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…
Category: Africa
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…
[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…
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…
[Photo Editor] Two original portraits by Victor Dlamini: Binyavanga Wainaina and Niq Mhlongo
Victor Dlamini is The JRB’s Photo Editor. We feature his work on our Instagram channel. ~~~ Author Binyavanga Wainaina, photographed…
Exclusive to The JRB: Listen to Leye Adenle read from Easy Motion Tourist
Easy Motion Tourist Leye Adenle Cassava Republic Press/Pan Macmillan South Africa 2016 The JRB recorded this reading by Leye Adenle…
Spectacular collisions of perspectives in Grace A Musila’s A Death Retold in Truth and Rumour: Kenya, Britain and the Julie Ward Murder
A Death Retold in Truth and Rumour: Kenya, Britain and the Julie Ward Murder Grace A Musila James Currey 2015…
Sailing with The Argonauts: A personal history of Christmas, queerness and Maggie Nelson by Efemia Chela
The Argonauts Maggie Nelson Graywolf Press 2016 Actually, no one is inspired by anyone except his own self and his…
Facing up to a techno-feudal world: Richard Poplak reviews Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future
Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future Martin Ford Oneworld 2016 The robots are coming….
Sudanese author Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin wins Prix du livre engagé de la Cène Littéraire for his novel Le Messie du Darfour
Congratulations are in order: Sudanese author Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin’s novel Le Messie du Darfour has won the 2017 Prix du livre engagé…
New short fiction from Short Story Day Africa: ‘Things We Found North of the Sunset’ by Aba Asibon
Exclusive to The JRB, new short fiction from Aba Asibon, courtesy of Short Story Day Africa. Short Story Day Africa’s…
Welcome to The Johannesburg Review of Books
It gives me great pleasure to introduce The Johannesburg Review of Books, a new literary review from southern Africa. Our…