Features

Helping new perspectives and worlds of experience be heard—Karin Schimke visits Paulet House, home of the Jakes Gerwel Foundation writer’s residency

The R335 curves around the eastern border of Addo Elephant Park and spools north through the cushiony green hills of…

Africa

[The JRB exclusive] ‘Over the months, we found more and more of Wayne’s drawings, those bundles of thin lines on the walls’—Read an excerpt from Namwali Serpell’s new novel The Furrows

The JRB presents an excerpt from The Furrows: An Elegy, the new novel from award-winning author Namwali Serpell. The FurrowsNamwali…

Book excerpts

[The JRB exclusive] ‘The first wound for all of us who are classified as “black” is empire’—Read an excerpt from Tsitsi Dangarembga’s new book Black and Female

The JRB presents an excerpt from Black and Female by Tsitsi Dangarembga. Black and FemaleTsitsi DangarembgaFaber & Faber, 2022 Read…

Book excerpts

‘I danced a saraband with my parents. Their love dissolved my old fear’—Read an excerpt from Abdourahman A Waberi’s award-winning novel Why Do You Dance When You Walk

The JRB presents an excerpt from Why Do You Dance When You Walk by Djiboutian novelist Abdourahman A Waberi, winner…

Biography & Memoir

‘I was an identity-less person at the mercy of apartheid officials’—Read an excerpt from Cleaner’s Boy: A Resistance Road to a Liberated Life by Patric Tariq Mellet

The JRB presents an excerpt from Patric Tariq Mellet’s autobiography Cleaner’s Boy: A Resistance Road to a Liberated Life. Cleaner’s…

Biography & Memoir

‘There was a heated discussion about me going to work for this “native” paper’—Read an excerpt from Freedom Writer, the memoir of legendary journalist Juby Mayet

The JRB presents an excerpt from Freedom Writer: My Life and Times by the late Juby Mayet. Freedom Writer: My…

Academic

[The JRB Daily] Shortlists announced for 2022 UJ Prizes for South African Writing in English (Plus: winners of Creative Writing in isiZulu and Sesotho sa Leboa, and Literary Translation)

The shortlists for the annual University of Johannesburg Prizes for South African Writing in English have been announced. The 2022…

Fiction

‘What happens when you have a crime committed against a person that never ever comes to an end?’—Margie Orford talks to Jennifer Malec about her new novel The Eye of the Beholder

The JRB Editor Jennifer Malec sat down with Margie Orford to talk about the challenges of writing about sexual violence, the politics…

Fiction

‘I think that it is important for every woman to claim the “nasty” in her’—Anna Stroud interviews Joy Watson on her debut novel, The Other Me

Anna Stroud chatted to Joy Watson about nasty women, how the markers of identity write themselves into our stories, and…

Interviews

‘Someone tried to break into my house while I was writing this book’—Christopher McMichael talks to mpho ndaba about his new book Shoot to Kill: Police and Power in South Africa

Christopher McMichael sat down with mpho ndaba to discuss violent policing, its historical origins, and his new book Shoot to…

Book excerpts

[The JRB exclusive] ‘All an educated African man could be in the City of Kings was a boy’—Read an excerpt from Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu’s new novel The Quality of Mercy

The JRB presents an excerpt from The Quality of Mercy, the new novel from award-winning writer Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu. The…

Biography & Memoir

‘He was determined to cement the Zulu language as a mighty force’—Read ‘The Last Word: Benedict Vilakazi’, excerpted from Wits University at 100

The JRB presents an excerpt from Wits University at 100: From Excavation to Innovation, a book that captures important moments…

Book excerpts

‘Her name belonged to another world, even though her body lived in ours’—Read an excerpt from Pulane Mlilo Mpondo’s debut novel Things My Mother Left Me

The JRB presents an excerpt from Things My Mother Left Me, the debut novel by Pulane Mlilo Mpondo. Things My…

Book excerpts

‘What do you think this crowd would do to a baby thief, if you were caught?’—Read an excerpt from Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi’s debut novel Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions

The JRB presents an excerpt from Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions: A Novel in Interlocking Stories, the debut novel from…