New short fiction: ‘Home™’ by Eckard Smuts
The JRB presents a new short story by Eckard Smuts. Home™ There it was, suspended like a giant Tinkertoy assemblage in…
Tag: Speculative Fiction
A much needed corrective to the literary canon’s rural bias—Timothy Wright reviews Claiming the City in South African Literature by Meg Samuelson
Timothy Wright reviews Meg Samuelson’s new book, Claiming the City in South African Literature, which argues that only through writing…
‘A dark, vast emptiness within, as boundless as the universe outside’—Read an excerpt from Alistair Mackay’s debut novel It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way
The JRB presents an excerpt from It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way, the debut novel from Alistair Mackay. It…
[The JRB Daily] 2020 Nommo Awards for Speculative Fiction by Africans—shortlists announced
The shortlists for the 2020 Nommo Awards for Speculative Fiction by Africans have been announced. The Nommo Awards are presented…
[The JRB Daily] 2020 Nommo Awards for Speculative Fiction by Africans—longlists announced
The longlists for the 2020 Nommo Awards for Speculative Fiction by Africans have been announced. The Nommo Awards are presented…
[Conversation Issue] ‘Dispossession is the backdrop to every South African story’—Henrietta Rose-Innes in conversation with Gail Fincham about her forthcoming novel, Stone Plant
As part of our January Conversation Issue, Gail Fincham interviews Henrietta Rose-Innes about her work, including her forthcoming fifth novel,…
Fragments, explorations and variations—Jennifer Malec reviews Zadie Smith’s debut collection of short stories, Grand Union, her most American book to date
Zadie Smith, the accomplished, experimental New Yorker—The JRB Editor Jennifer Malec reviews Grand Union. Grand UnionZadie SmithHamish Hamilton, 2019 Read an…
‘More weirdness, more work that’s unconcerned with explaining “Africa” to the West, more work that doesn’t care what people think. More of that, please.’—An interview with Caine Prize winner Lesley Nneka Arimah
The JRB Editor Jennifer Malec interviews Lesley Nneka Arimah, winner of the 2019 Caine Prize for African Writing. Jennifer Malec for The…
[The JRB exclusive] Read an excerpt from Ungirls, a new disturbing and provocative story by Lauren Beukes [Plus: Sample the audiobook]
The JRB presents an excerpt from Ungirls, a new short story from Editorial Advisory Panel member Lauren Beukes. Ungirls is…
‘It’s an excavation of the darkest place in our species’—Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu interviews TC Farren about her new novel, The Book of Malachi
Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu, author of The Theory of Flight, interviewed novelist and screenwriter TC Farren on her latest work of…
‘We have entered the uncanny valley of literary realism’—Simon van Schalkwyk reviews Ian McEwan’s new novel Machines Like Me
In Machines Like Me, Ian McEwan appears to have offered us an alternative history that leads to the same dispiriting…
Monuments, ‘the remains of an alien civilisation which had now fled’—Read an excerpt from Masande Ntshanga’s new novel Triangulum
The JRB presents an excerpt from Triangulum, the new novel from Masande Ntshanga. Read an interview with Masande Ntshanga on Triangulum…
New short fiction: ‘Njuzu’ by TL Huchu, excerpted from the Pan-African science fiction anthology AfroSFv3
The JRB presents ‘Njuzu’, a new short story by TL Huchu, excerpted from AfroSFv3. AfroSFv3 Edited by Ivor W Hartmann…
A seminal catalyst of African speculative fiction—Thando Njovane shares three thoughts on Nnedi Okorafor’s Who Fears Death
Constructed around a feminist, though dystopian, future, Nnedi Okorafor’s novel Who Fears Death—now reissued some eight years after its first…
‘Afrofuturism is not for Africans living in Africa’—an essay by Mohale Mashigo, excerpted from her new collection of short stories, Intruders
The JRB presents ‘Afrofuturism: Ayashis’ Amateki’, an essay by Mohale Mashigo, which serves as the preface to her new collection…
‘It’s clearly more harrowing to be time travelling when black’—Imraan Coovadia chats to Jennifer Malec about his new spec-fic novel A Spy in Time
Award-winning author Imraan Coovadia chats to The JRB Editor Jennifer Malec about his new novel, A Spy in Time. A Spy…
‘Johannesburg, the first and last city of our century’: Read an exclusive excerpt from Imraan Coovadia’s new novel, A Spy in Time
Many case officers liked to take a tablet to turn white, believing that it made the job easier. I think…
[The JRB Daily] Henrietta Rose-Innes shortlisted for 2018 Nommo Award for her short story ‘Snake Story’, featured in The JRB
The African Speculative Fiction Society has announced the nominations for the 2018 Nommo Awards, including two stories by The JRB…
Those who migrate remake the places they arrive in: Wamuwi Mbao reviews Mohsin Hamid’s latest novel, Exit West
Mohsin Hamid’s new book, Exit West, is a work of speculative fiction that will be read as ‘The Great Migration…
‘I started writing the book in a fit of anger with Fees Must Fall activists’—Rehana Rossouw chats to Jennifer Malec about New Times
Rehana Rossouw’s critically acclaimed debut novel, What Will People Say?, was shortlisted for the 2015 Etisalat Prize for Literature, and won…
‘These were not men fighting, but corpses’—Read an excerpt from Marcus Low’s Asylum
Read an excerpt from Marcus Low’s debut novel Asylum—an existential thriller set in a quarantine facility in the arid Karoo—which…