini is The JRB’s Photo Editor. We feature his work on our Instagram channel. Visit the ten-year retrospective of…
‘It’s an excavation of the darkest place in our species’—Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu interviews TC Farren about her new novel, The Book of Malachi
Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu, author of The Theory of Flight, interviewed novelist and screenwriter TC Farren on her latest work of…
[City Editor] Niq Mhlongo laments the caprice—and celebrates the excitement—of literary awards, and shares his own bittersweet experience
City Editor Niq Mhlongo, having just won his first South African prize, shares his gripes and observations on that strange…
Nigerian writer Elnathan John wins 2019 Prix Les Afriques for the French translation of his novel Born on a Tuesday
Nigerian novelist Elnathan John and his French translator Céline Schwaller have been awarded the Prix Les Afriques for Né un…
[The JRB Daily] Download Short Story Day Africa’s anthology ID for free and celebrate the shortest day of the year with dynamic African short fiction
Short Story Day Africa is celebrating the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year in the Southern Hemisphere, with…
[The JRB Daily] Debut novelist Emily Ruskovich wins International Dublin Literary Award, the world’s most valuable annual literary prize, for her book Idaho
American author Emily Ruskovich has won the 2019 International Dublin Literary Award, known as ‘the world’s richest annual literary prize’,…
[The JRB Daily] The mysterious demise of the 9mobile/Etisalat Prize for Literature—the world’s biggest Pan-African book award
Sharp-eyed book lovers will have noticed that the winner of the 2018 9mobile Prize—one of literature’s most important international awards—has…
[The JRB Daily] Novuyo Rosa Tshuma’s debut novel House of Stone shortlisted for inaugural Orwell Prize for Political Fiction
The shortlists for the Orwell Prizes, which aim to ‘make political writing into an art’, have been announced. Zimbabwean writer…
[The JRB Daily] Koleka Putuma’s Collective Amnesia announced as winner of the 2018 Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry
Koleka Putuma has won the African Poetry Book Fund’s 2018 Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry, for her collection Collective…
[The JRB Daily] Tayari Jones wins the Women’s Prize for Fiction for her ‘exquisitely intimate’ novel An American Marriage
Tayari Jones has been announced as the winner of the 2019 Women’s Prize for Fiction for her novel An American…
[The JRB Daily] ‘Globally inspiring’ NB Publishers wins AAP International Freedom to Publish Award for Jacques Pauw’s book The President’s Keepers
NB Publishers has been awarded the prestigious AAP International Freedom to Publish Award for Jacques Pauw’s book The President’s Keepers. The…
The Johannesburg Review of Books Vol. 3, Issue 6
Binyavanga Wainaina • Esi Edugyan • Henrietta Rose-Innes • Masande Ntshanga • OluTimehin Adegbeye • Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu • Simon van…
[The JRB exclusive] ‘PS. Everybody calls me Binyavanga these days.’ Read Binyavanga Wainaina’s letter to his late mother, from the 2016 exhibition Inside: Artists and Writers in Reading Prison
In 2016, the late Binyavanga Wainaina contributed a piece of writing to a United Kingdom-based art project titled Inside: Artists and…
[Sponsored] These Are Not Gentle People—Two murders. 40 suspects. The trial that broke a small South African town
‘Look what the fucking dogs did to them, someone muttered. No one mentioned the rope, or the monkey-wrench, or the…
‘We have entered the uncanny valley of literary realism’—Simon van Schalkwyk reviews Ian McEwan’s new novel Machines Like Me
In Machines Like Me, Ian McEwan appears to have offered us an alternative history that leads to the same dispiriting…
[The JRB exclusive] ‘It is a loss of privacy that has the greatest ability to destroy an artist’—Esi Edugyan, excerpted from New Daughters of Africa
The JRB presents an excerpt from New Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Writing by Women of African Descent,…
[Sponsored] The Dinaane Debut Fiction Award has extended its submissions period until 30 June 2019
Good news for aspiring writers: The Dinaane Debut Fiction Award has extended its submissions period until 30 June 2019. For…
Wider than the Black Atlantic—Bongani Madondo listens in on Kwame Brathwaite’s visual sounds of Blackness, from the photo book Black Is Beautiful
Contributing Editor Bongani Madondo unmoors Kwame Brathwaite’s Black Is Beautiful from mono-dimensional notions of the Black Atlantic into a New African Globalism of…
‘South Africa’s dystopian future could easily be imagined through its dystopian past’—Masande Ntshanga chats to Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu about his new novel, Triangulum
Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu, author of The Theory of Flight, sat down with Masande Ntshanga to discuss his new novel, Triangulum….
[Sponsored] ‘Mr Moloto, you know that farm is not really yours …’ Read an excerpt from Land of My Ancestors by Botlhale Tema
Penguin Random House has shared an excerpt from Land of My Ancestors by Botlhale Tema. About the book When working on the…
