[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…
Author: The JRB
[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…
‘He was no longer working for the colonial state, and had fully taken on his revolutionary status’—Read an excerpt from Amílcar Cabral: The Life of a Reluctant Nationalist
The JRB presents an excerpt from António Tomás’s new book Amílcar Cabral: The Life of a Reluctant Nationalist. Amílcar Cabral:…
‘He missed hamburgers terribly sometimes’—Read an excerpt from Brandon Taylor’s new short story collection Filthy Animals
The JRB presents an excerpt from Filthy Animals, the new collection of stories by Brandon Taylor, the Booker Prize-shortlisted author…
[The JRB Daily] 2021 Booker Prize longlist announced—including Damon Galgut, Karen Jennings and Nadifa Mohamed
The 2021 Booker Prize longlist has been announced, with this year’s crop of thirteen novels described by the judges as…
[The JRB Daily] Tsitsi Dangarembga wins 2021 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade for her ‘inimitable storytelling’
Zimbabwean writer Tsitsi Dangarembga, who recently won the PEN Pinter Prize, has been awarded the 2021 Peace Prize of the German…
[Sponsored] ‘When he spoke, he sounded as if his throat was full of buzzing bees’—Read an excerpt from Robert Muponde’s memoir The Scandalous Times of a Book Louse
Penguin Random House has shared an excerpt from The Scandalous Times of a Book Louse by Robert Muponde—a magical coming-of-age…
[Sponsored] Find out more about Gabriela Garcia’s debut novel Of Women and Salt—an instant New York Times bestseller (PLUS: Audiobook excerpt)
Gabriela Garcia’s Of Women and Salt is a sweeping, masterful debut about a daughter’s fateful choice, a mother motivated by her own…
[Sponsored] VIP intrigue at Decameron—Read an excerpt from Fortunes: The Rise and Rise of Afrikaner Tycoons by Ebbe Dommisse
The restaurant Decameron in the centre of Stellenbosch remains a popular meeting place for some of the country’s top businessmen….
Poetry by Keith Lewis, Nqobile Lombo, Busisiwe Mahlangu, Mthabisi Sithole and Xabiso Vili from Yesterdays and Imagining Realities: An Anthology of South African Poetry
The JRB presents poems by Keith Lewis, Nqobile Lombo, Busisiwe Mahlangu, Mthabisi Sithole and Xabiso Vili, selected from Yesterdays and…
[Sponsored] New book alert! The hotly anticipated It’s The Answers For Me by Khaya Dlanga—one of South Africa’s favourite authors
It’s The Answers For Me, the new book by Khaya Dlanga, is out in August from Pan Macmillan. With three…
[Sponsored] New book of short stories by Nthikeng Mohlele announced! (PLUS new edition of Small Things)
A new book of short stories by Nthikeng Mohlele will be published by Jacana Media in October 2021! The deal was signed…
View an excerpt from African Cosmologies: Photography, Time, and the Other, including work by Zanele Muholi, Hélène A Amouzou and Wilfred Ukpong
The JRB presents an excerpt from African Cosmologies: Photography, Time, and the Other. African Cosmologies: Photography, Time, and the OtherFotofestSchilt…
[The JRB exclusive] Read an excerpt from a new edition of Lewis Nkosi’s one-act play Flying Home!, and a note by the editor
The JRB presents an exclusive excerpt from Lewis Nkosi: The Black Psychiatrist | Flying Home: Texts, Perspectives, Homage. The book,…
‘Miriam Tlali understood the complicated meanings of being “the first” for a black woman’—Read an excerpt from Pumla Dineo Gqola’s new book Miriam Tlali: Writing Freedom
The JRB presents an excerpt from Miriam Tlali: Writing Freedom, the latest book by Pumla Dineo Gqola, which brings together…
‘I share me so you can know you’—Read an excerpt from Thirty Five Poems by the late Myesha Jenkins
The JRB presents an excerpt from Thirty Five Poems, a posthumously published collection of poetry by Myesha Jenkins, who passed…
Pushkin’s African heritage—Read an excerpt from African Europeans: An Untold History by Olivette Otele
The JRB presents an excerpt from Olivette Otele’s African Europeans: An Untold History, which was recently shortlisted for the Orwell…
‘Temporary madness, in war, is bravery’s sister’—Read an excerpt from David Diop’s International Booker Prize-winning novel At Night All Blood Is Black
The JRB presents an excerpt from At Night All Blood Is Black, recent winner of the International Booker Prize. At…
‘You’re lucky, you know,’ her mother once told her. ‘She’s a very easy baby’—Read an excerpt from Naledi Mashishi’s debut novel, Invisible Strings
The JRB presents an excerpt from Invisible Strings by Naledi Mashishi. Invisible StringsNaledi MashishiBlackBird Books, 2021 Read the excerpt: Chapter…
Johannesburg’s Place of Good Hope—Read an excerpt from Amakomiti: Grassroots Democracy in South African Shack Settlements by Trevor Ngwane
The JRB presents an excerpt from Trevor Ngwane’s forthcoming book Amakomiti: Grassroots Democracy in South African Shack Settlements. Amakomiti: Grassroots…
[Sponsored] Facing racism as young doctor—read an excerpt from The Boy Who Never Gave Up: A Refugee’s Epic Journey to Triumph by Emmanuel Taban
Jonathan Ball Publishers has shared an excerpt from The Boy Who Never Gave Up: A Refugee’s Epic Journey to Triumph…
[Sponsored] ‘The book takes you on a journey of strange and wonderful adventures’—Shubnum Khan introduces How I Accidentally Became a Global Stock Photo
Pan Macmillan has shared a video of Shubnum Khan introducing her new book How I Accidentally Became a Global Stock Photo: And…
[Sponsored] Meet internationally bestselling author Harlan Coben at the South African exclusive launch of Win! (21 Apr)
Don’t miss your chance to meet Harlan Coben LIVE and answering YOUR questions! Penguin Random House and Exclusive Books invite…
‘The final chapter was the most difficult’—Read an interview with Peace Adzo Medie and an excerpt from her debut novel His Only Wife
Ghanaian author Peace Adzo Medie chatted to The JRB about writing, reading and her debut novel His Only Wife. His…
[Sponsored] Watch Rešoketšwe Manenzhe in conversation with Jennifer Malec about her award-winning novel Scatterlings
‘Some stories start in the middle because no one wants to hear the beginning.’ Rešoketšwe Manenzhe chatted to Jennifer Malec recently…
Read ‘Seasons Change’, a short story by the late Phumlani Pikoli, from his book The Fatuous State of Severity
Multidisciplinary artist and award-winning author Phumlani Pikoli passed away tragically this week, aged thirty-three. Phumlani was an inspiring and passionate…
Poetry by Ayanda Billie, Siza Nkosi Mokhele, Maneo Mohale and Masai Sepuru from Years of Fire and Ash: South African Poems of Decolonisation
The JRB presents a selection of poetry from Years of Fire and Ash: South African Poems of Decolonisation, a new…