[The JRB Daily] Top 10 of 2021—a look back at our most popular articles of the year
With our last issue of 2021, the Fiction Issue, The JRB reached the milestone of publishing our 200th individual contributor….
Author: The JRB
[Sponsored] ‘She was the one I sang my hymns to, Moliehi, child of my mother’—Read an extract from Zakes Mda’s new novel Wayfarer’s Hymns
Penguin Random House has shared an excerpt from Wayfarers’ Hymns, the highly anticipated new novel from Zakes Mda. Mda is the…
[Sponsored] Pagecast is live! Listen to the new podcast from Jonathan Ball Publishers here
Pagecast, a new podcast proudly brought to you by Jonathan Ball Publishers, is now live! Released every Monday at 7…
[Sponsored] Read an exclusive excerpt from Hashtag Happy, the YA debut from by Theodora Lee
What would it be like to party with your Influencer-crush in real-life? Diana Murray is about to find out in…
[Sponsored] Confessions of a Stratcom Hitman by the late Paul Erasmus – a visceral confession to South Africans and a letter of love to his family
Confessions of a Stratcom Hitman by Paul Erasmus is out now from Jacana Media. ‘During apartheid, the security police hunted down,…
[Sponsored] Find out more about the collaborative novel by Amy Heydenrych, Qarnita Loxton, Pamela Power and Gail Schimmel—coming in 2022
Pan Macmillan South Africa will be publishing a collaborative novel by Amy Heydenrych, Qarnita Loxton, Pamela Power and Gail Schimmel…
[Fiction Issue] ‘Prayer was standing in front of me, in panties’—Read an excerpt from the forthcoming collection Anonymous Sex
The JRB presents an excerpt from Anonymous Sex, a forthcoming anthology edited by Hillary Jordan and Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan. Anonymous SexEdited…
[Sponsored] Non-advice to aspiring writers, from Damon Galgut
‘Let me start my advice to aspiring writers by saying that my advice won’t help you’. Well, at least novelist…
[Sponsored] Playlist: The Lost Language of the Soul by Mandla Langa
Mandla Langa has shared a music playlist to accompany his latest novel, The Lost Language of the Soul. ‘If I…
[Sponsored] New book alert! Children of Sugarcane by Joanne Joseph (plus all launch dates)
Children of Sugarcane by Joanne Joseph—out now from Jonathan Ball Publishers—a novel of love, heartache and the indestructible bonds between family…
[Sponsored] Read an exclusive excerpt from Never Tell a Lie by Gail Schimmel
She’s your best friend … but do you trust her? Treat yourself to a glass of wine this evening and…
[Sponsored] All Rise—a vivid, first-of-its-kind collection of near-forgotten South Africa resistance histories
All Rise: Resistance and Rebellion in South Africa – A Graphic History is out in October from Jacana Media. ‘All Rise…
[The JRB exclusive] Read ‘Water for Wine’ by Jenny Robson, winner of the 2021 Kendeka Prize for African Literature
The JRB presents the winning stories of the inaugural Kendeka Prize for African Literature. The winners of the 2021 Kendeka…
[The JRB exclusive] Read ‘The Women of Atinga House’ by Fatima Okhuosami, first runner-up in the 2021 Kendeka Prize for African Literature
The JRB presents the winning stories of the inaugural Kendeka Prize for African Literature. The winners of the 2021 Kendeka…
[The JRB exclusive] Read ‘Au Pair’ by Okpanachi Irene Ojochegbe, second runner-up in the 2021 Kendeka Prize for African Literature
The JRB presents the winning stories of the inaugural Kendeka Prize for African Literature. The winners of the 2021 Kendeka…
‘If you dodge your death enough times, fate stops trying to find you’—Read an excerpt from Rešoketšwe Manenzhe’s new short story ‘Ramosela’, from Hauntings
The JRB presents an excerpt from Rešoketšwe Manenzhe’s contribution to Hauntings, a forthcoming collection of stories edited by Niq Mhlongo….
The looting that was broadcast across the world—Read an excerpt from History of South Africa by Thula Simpson
The JRB presents an exclusive excerpt from Thula Simpson’s new book History of South Africa. History of South Africa: From…
‘What is the meaning of this hallucination that refuses to end?’—Read an excerpt from Perfect Hlongwane’s new novel Sanity Prevail
The JRB presents an excerpt from Sanity Prevail, the new novel by Perfect Hlongwane. Sanity PrevailPerfect HlongwaneBlackBird Books, 2021 ~~~…
‘It is dangerous to be gay in Uganda’—Read the personal experience of Angel, a 32-year-old asylum seeker, from Seeking Sanctuary: Stories of Sexuality, Faith and Migration
The JRB presents an excerpt from John Marnell’s new book Seeking Sanctuary: Stories of Sexuality, Faith and Migration. Seeking Sanctuary:…
‘Nothing, virtually no project, no cultural initiative, was left unbrushed by the CIA reptilian coils’—Wole Soyinka. Read an excerpt from White Malice: The CIA and the Neocolonisation of Africa
The JRB presents an excerpt from Susan Williams’s new book White Malice: The CIA and the Neocolonisation of Africa. White…
Read an excerpt from ‘The Lumumba Business’, a new story by Fiston Mwanza Mujila, from The American Way: Stories of Invasion
The JRB presents an excerpt from the forthcoming publication The American Way: Stories of Invasion. The American Way: Stories of…
‘Tendai Huchu’s Maestro of Lonely Learning’—Read an excerpt from The African Novel of Ideas by Jeanne-Marie Jackson
The JRB presents an excerpt from Jeanne-Marie Jackson’s new book The African Novel of Ideas: Philosophy and Individualism in the…
‘You gave me permission to lean into the terrible, of both myself and the people I wrote into existence’—Read an excerpt from Akwaeke Emezi’s new book Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir
The JRB presents an excerpt from Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit Memoir by Akwaeke Emezi. Dear Senthuran: A Black Spirit…
[The JRB Daily] 2021 South African Literary Awards shortlists revealed
The shortlists for the 2021 South African Literary Awards have been announced. Now in their sixteenth year, the SALAs are…
[The JRB Daily] 2021 Kendeka Prize for African Literature winners announced
The winners of the inaugural Kendeka Prize for African Literature have been announced in Thika, Kenya. From a shortlist of…
[The JRB Daily] Marguerite Poland and Andrew Harding win the 2021 Sunday Times/CNA Literary Awards
The winners of the 2021 Sunday Times/CNA Literary Awards have been announced. The awards celebrate ‘the best of South African…
[The JRB Daily] The 2021 Booker Prize for Fiction shortlist is announced—including Damon Galgut and Nadifa Mohamed
The 2021 Booker Prize shortlist has been revealed—and includes two African authors for the second time in as many years:…
[The JRB Daily] Thando Mgqolozana, founder of Abantu Book Festival, accused of intimate partner abuse
Update: Mgqolozana has responded to the allegations in a video posted on Facebook and Twitter. See below. On Saturday, 21…
[Sponsored] New book alert! The Poisoners: On South Africa’s Toxic Past by Imraan Coovadia is out in September 2021
Imraan Coovadia’s new book The Poisoners is out in September 2021 from Penguin Random House. The Poisoners is a history…
[Sponsored] Pan Macmillan is proud to be releasing Scatterling of Africa, a memoir by Johnny Clegg, in October 2021
Scatterling of Africa: My Early Years by Johnny Clegg will be published by Pan Macmillan in October 2021. ‘There are moments…
[Sponsored] [Watch] Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi chats about her novel The First Woman—a sweeping tale of longing and rebellion
Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi’s highly anticipated new novel The First Woman is out now from Jonathan Ball Publishers. At once epic and deeply…
[Sponsored] ‘I’m really not supposed to be doing this, but a girl’s gotta get paid.’ Read the first chapter of TL Huchu’s new novel The Library of the Dead
Pan Macmillan has shared an excerpt from The Library of the Dead, the new book by TL Huchu. Opening up…
[Sponsored] Ambivalent: Photography and Visibility in African History—new approaches to questions of race, time, and postcolonial and decolonial histories
Ambivalent: Photography and Visibility in African History is out now from Jacana Media. Going beyond photography as an isolated medium to…
‘Grief—a word that seemed too small to encompass the world I had been plunged into’—Read Sisonke Msimang’s essay from Our Ghosts Were Once People: Stories on Death and Dying
In a new anthology on death and dying, Sisonke Msimang writes about the multiple losses faced when her mother passed…
‘The violators were in breach of the unwritten codes that make for proper new South Africanness’—Read ‘Foreign Familiars’, from Pumla Dineo Gqola’s new book Female Fear Factory
The JRB presents an excerpt from Female Fear Factory, the highly anticipated new book from Pumla Dineo Gqola. Female Fear…
‘The Pit was a place steeped in gloom, where people seldom went, and where certainly no one went alone’—Read an excerpt from Ashraf Kagee’s new novel By the Fading Light
The JRB presents an excerpt from By the Fading Light, the new novel from European Union Literary Award-winner Ashraf Kagee….
‘Whatever Sobhuza does, he ensures that he leaves no trace’—Read an excerpt from Mandla Langa’s forthcoming novel The Lost Language of the Soul
The JRB presents an exclusive excerpt from The Lost Language of the Soul, the new novel by EAP member Mandla…
‘All the talk about this virus leaves me hoping I contract the bloody thing before I have to face anything more about my past’—Read an excerpt from Futhi Ntshingila’s forthcoming novel They Got To You Too
The JRB presents an exclusive excerpt from They Got To You Too by Futhi Ntshingila, which will be published in…
‘These are the nuances of poverty’—Read an excerpt from Razina Theba’s new memoir A Home on Vorster Street
The JRB presents an excerpt from A Home on Vorster Street: A Memoir by Razina Theba. A Home on Vorster…
‘I can tell you a lot about sex with a man to whom you are not attracted’—Read an excerpt from Lisa Taddeo’s debut novel Animal
The JRB presents an excerpt from Animal by Lisa Taddeo, the bestselling author of Three Women. AnimalLisa TaddeoBloomsbury Circus, 2021…