The JRB Fiction Issue! (Vol. 9, Issue 3, December 2025)

Wamuwi Mbao • Makhosazana Xaba • Simon van Schalkwyk • Khadija Tracey Heeger • Sean Jacobs • Barbara Boswell • Kevin Goddard • Muthi Nhlema • Ivor W Hartmann • Sanya Osha • Khumisho Moguerane • Victor Dlamini • Tymon Smith • Sandile Ngidi • Dawn Garisch • Deborah Seddon • Mehita Iqani • Eckard Smuts • Duane Jethro • Abbey Khambule • Shayera Dark • Muthi Nhlema • Kopano Matlwa • Werner Pretorius • Dyondzo Kwinika • Olufemi Terry • Deborah Posel • Adéwálé Májà-Pearce • Blessing-Miles Tendi

Welcome to the third issue of Volume 9 of The Johannesburg Review of Books—The Fiction Issue!

First up, we celebrate short fiction, from the mysterious to the sublime by way of the South African gothic, with new stories by Wamuwi Mbao, Shayera Dark, Mehita Iqani, Eckard Smuts, Duane Jethro and Abbey Khambule.

For new literary commentary, Barbara Boswell reviews Elleke Boehmer’s Ice Shock, a novel saturated with extremes of love and increasingly calamitous climate events; Kevin Goddard explores What is Owed? by Kelwyn Sole, a poet’s summing up of a life dedicated both to verse and to activism; and Sean Jacobs reviews Slow Poison by Mahmood Mamdani, a rich and textured account of Ugandan and postcolonial African politics, and a layered personal history.

In our interviews section, Khadija Tracey Heeger is in wide-ranging, erudite and graceful conversation with The JRB Patron Makhosazana Xaba, Muthi Nhlema chats to Ivor W Hartmann about his short story ‘Piss Corpse’, which was selected to be the debut story for ZamaShort, a new imprint specialising in publishing standalone single short stories by African authors. You can also read an excerpt from the story in this issue.

A little further north, Sanya Osha takes a philosophical journey from Douala to Yaoundé, and encounters the contradictions fueling Cameroon’s fertile intellectual culture.

We’re delighted to present an excerpt from Robert Lowell’s Imitations and the Cold War: Containment, Leakage, Anarchy, the ‘highly original and even revolutionary’ new book by The JRB’s Academic Editor, Simon van Schalkwyk. Elsewhere in the issue, you can also read an excerpt from Khumisho Moguerane’s Sunday Times Literary Award-winning biography Morafe: Person, Family and Nation in Colonial Bechuanaland, 1880s–1950s.

Just in time for the holidays, settle down with samplers from Kopano Matlwa’s new novel Bosadi; Lone Wolf Living, the debut short story collection by Werner Pretorius, and Wilderness of Mirrors, the first novel by Caine Prize-winning writer Olufemi Terry. We also feature ‘Mr Duiker Sang the Blues’, Dyondzo Kwinika’s DALRO Can Themba Merit Award-winning short story, excerpted from the collection When Water Wants To.

For fans of non-fiction, we present extended extracts from Darker Shade of Pale, Deborah Posel’s personal journey through forgotten history; Shine Your Eye: In Search of West Africa by Adéwálé Májà-Pearce; and Blessing-Miles Tendi’s new book The Overthrow of Robert Mugabe: Gender, Coups, and Diplomats.

In our poetry corner, we present previously unpublished poetry by Sandile Ngidi, as well as excerpts from two new collections: Magnitude by Deborah Seddon, and The Consulting Room by Dawn Garisch.

From our Photo Editor Victor Dlamini this month, a literary portrait of Chika Unigwe.

And finally, Sean Jacobs honours the late Zöe Wicomb (1948—2025).

And while you’re reading, listen to ‘Goodbye and good riddance’, an end-of-year playlist compiled by Tymon Smith.

Here’s the complete breakdown of Vol. 9, Issue 3, which you will also find on our issue archive page:

Reviews

Interviews

Creative non-fiction