Moses Mtileni, 1983—2019, RIP
Writer and publisher Moses Nzama Khaizen Mtileni has died, at the age of thirty-six. Mtileni was shot and fatally wounded…
Category: Africa
[The JRB Daily] Nigerian writer Lesley Nneka Arimah wins the 2019 Caine Prize—‘We African writers must centre the African gaze’
Lesley Nneka Arimah has won the twentieth edition of the Caine Prize for African Writing for her short story ‘Skinned’….
[The JRB Daily] 2018 Short Story Day Africa shortlist announced—‘we’ve never seen such a photo finish’
The shortlist for the Short Story Day Africa Prize for Short Fiction has been announced. The JRB is delighted that our regular…
The Johannesburg Review of Books Vol. 3, Issue 7
Jacob Dlamini • Lauren Beukes • Mphuthumi Ntabeni • Wamuwi Mbao • Zanta Nkumane • TC Farren • Siphiwe Gloria…
[Sponsored] Read an excerpt from The Enforcers, revealing a brazen plot to assassinate Nelson Mandela at his inauguration
Jonathan Ball Publishers has shared an excerpt from The Enforcers: Inside Cape Town’s Deadly Nightclub Battles by Caryn Dolley. Find out more…
How to write beautifully about our horrible, hysterical present—Jennifer Malec reviews Ali Smith’s new novel, Spring
The JRB Editor Jennifer Malec reviews Spring, the third book in Ali Smith’s Seasonal Quartet, a strange beast. SpringAli SmithHamish Hamilton, 2019…
‘I was trying to catch an echo of a memory I never experienced’—Mphuthumi Ntabeni chats to Zoë August about his novel, The Broken River Tent
Zoë August discusses The Broken River Tent, the rise of the African historical novel, and African literature’s trajectory in general,…
‘To know the African wild was to know the African subject’—What training as a field guide taught Jacob Dlamini about culture, nature, power and race
The JRB presents a new essay by Jacob Dlamini. For Dlamini, what began as a research project on the labour…
[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…
‘I always tell myself, this might be the last time that I am performing’—Kagayi Ngobi chats to James Murua about his protest poetry (Plus: Read two of his poems)
Ugandan writer Kagayi Ngobi was the featured artist at the June 2019 edition of the Artistic Encounters series at the…
[The JRB exclusive] ‘No Speaking Vernacular! (Woloolo)’, a poem by Kagayi Ngobi
The JRB presents ‘No Speaking Vernacular! (Woloolo)’ by Ugandan poet Kagayi Ngobi in its complete form. Read about Ngobi and…
New poetry by Robin Moger—Two versions of ‘Poem Six’ from The Interpreter of Desires by Ibn Arabi
The following two translations are responses to the sixth poem in The Interpreter of Desires, a cycle of sixty-one poems…
[Photo Editor] Original portraits of Ahmed Essop and Don Mattera by Victor Dlamini
Victor Dlamini is The JRB’s Photo Editor. We feature his work on our Instagram channel. Visit the ten-year retrospective of…
‘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…
[City Editor] Niq Mhlongo laments the caprice—and celebrates the excitement—of literary awards, and shares his own bittersweet experience
City Editor Niq Mhlongo, having just won his first South African prize, shares his gripes and observations on that strange…
Nigerian writer Elnathan John wins 2019 Prix Les Afriques for the French translation of his novel Born on a Tuesday
Nigerian novelist Elnathan John and his French translator Céline Schwaller have been awarded the Prix Les Afriques for Né un…
[The JRB Daily] Download Short Story Day Africa’s anthology ID for free and celebrate the shortest day of the year with dynamic African short fiction
Short Story Day Africa is celebrating the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year in the Southern Hemisphere, with…
[The JRB Daily] The mysterious demise of the 9mobile/Etisalat Prize for Literature—the world’s biggest Pan-African book award
Sharp-eyed book lovers will have noticed that the winner of the 2018 9mobile Prize—one of literature’s most important international awards—has…
[The JRB Daily] Novuyo Rosa Tshuma’s debut novel House of Stone shortlisted for inaugural Orwell Prize for Political Fiction
The shortlists for the Orwell Prizes, which aim to ‘make political writing into an art’, have been announced. Zimbabwean writer…
[The JRB Daily] Koleka Putuma’s Collective Amnesia announced as winner of the 2018 Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry
Koleka Putuma has won the African Poetry Book Fund’s 2018 Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry, for her collection Collective…
[The JRB Daily] ‘Globally inspiring’ NB Publishers wins AAP International Freedom to Publish Award for Jacques Pauw’s book The President’s Keepers
NB Publishers has been awarded the prestigious AAP International Freedom to Publish Award for Jacques Pauw’s book The President’s Keepers. The…
The Johannesburg Review of Books Vol. 3, Issue 6
Binyavanga Wainaina • Esi Edugyan • Henrietta Rose-Innes • Masande Ntshanga • OluTimehin Adegbeye • Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu • Simon van…
[The JRB exclusive] ‘PS. Everybody calls me Binyavanga these days.’ Read Binyavanga Wainaina’s letter to his late mother, from the 2016 exhibition Inside: Artists and Writers in Reading Prison
In 2016, the late Binyavanga Wainaina contributed a piece of writing to a United Kingdom-based art project titled Inside: Artists and…
[The JRB exclusive] ‘It is a loss of privacy that has the greatest ability to destroy an artist’—Esi Edugyan, excerpted from New Daughters of Africa
The JRB presents an excerpt from New Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Writing by Women of African Descent,…
Wider than the Black Atlantic—Bongani Madondo listens in on Kwame Brathwaite’s visual sounds of Blackness, from the photo book Black Is Beautiful
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…
‘South Africa’s dystopian future could easily be imagined through its dystopian past’—Masande Ntshanga chats to Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu about his new novel, Triangulum
Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu, author of The Theory of Flight, sat down with Masande Ntshanga to discuss his new novel, Triangulum….
[The JRB exclusive] Read ‘Mothers and Men’, OluTimehin Adegbeye’s Gerald Kraak Prize-winning essay, a sensitive chronicle of rape, secondary victimisation and motherhood
The JRB is proud to present ‘Mothers and Men’, OluTimehin Adegbeye’s Gerald Kraak Prize-winning essay. The Heart of the Matter The Gerald Kraak…
[Temporary Sojourner] Efemia Chela travels to Sudan with Rania Mamoun’s newly translated collection of short stories, Thirteen Months of Sunrise
The JRB Francophone and Contributing Editor Efemia Chela travels to Sudan with Rania Mamoun’s debut collection of short stories, Thirteen Months of Sunrise,…
[Photo Editor] Original portraits of Binyavanga Wainaina by Victor Dlamini
Victor Dlamini is The JRB’s Photo Editor. We feature his work on our Instagram channel. Visit the ten-year retrospective of…
Remember the African Renaissance? Adekeye Adebajo reviews Building Blocks Towards an African Century: Essays in Honour of Thabo Mbeki, which shines a partial light on presidential ambition and influence
Celebrating Africa’s Philosopher-King—Adekeye Adebajo reviews Building Blocks Towards an African Century: Essays in Honour of Thabo Mbeki. Building Blocks Towards an…
[City Editor] The Binj outside books—Niq Mhlongo recounts adventures with his friend, Binyavanga Wainaina
Header image: Binyavanga Wainaina (second from left) and Niq Mhlongo (far left), with American author and academic Jeffery Renard Allen, Lesego…
[The JRB exclusive] Read an excerpt from ‘Limerence’, a short story from Henrietta Rose-Innes’s new book Animalia Paradoxa
The JRB is pleased to present an excerpt from Animalia Paradoxa, the new collection of short stories by The JRB Contributing…
Two poems by Harry Owen
The Johannesburg Review of Books presents two poems by Harry Owen. ~~~ Children of Israel I stroll down Donkin Street with Billy…
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…
‘I didn’t seem to exist. It felt easier that way’—Es’kia Mphahlele. Read an excerpt from Like Family: Domestic Workers in South African History and Literature
The JRB presents an extract from Like Family: Domestic Workers in South African History and Literature, by Ena Jansen. Like…
Cameroonian author Djaïli Amadou Amal wins €10,000 Prix Orange du livre en Afrique for her novel Munyal, les larmes de la patience
Munyal, les larmes de la patience by Cameroonian author Djaïli Amadou Amal has won the first Prix Orange du livre…
Binyavanga Wainaina, 1971–2019, RIP
Kenyan author and activist Binyavanga Wainaina has died, at the age of forty-eight. Wainaina passed away at 10 pm on…
[The JRB Daily] 2019 Writivism Short Story Prize and Koffi Addo Prize for Creative Non-fiction shortlists announced
The shortlists for the 2019 Writivism Short Story Prize and the Koffi Addo Prize for Creative Non-fiction have been announced….
[The JRB Daily] 2019 Caine Prize for African Writing shortlist announced, featuring stories that tackle ‘the ordinary in an extraordinary manner’
The shortlist for the twentieth edition of the Caine Prize for African Writing has been announced, featuring writers from Cameroon, Ethiopia,…
[The JRB Daily] Call for submissions from African writers: The Nalubaale Review, a literary magazine based in Uganda
The Nalubaale Review, a literary magazine based in Uganda, is calling for submissions of short stories, poems, essays, journals and photography…