[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…
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[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] ‘It is the book I never thought I would get to write. I never thought I’d be well enough’—Susanna Clarke wins 2021 Women’s Prize for Fiction for Piranesi
Susanna Clarke has been announced as the winner of the 2021 Women’s Prize for Fiction, for her second novel Piranesi….
[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…
The Johannesburg Review of Books Vol. 5, Issue 4 (August 2021)
Karen Jennings, Yagnishsing Dawoor, Sindi-Leigh McBride, Thulani Angoma-Mzini, Agatha Zaza, Wamuwi Mbao, Lidudumalingani, Ben Williams, Victor Dlamini, Saaleha Idrees Bamjee,…
‘I decided to give up writing and to rethink my life’—Karen Jennings chats to Jennifer Malec about her Booker Prize-longlisted novel, An Island
Karen Jennings was recently longlisted for the Booker Prize, for her novel An Island. Here she chats to The JRB…
[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…
A flaming dispatch from Ananda Devi’s ‘evil twin’—Yagnishsing Dawoor reviews When the Night Agrees to Speak to Me
Ananda Devi’s When the Night Agrees to Speak to Me is an impassioned investigation of poetry writing as an apparatus…
‘A compellingly affecting hero figure for the remaking of the human’—Wamuwi Mbao reviews Sorrowland, the new novel by Rivers Solomon
Rivers Solomon’s Sorrowland rearranges the furniture of the hardening genre of novels resolved to deal with North America’s history of…
[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…
‘To photograph Switzerland is to rephotograph it’—Sindi-Leigh McBride reviews Fernweh, Teju Cole’s latest photobook
Fernweh, Teju Cole’s latest photobook, feels like a palliative moment amid the uncertainty, loss and raw grief of the pandemic,…
How to write like a white person—Ben Williams presents notes towards a framework for reading white fiction’s ‘literature of success’
In the context of increasing scrutiny on the literary production of white writers, Ben Williams offers up some ideas on…
[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…
[City Editor] In communion—Lidudumalingani gives deference to the worshippers who gather in the streets, parks and open lands of Johannesburg
On Sundays, in downtown Johannesburg, on the edge of Hillbrow, encroaching into Braamfontein, queues of worshippers fill out the streets,…
New short fiction: ‘Eye Contact’ by Agatha Zaza
The JRB presents a new short story by Agatha Zaza. Eye Contact This will be her husband. Litiya looks carefully at…
[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…
‘Exploring the recesses of loss with elegance’—Thulani Angoma-Mzini contemplates the 2021 Caine Prize shortlist
Meron Hadero was recently awarded the 2021 AKO Caine Prize for African Writing, becoming the first Ethiopian author to claim…
Four poems by Saaleha Idrees Bamjee, from Zikr
The JRB presents poetry by Saaleha Idrees Bamjee, selected from Zikr, published by uHlanga Press, and winner of the Ingrid…
[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…
[Photo Editor] Times Before 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…
‘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…
‘He could hear it. A sound that made his back grow cold, made the hair on his arms rise. It was the sound of bones’—Read an excerpt from An Island by Karen Jennings
The JRB presents an excerpt from Karen Jennings’s new novel An Island, which was recently longlisted for the Booker Prize….
‘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…
Dreams of summer, a playlist compiled by Tymon Smith
The JRB presents tunes and accompanying editorial from our EAP member Tymon Smith. This edition of Radio JRB has no overarching theme or…
‘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] Meron Hadero wins the 2021 Caine Prize for African Writing—becoming the first Ethiopian writer to take the award
Ethiopian–American writer Meron Hadero has been awarded the 2021 AKO Caine Prize for African Writing, for her short story ‘The…
[The JRB Daily] 2021 Commonwealth Short Story Prize winner announced
Sri Lankan author Kanya D’Almeida has won the 2021 Commonwealth Short Story Prize—the world’s most global literature prize. D’Almeida won…
[The JRB Daily] [Exclusive] Read ‘Five Years Next Sunday’ by Idza Luhumyo, winner of the 2019/20 Short Story Day Africa Prize
This week, The JRB has been publishing the winning stories from this year’s Short Story Day Africa Prize. The winners of…
[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…
[The JRB Daily] South African poet Maneo Refiloe Mohale wins Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry
South African poet Maneo Refiloe Mohale was recently named the winner of the African Poetry Book Fund’s 2020 Glenna Luschei…
[The JRB Daily] [Exclusive] Read ‘Shelter’ by Mbozi Haimbe, 1st Runner-up in the 2019/20 Short Story Day Africa Prize
This week, The JRB is publishing the three winning stories from this year’s Short Story Day Africa Prize. The winners of…
[The JRB Daily] [Exclusive] Read ‘Static’ by Alithnayn Abdulkareem, 2nd Runner-up in the 2019/20 Short Story Day Africa Prize
For the next three days, The JRB will be publishing the three winning stories from this year’s Short Story Day Africa…
[The JRB Daily] Short Story Day Africa Prize ‘Disruption’ winners announced—judges impressed with the ‘calibre and imaginative reach’ of the stories
The winners of the 2020/21 Short Story Day Africa Prize have been announced. Header image: Idza Luhumyo (winner), Mbozi Haimbe…