Exclusive to The JRB, new short fiction from Ntsika Gogwana, excerpted from Trade Secrets, the new Short Sharp Stories anthology. Gogwana’s story,…
Since August, Congolese-French author Alain Mabanckou has been posting enigmatic pictures and tweeting with the hashtag #RevolutionBassinDuCongo (samples below). Known…
Radio France Internationale’s series of radio plays of contemporary Francophone literature, « Ça va, ça va le monde ! »…
Main image: Mpho Mokgadi This month’s cover image comes from UP UP: Stories of Johannesburg’s Highrises. UP UP: Stories of Johannesburg’s…
Phil Bonner, leading historian and Africanist scholar, passed away in Johannesburg on Sunday, 24 September, aged seventy-two. Bonner was Professor…
As part of the programme for an international congress on ‘The work of John Maxwell Coetzee in Latin America’, JM…
The fifth issue of The Johannesburg Review of Books has arrived—possibly our best edition yet. Before we dive in, we…
The JRB Academic Editor Simon van Schalkwyk spoke to Paul Beatty, whose novel The Sellout won the 2016 Man Booker…
When Steve Biko entered the courtroom in Pretoria in 1974 as a star witness in the trial of nine student…
Charles van Onselen’s new book offers a gripping narrative, a witty voice dripping with matchless sarcasm, and unparalleled knowledge of…
Petina Gappah sat down with The JRB contributor Bongani Kona. Gappah is a Zimbabwean writer with law degrees from Cambridge, Graz…
Sabata-Mpho Mokae, Dudu Busani-Dube, Helen Moffett, Rehana Rossouw and Malebo Sephodi recently featured on a panel discussing how to decolonise…
bottle i think of the room, the way it separated into definite things…
The JRB is honoured to present a selection of Victor Dlamini’s finest photographs, spanning 2007 to 2017. Publisher’s note: I…
For the month of September, Jonathan Ball Publishers will be giving away one book a day on Twitter. Jonathan Ball…
In his three books on Africa–China relations, Howard W French’s thinking is robust—sometimes forcefully so—and yet fundamentally respectful. A…
In the late nineteen-seventies, James Baldwin encountered an ‘extraordinary and illuminating’ Rhodesian book, which influenced his thought around black rage…
This is an an edited excerpt of a longer essay appearing in Panashe Chigumadzi’s forthcoming book, provisionally titled Beautiful Hair…
Despite a tone of hopelessness, Salman Rushdie’s latest novel The Golden House carries majesty, from its prose to its world-weary gaze….
Exclusive to The JRB, an excerpt from Achmat Dangor’s newly released novel, Dikeledi. Dangor, a political activist and award-winning author,…
The JRB’s City Editor Niq Mhlongo takes some time out from sitting under his apricot tree in Soweto to visit…
Victor Dlamini is The JRB’s Photo Editor. We feature his work on our Instagram channel. Don’t miss the ten-year retrospective of his…
The French-language literary tradition distinguishes between ‘French’ or ‘hexagonal’ literature, written by authors born in France (the hexagon), and ‘Francophone’…
Mauritian author Ananda Devi’s Eve Out of Her Ruins has been highly lauded since appearing in English, in late 2016,…
The winners of the English Academy of Southern Africa Awards for writing have been announced. Geoffrey Haresnape will receive the Thomas…
Main image: Bongani Madondo photographed by JRB Photo Editor Victor Dlamini To celebrate their seventh anniversary, Brittle Paper recently launched the…
18 August 2017 is the thirtieth anniversary of the death of Zimbabwean writer Dambudzo Marechera. He would have been sixty-five….
The fourth issue of The Johannesburg Review of Books has arrived—and not a moment too soon, in our humble opinion….
Take me to the memory of my grandmother’s hands I want to bathe in her voice and remember how…
What We Lose Zinzi Clemmons Fourth Estate, 2017 Memory itself is an internal rumour —George Santayana But most of…
Dance of the Jakaranda Peter Kimani Akashic Books, 2017 Two Europeans exchange confidences on a train travelling through the Great Rift…
Jonathan Ball Publishers has shared an excerpt from The Fifth Mrs Brink, Karina M Szczurek’s soul-baring memoirs of her life before,…
It is The JRB’s pleasure to publish, for the first time, two new poems by Francine Simon. ~ ~ ~…
Africa has a language problem. We don’t read enough in our indigenous languages, and we don’t read in the same…
Reflecting Rogue is the much anticipated and brilliant collection of experimental autobiographical essays on power, pleasure and South African culture by…
Victor Dlamini is The JRB’s Photo Editor. We feature his work on our Instagram channel. ~~~ Sisonke Msimang, photographed by Victor Dlamini…
‘Let’s meet at 5 pm at the Big Clock.’ My host Olivier Moreillon’s words are ringing in my head as…
Pan Macmillan South Africa is publishing three books this year to honour the life and work of Steve Biko. The…
Binyavanga Wainaina spoke eloquently about his writing career and his life, and how the two are intertwined, at Wits University…
There is a black-and-white portrait of Dambudzo Marechera, taken in Harare in 1986 by the Dutch photographer Ernst Schade, that…
