Blog

Creative non-fiction

‘Johannesburg provokes extreme responses, one way or the other, because it’s full of contradictions’—An interview with Ivan Vladislavic about his new book The Near North

JRB Editor Jennifer Malec interviews The JRB Patron Ivan Vladislavić about his new book, The Near North. The Near NorthIvan VladislavićPicador Africa, 2024…

Book excerpts

‘My pilgrimage to Durban was written before I was born’—Read an excerpt from Roohi Choudhry’s forthcoming debut novel Outside Women

The JRB presents an exclusive excerpt from Roohi Choudhry’s debut novel Outside Women, which will be published in March 2025….

Book excerpts

Taking Guard in Inner-city Johannesburg—Read an excerpt from Niren Tolsi’s new book Writing Around the Wicket: Race, Class and History in South African Cricket

The JRB presents an excerpt from Writing Around the Wicket: Race, Class and History in South African Cricket by Niren…

Academic

‘In Africa, the conservative realism of the military mind met the liberatory spirit of the decolonising mind’—Read an excerpt from Soldier’s Paradise by Samuel Fury Childs Daly

The JRB presents an excerpt from Samuel Fury Childs Daly’s new book, Soldier’s Paradise: Militarism in Africa After Empire.  Soldier′s…

Fiction

‘The readers are there, but we’re still figuring out the right distribution model to reach them’—Nozizwe Cynthia Jele introduces her new isiZulu-focused publisher, Happiness Books

Author Nozizwe Cynthia Jele has recently launched a publishing company, Happiness Books, which will specialise in books written in isiZulu. …

Sponsored

[Sponsored] ‘I receive the things my grandmothers left for me’—Siphokazi Jonas introduces her debut poetry collection, Weeping Becomes a River

Penguin Random House SA has shared a video of Siphokazi Jonas introducing her ‘exquisite, courageous and moving’ poetry collection, Weeping Becomes…

Academic

‘Ngangizwa kahle ukuthi ukuhumusha kuyangikhulisa, kungisabalalisela ingqondo’—Makhosazana Xaba chats to Musawenkosi Cabe about her isiZulu translation of Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth

Udliwano ndlebe mayelana nokuhushushwa kwengcwadi ka Frantz Fanon, Izimpabanga Zomhlaba, phakathi komhumushi uMakhosazana Xaba no Musawenkosi Cabe. This is a…

Africa

‘I was fascinated by the idea of women existing beyond the confines of the patriarchy and colonialism’—An interview with Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu on The Creation of Half-Broken People

Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu chats to JRB Editor Jennifer Malec about her new novel, The Creation of Half-Broken People. The Creation of Half-Broken…

International

‘The trees of the city provide a subtext for many things’—Salimah Valiani talks to Anna Stroud about her new poetry collection, IGoli/EGoli

Salimah Valiani chats to Anna Stroud about maps, trees and all the ingredients for love one can find in Johannesburg—and…

Academic

The place of death in the struggle for freedom in South Africa—Read an excerpt from Jacob Dlamini’s new book Dying for Freedom: Political Martyrdom in South Africa

The JRB presents an excerpt from Dying for Freedom: Political Martyrdom in South Africa, the new book by Jacob Dlamini. Dying…

Book excerpts

‘Those few strands of barbed wire fence stood between her and her children, her home, her husband and her country’—Read an excerpt from the new edition of Lauretta Ngcobo’s Cross of Gold

The JRB presents an excerpt from a new edition of Lauretta Ngcobo’s seminal novel Cross of Gold. Cross of GoldLauretta…

Book excerpts

Read an excerpt from Sesizophila Ngale Ndlela, the new isiZulu translation of Nozizwe Cynthia Jele’s acclaimed novel The Ones with Purpose

The JRB presents an excerpt from Sesizophila Ngale Ndlela, a new isiZulu translation of Nozizwe Cynthia Jele’s novel The Ones…

Book excerpts

‘He cut himself from his country. He had been so proud. But he was damaged by the loss’—Read an excerpt from Lying Perfectly Still by the late Laura Fish

The JRB presents an excerpt from Lying Perfectly Still by Laura Fish, who passed away shortly before her novel’s publication….

Book excerpts

‘Unlike any other South African poem I have come across’—Read Kelwyn Sole’s Introduction to Angifi Proctor Dladla’s epic poem Maxwell the Gorilla and the Archbishop of Soshanguve

The JRB presents Kelwin Sole’s Introduction to Maxwell the Gorilla and the Archbishop of Soshanguve, an epic poem by the…