[The JRB Daily] Rabih Alameddine wins Lambda Literary Award for his novel The Angel of History
Lambda Literary, an organisation advancing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) literature, has announced the winners of the 29th Annual…
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[The JRB Daily] Israeli author David Grossman wins Man Booker International Prize for A Horse Walks Into a Bar
Bestselling Israeli writer David Grossman has won the 2017 Man Booker International Prize for his ‘ambitious high-wire act of a…
[The JRB Daily] UJ Prize shortlists announced: Fiction, poetry, short stories, essays and biography feature
The shortlists for the 2016 University of Johannesburg Prizes for South African Writing in English have been announced, with works…
The Johannesburg Review of Books Vol. 1, Issue 2 (June 2017)
The second issue of The Johannesburg Review of Books is here—replete with some of the finest writing on books and…
Step on the Bassline: Bongani Madondo unlocks a torrent of Joburg memories
I don’t believe any biographer can be objective. —Mark Gevisser … I saw a sign over a door in café…
‘I want my legs back’: A personal history of catastrophe by para-athlete Palesa ‘Deejay’ Manaleng
The JRB brings you an exclusive excerpt from a work in progress by Deejay Manaleng, which tells the story of…
[Sponsored] Infidelity among MK comrades: An excerpt from Achmat Dangor’s Bitter Fruit, republished this month
A new edition of Achmat Dangor’s acclaimed novel Bitter Fruit is out soon from Picador Africa, ahead of the publication…
[Sponsored] Win a copy of The Republic of Gupta: A Story of State Capture by Pieter-Louis Myburgh
The Reading List and Penguin Random House South Africa have got three copies of The Republic of Gupta: A Story…
[Sponsored] Karina M Szczurek on life with Andre Brink and her new memoir, The Fifth Mrs Brink (including podcast)
Ingrid Winterbach spoke to Karina M Szczurek at the Woordfees literary festival recently about her life with one of South…
Caught in the surreal postcolonial swirl: Wamuwi Mbao reviews Black Moses by Alain Mabanckou
Black Moses Alain Mabanckou Serpent’s Tail 2017 (Man Booker International Prize finalist) A young man visits a doctor in the…
‘Writing is sometimes like a thread that weaves all our hearts into one’: Lidudumalingani reflects on his Caine Prize visit to the United States
Lidudumalingani won the 2016 Caine Prize for African Writing for his short story ‘Memories We Lost’. As part of the…
English here is the foreign language: A conversation with Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, author of Season of Crimson Blossoms
Season of Crimson Blossoms Abubakar Adam Ibrahim Cassava Republic Press/Pan Macmillan South Africa 2016 Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, winner of the…
We are not dogs! We must get organised: Percy Zvomuya reviews The Beggars’ Strike by Aminata Sow Fall
Percy Zvomuya reviews The Beggars’ Strike, by Senegalese author Aminata Sow Fall, first published in English in 1981. The Beggars’…
Two poems by Rethabile Masilo
Flesh and blood One is very crazy when one is in love —Sigmund Freud Tiananmen. A monk’s body burns—his tunic…
[City Editor] A miracle under the apricot tree in Chi Town: How a writer came to name Maboneng
One morning at the beginning of February 2009 I was approached by Indra Wussow, founder and curator of The Sylt…
[Temporary Sojourner] How little has changed in thirty-nine years: Efemia Chela reads Dambudzo Marechera’s The House of Hunger
The House of Hunger Dambudzo Marechera First published Pantheon Books 1978; this edition Heinemann African Writers Series 2009 We knew…
New short fiction from Queer Africa 2: ‘Nine Pieces of Desire’ by Idza L
Exclusive to The JRB, new short fiction by Kenyan writer Idza L excerpted from Queer Africa 2, courtesy of MaThoko’s Books,…
[Photo Editor] Two original portraits by Victor Dlamini: Palesa Morudu and Lindiwe Hani
Victor Dlamini is The JRB’s Photo Editor. We feature his work on our Instagram channel. ~~~ Lindiwe Hani, photographed by…
New release: Another Morocco by Abdellah Taia
English readers interested in Abdellah Taïa’s work are in luck. Taïa, the first openly gay Moroccan author to be published…
Lagos, one long literary and artistic lime: Etisalat Prize judge Elinor Sisulu reflects on a trip of note
The Etisalat Prize for Literature, established in 2013, awards £15 000 for a first novel from Africa, and has grown…
Dispatch from Conakry: James Murua attends the 2017 World Book Capital celebrations
I travelled across the continent on the morning of Saturday, April 22, to attend one of the most important annual…
Exclusive to The JRB: Listen to Abubakar Adam Ibrahim read from Season of Crimson Blossoms
Season of Crimson Blossoms Abubakar Adam Ibrahim Cassava Republic Press/Pan Macmillan South Africa 2016 The JRB recorded this reading by…
It was a hard book to write: Kopano Matlwa discusses her latest novel, Period Pain
Period Pain Kopano Matlwa Jacana Media 2017 Kopano Matlwa burst onto the literary scene in 2007 with the publication of…
New translation of select essays by Mohamed Kacimi
Over at Asymptote Journal, a selection of Algerian writer Mohamed Kacimi’s essays have been translated from French into English by…
Welcome to Jozi maboneng, the place of lights: Read an excerpt from After Tears by Niq Mhlongo
The JRB’s City Editor, Niq Mhlongo, gave Johannesburg’s vibrant arts precinct, Maboneng, its name. Here is an excerpt from his…
The Johannesburg Review of Books Vol. 1, Issue 1 (May 2017)
We are delighted to present the first issue of The Johannesburg Review of Books—comprising almost twenty reviews, essays, articles, stories,…
Portrait of the poet as a young genius: Bongani Madondo reviews Koleka Putuma’s Collective Amnesia
There is an ‘undecidable conflict’ between the poet’s desire to sing an alternative world and, as Grossman puts it, the…
[Sponsored] An excerpt from Pieter-Louis Myburgh’s new book The Republic of Gupta
The Republic of Gupta Pieter-Louis Myburgh Penguin Random House South Africa 2017 In The Republic of Gupta, Pieter-Louis Myburgh delves…
‘You’re not a rejection machine, you’re a search engine’, or, the art of the literary review: A conversation with Philip Gourevitch
The Paris Review Interviews, a series of conversations with great writers on their art ranging from the 1950s to the…
The anthology we have been waiting for: Panashe Chigumadzi reviews Whatever Happened to Interracial Love? by Kathleen Collins
Whatever Happened to Interracial Love? Kathleen Collins Granta 2017 Black women as you have never seen them before, on screen…
[Sponsored] Submit your manuscript to Pan Macmillan during an open submissions window in May
Pan Macmillan South Africa, one of South Africa’s leading publishers, does not as a rule accept unsolicited manuscripts, but has an open…
New poetry by Rustum Kozain: ‘When I write’
When I write Prose poem Rustum Kozain When I write, I am aware of how meaningless and ineffectual the activity…
[City Editor] Soweto’s traditional Good Friday soccer tournament: Where legends are made
The tradition of the Good Friday soccer tournament has existed for a very long time in the townships around Johannesburg,…
[Sponsored] Read John Kane-Berman’s speech from the launch of his new book Between Two Fires
Between Two Fires John Kane-Berman Jonathan Ball Publisher 2017 At recent the launch of his new book Between Two Fires:…
On Things Fall Apart and Things Falling Apart—Simon van Schalkwyk considers modernism in the here and now
1. Chinua Achebe, modernist What might it mean to offer a suite of lectures on Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart…
All too exhilarating: Wamuwi Mbao reviews Naomi Alderman’s Baileys Prize-shortlisted sci-fi novel The Power
Update: Naomi Alderman has since been announced as the winner of the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction The Power Naomi…
Rest in Power, Pa Kojo: Paying tribute to Kojo Laing
Ghanaian novelist and poet B Kojo Laing passed away on Thursday, 20 April 2017 in Ghana. The JRB gathered tributes…
The limits of counterfactual fiction: Percy Zvomuya reviews Bertène Juminer’s Bozambo’s Revenge and Michel Houellebecq’s Submission
La Revanche de Bozambo / Bozambo’s Revenge Bertène Juminer Présence Africaine, 1968 (French ed.)/Three Continents Press, 1968 (English ed.) Submission…
A knockout crime debut from Lagos: Ben Williams reviews Leye Adenle’s Easy Motion Tourist
Easy Motion Tourist Leye Adenle Cassava Republic Press/Pan Macmillan South Africa 2016 1. On September 21st 2015, a Monday, a…
All you need is luck: Jennifer Malec reviews Zadie Smith’s Swing Time and Imbolo Mbue’s Behold the Dreamers
Swing Time Zadie Smith Penguin Books 2016 Behold the Dreamers Imbolo Mbue HarperCollins 2017 1. Zadie Smith’s new novel, Swing…