[Fiction Issue] ‘Aid worker. Smuggler. Time bomb.’—Read an excerpt from Akbar Hussain’s debut Nairobi crime novel Truth Is a Flightless Bird
The JRB presents an excerpt from Truth Is a Flightless Bird, the debut novel from Akbar Hussain. Truth Is a…
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[Fiction Issue] ‘We thought she’d welcome us. We thought it was simple’—Read an excerpt from Saleh Addonia’s short story ‘She is Another Country’
The JRB presents an excerpt from ‘She is Another Country’, a short story from The Feeling House, the debut collection…
[Fiction Issue] ‘What’s Nigeria got to do with us? … They hate us there.’—Read an excerpt from Okechukwu Nzelu’s novel Here Again Now
The JRB presents an excerpt from Here Again Now by Okechukwu Nzelu. Here Again Now Okechukwu NzeluLittle, Brown, 2022 Ekene…
[Fiction Issue] Read an excerpt from Victor Forna’s short story ‘They Will Fly with Blooded Wings’, from the Caine Prize anthology A Mind to Silence and Other Stories
The JRB presents an excerpt from Victor Forna’s short story ‘They Will Fly with Blooded Wings’, excerpted from A Mind…
[Fiction Issue] ‘As if with an invisible thread, they were bound together by their circumstances’—Read an excerpt from Shevlyn Mottai’s debut novel Across the Kala Pani
The JRB presents an excerpt from Across the Kala Pani, the debut novel by Shevlyn Mottai. Across the Kala PaniShevlyn…
[Fiction Issue] ‘You’ll appeal more to audiences who’ve never seen people like you’—Read an excerpt from Laila Manack’s debut novel Sisters of the Circus
The JRB presents an excerpt from Sisters of the Circus, the debut novel by Laila Manack. Sisters of the CircusLaila…
[Fiction Issue] ‘You need a plan … To lose your temper is to lose the battle’—Read an excerpt from Maggie O’Farrell’s novel The Marriage Portrait
The JRB presents an excerpt from The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell. The Marriage PortraitMaggie O’FarrellHeadline, 2022 Venison baked in…
[Fiction Issue] ‘My brother realised that he married a witch!’—Read an excerpt from Thabile Shange’s debut adult novel In the Midst of It All
The JRB presents an excerpt from In the Midst of It All, the debut novel by Thabile Shange. In the…
[Photo Editor] A portrait of Teju Cole by Victor Dlamini
Victor Dlamini is The JRB’s Photo Editor. We feature his work on our Instagram channel. See this ten-year retrospective of his portraits. View this…
The Johannesburg Review of Books Vol. 6, Issue 5 (November 2022)
Shayera Dark • Wamuwi Mbao • Dimakatso Sedite • Carey Baraka • Karen Jennings • Tjawangwa Dema • Karin Schimke…
One part magical realism, one part crime thriller, one part romance, rendered entirely in patois—Shayera Dark reviews Ayanna Lloyd Banwo’s When We Were Birds
Ayanna Lloyd Banwo’s debut novel When We Were Birds makes compelling work of how a world in which the living…
[Sponsored] ‘I swear you can’t make stuff like this up’—Read an excerpt from Tshidiso Moletsane’s Sunday Times Fiction Prize-winning novel Junx
Penguin Random House has shared an excerpt from Junx, the debut novel from Tshidiso Moletsane, winner of the 2022 Sunday Times Fiction…
‘It is heartening to read introspective characters who don’t believe everything they think is interesting’—Wamuwi Mbao reviews Elif Batuman’s new novel Either/Or
Elif Batuman’s Either/Or is a new and worthy entry into the well-populated gallery of erudite books about people learning how…
‘Unapologetic, evocative and darkly humorous’—Dimakatso Sedite reviews Bury Me Naked, the debut collection of poetry from Teamhw SbonguJesu
Teamhw SbonguJesu’s debut collection of poetry, Bury Me Naked, delivers a conscientious, humorous, much-needed lesson in a poetics of voice…
[Sponsored] Listen to the new episode of Pagecast! Featuring Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan, authors of Mad Honey
The new episode of Pagecast, the podcast from Jonathan Ball Publishers, is out now! In this week’s episode, Pagecast, Pippa…
The party has a purpose—Carey Baraka considers the influence of literary get-togethers on Kenya’s writing scene
Sleeping Poet: That Party at Frank’s At 7.30 or 8 or 8.30 p.m., somewhere along in there, on 30 June…
‘When the Booker longlisting happened, I thought, oh, I’m going to have to start writing again’—Karen Jennings chats to Jennifer Malec about writing, fame and loneliness (Plus: exclusive audio)
Author Karen Jennings was in conversation with The JRB Editor Jennifer Malec at the Origins Centre in Johannesburg recently, as…
[Sponsored] Mr Entertainment by Paula Fourie: A pioneering biography of one of Cape Town’s most beloved entertainers, Taliep Petersen
Mr Entertainment: The story of Taliep Petersen by Paula Fourie is out now from LAPA Publishers. In Mr Entertainment, we hear…
Helping new perspectives and worlds of experience be heard—Karin Schimke visits Paulet House, home of the Jakes Gerwel Foundation writer’s residency
The R335 curves around the eastern border of Addo Elephant Park and spools north through the cushiony green hills of…
Two poems by Tjawangwa Dema, from an/other pastoral
The JRB presents two poems from Tjawangwa Dema’s collection an/other pastoral. an/other pastoral Tjawangwa Dema, illustrated by Tebogo CranwellNo Bindings, 2022 Prologue: Hypothesis…
[Sponsored] The Unaccountables: The Powerful Politicians and Corporations who Profit from Impunity—an urgent and passionately argued call to action
The Unaccountables: The Powerful Politicians and Corporations who Profit from Impunity, edited by Michael Marchant, Mamello Mosiana, Ra’eesa Pather and…
[The JRB exclusive] ‘Over the months, we found more and more of Wayne’s drawings, those bundles of thin lines on the walls’—Read an excerpt from Namwali Serpell’s new novel The Furrows
The JRB presents an excerpt from The Furrows: An Elegy, the new novel from award-winning author Namwali Serpell. The FurrowsNamwali…
[The JRB exclusive] ‘The first wound for all of us who are classified as “black” is empire’—Read an excerpt from Tsitsi Dangarembga’s new book Black and Female
The JRB presents an excerpt from Black and Female by Tsitsi Dangarembga. Black and FemaleTsitsi DangarembgaFaber & Faber, 2022 Read…
‘I danced a saraband with my parents. Their love dissolved my old fear’—Read an excerpt from Abdourahman A Waberi’s award-winning novel Why Do You Dance When You Walk
The JRB presents an excerpt from Why Do You Dance When You Walk by Djiboutian novelist Abdourahman A Waberi, winner…
‘No meaningful change can come from those who seek only power’—Read ‘Various Histories’, an essay by Jim Pascual Agustin
The JRB presents an updated version of an essay first published in Jim Pascual Agustin’s book of poems Bloodred Dragonflies:…
‘I was an identity-less person at the mercy of apartheid officials’—Read an excerpt from Cleaner’s Boy: A Resistance Road to a Liberated Life by Patric Tariq Mellet
The JRB presents an excerpt from Patric Tariq Mellet’s autobiography Cleaner’s Boy: A Resistance Road to a Liberated Life. Cleaner’s…
‘I remember the day Nelson Mandela returned, exactly thirty years after his death’—Read Siyawa by Kneo Mokgopa, from Our Move Next
The JRB presents an excerpt from Our Move Next: Digital Folklore. Our Move Next: Digital FolkloreCurated by Sarah Summers and…
‘There was a heated discussion about me going to work for this “native” paper’—Read an excerpt from Freedom Writer, the memoir of legendary journalist Juby Mayet
The JRB presents an excerpt from Freedom Writer: My Life and Times by the late Juby Mayet. Freedom Writer: My…
The lives of ordinary African women who did not submit to empire—Read an excerpt from Kwasi Konadu’s new book Many Black Women of this Fortress
The JRB presents an excerpt from Many Black Women of this Fortress: Graça, Mónica and Adwoa, Three Enslaved Women of…
[Photo Editor] A portrait of Karen Jennings by Victor Dlamini
Victor Dlamini is The JRB’s Photo Editor. We feature his work on our Instagram channel. See this ten-year retrospective of his portraits. View this…
[The JRB Daily] 2022 South African Literary Awards winners announced
The winners of the 2022 South African Literary Awards (the SALAs) have been announced. The winning writers were announced in…
[The JRB Daily] Mignonne Breier and Tshidiso Moletsane win the 2022 Sunday Times Literary Awards
The winners of the 2022 Sunday Times Literary Awards have been announced. Mignonne Breier has won the Non-fiction Award for…
[The JRB Daily] Island Prize for a Debut Novel from Africa call for submissions
Submissions for the second annual Island Prize for a Debut Novel from Africa are now open. This literary prize, founded…
[The JRB Daily] ‘An afterlife noir that dissolves the boundaries of life and death, east and west’—Shehan Karunatilaka wins 2022 Booker Prize for The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida
Shehan Karunatilaka has won the 2022 Booker Prize for Fiction for his novel The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida. Karunatilka…
[The JRB Daily] Annie Ernaux receives the 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature
French author Annie Ernaux has been awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature, the Swedish Academy announced today in Stockholm….
[The JRB Daily] 2022 UJ Prizes for South African Writing in English winners announced
Header image: Mandla Langa, A’Eysha Kassiem and Lisa-Anne Julien The winners of the University of Johannesburg Prizes for South African…
[The JRB Daily] Shortlists announced for 2022 UJ Prizes for South African Writing in English (Plus: winners of Creative Writing in isiZulu and Sesotho sa Leboa, and Literary Translation)
The shortlists for the annual University of Johannesburg Prizes for South African Writing in English have been announced. The 2022…
Hilary Mantel, 1952—2022, RIP
Hilary Mantel, the two-time Booker Prize-winning author of the bestselling Wolf Hall trilogy, has died aged seventy, her publisher has…
The Johannesburg Review of Books Vol. 6, Issue 4 (September 2022)
Athambile Masola • Fungai Machirori • Wamuwi Mbao • Anna Stroud • Dimakatso Sedite • Margie Orford • Siphiwe Gloria…
Every time a black woman writes their story they are resisting marginalisation—Athambile Masola reviews Barbara Masekela’s memoir Poli Poli
Poli Poli by Barbara Masekela is a memoir that exemplifies the paradox of the ordinary and the spectacle in black…