The JRB presents an excerpt from My Mother’s Laughter: Selected Poems by Chris van Wyk, edited by Ivan Vladislavić and…
The abolition of slavery, formalised gender discrimination, apartheid and other reprehensible ways of being did not occur simply through continued…
The Johannesburg Review of Books presents a new poem by Allan Kolski Horwitz. ~~~ NO ONE IS SAFE …
‘How do we craft a healthy, dignified blackness, in a world where blackness is a captured identity location that needs…
Melville’s legendary haunt Xai Xai is for writers part restaurant, part sanctuary, writes guest City Editor Lidudumalingani. In Kazuo Ishiguro’s…
Whatever writing emerges from this moment will be an attempt to build a new Johannesburg, writes guest City Editor Lidudumalingani….
Johannesburg is a city that dances on the edges of elusive, and yet somehow Santu Mofokeng managed to contain it…
As part of our January Conversation Issue, Itumeleng Molefi reflects on Mona Eltahawy’s keynote address and conversation with Pumla Dineo…
As part of our January Conversation Issue, guest City Editor Lidudumalingani chats to Outlwile Tsipane about the literatures of Johannesburg….
Those who temporarily abandon Johannesburg this December—and those who stay while pining for home—must know that the city is theirs,…
The JRB Editor Jennifer Malec chats to Siphiwo Mahala about his new collection of short stories, Red Apple Dreams. Mahala…
The JRB presents an excerpt from Politics and Community-Based Research: Perspectives from Yeoville Studio, Johannesburg. Politics and Community-Based Research: Perspectives…
The JRB presents an excerpt from Civilising Grass: The Art of the Lawn on the South African Highveld by Jonathan…
Contributing Editor Bongani Madondo unmoors Kwame Brathwaite’s Black Is Beautiful from mono-dimensional notions of the Black Atlantic into a New African Globalism of…
The JRB Patron Ivan Vladislavić chats to Editor Jennifer Malec about memory, nostalgia and his latest novel, The Distance. Ivan…
In this excerpt from his forthcoming book on non-fiction in South African literature, Experiments with Truth, Hedley Twidle revisits Dugmore…
The cover image for the November 2018 issue of The JRB is excerpted from the new book Johannesburg Then and…
The JRB presents an excerpt from South African Gothic: Anxiety and Creative Dissent in the Post-apartheid Imagination and Beyond by…
At a recent Johannesburg symposium on the life of literary icon Can Themba, organised by author Siphiwo Mahala as a…
The JRB presents ‘On Patrol in the Dark City’, an excerpt from I Want to Go Home Forever: Stories of Becoming and…
Craig Higginson’s sixth novel, The White Room, was published by Picador Africa in August. He chatted to The JRB Editor Jennifer Malec about…
Indian writer Arundhati Roy, in South Africa on a book tour, sat down with The JRB to discuss her books…
Harry Kalmer won the 2018 Barry Ronge Fiction Prize recently, for his novel A Thousand Tales of Johannesburg. He chatted to…
Colson Whitehead’s The Colossus of New York, reissued fourteen years after its first publication, endures in the quality of its writing and…
A major change is happening on the South African literary landscape, and it has its roots in the formation of…
‘Johannesburg is a fragmented city. It is not a place of smoothly integrated parts. And it has a name that…
Many case officers liked to take a tablet to turn white, believing that it made the job easier. I think…
Artist William Kentridge and author Denis Hirson appeared in a public conversation at the Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, in February, to…
The JRB Editor Jennifer Malec chatted to City Editor Niq Mhlongo about the banning of Inxeba, writing to music, and his brand…
Nthikeng Mohlele’s Pleasure was recently longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award—this after winning two major South Africa literary prizes in 2017. The…
Sisonke Msimang, who grew up in exile, describes her first visit to South Africa in December 1990, the year Nelson…
Our November issue’s cover image comes from Johannesburg In Your Pocket. The photograph features Clive van den Berg’s sculpture The Eland,…
Main image: Mpho Mokgadi This month’s cover image comes from UP UP: Stories of Johannesburg’s Highrises. UP UP: Stories of Johannesburg’s…
The fifth issue of The Johannesburg Review of Books has arrived—possibly our best edition yet. Before we dive in, we…
Binyavanga Wainaina spoke eloquently about his writing career and his life, and how the two are intertwined, at Wits University…
I don’t believe any biographer can be objective. —Mark Gevisser … I saw a sign over a door in café…
The JRB’s City Editor, Niq Mhlongo, gave Johannesburg’s vibrant arts precinct, Maboneng, its name. Here is an excerpt from his…
The tradition of the Good Friday soccer tournament has existed for a very long time in the townships around Johannesburg,…
It gives me great pleasure to introduce The Johannesburg Review of Books, a new literary review from southern Africa. Our…
