[The JRB Daily] [Exclusive] ‘It’s worse than most people think’—Zinzi Clemmons on Junot Díaz and literature’s latest #MeToo moment
Author Zinzi Clemmons, who is in Johannesburg on a book tour, sat down with The JRB Editor Jennifer Malec today…
Category: South Africa
The Johannesburg Review of Books Vol. 2, Issue 5 (May 2018)
Welcome to the fifth issue of Volume 2 of The Johannesburg Review of Books—our first birthday issue! The inaugural issue…
Banishing the white gaze—Ntombizikhona Valela reflects on Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s literary legacy
Ntombizikhona Valela considers two very different books, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s 491 Days: Prisoner Number 1323/69 and Anne Marie du Preez Bezdrob’s…
Historical fiction is back—with a fire in its belly: Fred Khumalo reflects on how writing can be a powerful tool for an activist
Fred Khumalo, whose most recent novel is Dancing the Death Drill, believes past narratives can help shape what is to…
[Photo Editor] Gallery and video: Remembering Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, 13 and 14 April 2018
Victor Dlamini is The JRB’s Photo Editor. We feature his work on our Instagram channel. Don’t miss the ten-year retrospective…
‘We can’t complain about people not buying our books when we aren’t writing for them’: Jennifer Malec chats to bestselling author Dudu Busani-Dube
Dudu Busani-Dube, author of the wildly popular Hlomu series, chats to The JRB Editor Jennifer Malec. Zulu Wedding Dudu Busani-Dube…
Read an excerpt from Sindiswa Busuku-Mathese’s poetry collection Loud and Yellow Laughter, winner of the 2018 Ingrid Jonker Prize
The JRB is proud to present four poems from Sindiswa Busuku-Mathese’s collection Loud and Yellow Laughter (Botsotso, 2016), winner of…
[City Editor] Hardly working under the apricot tree in Harare: Niq Mhlongo reports back from his joint book tour with Zukiswa Wanner
The JRB City Editor Niq Mhlongo traveled to Harare recently, for two joint book launches with Zukiswa Wanner. Don’t miss…
In search of a better ending for Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma: Adekeye Adebajo reviews Woman in the Wings by Carien du Plessis
Adekeye Adebajo reviews Woman in the Wings by Carien du Plessis, offering concluding reflections on Agenda 2063, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma’s dubious…
View from the privileged heights of the JIAS Castle: Zukiswa Wanner and Niq Mhlongo reflect on their writing fellowship
The JRB City Editor Niq Mhlongo and Zukiswa Wanner have both just published new books—Soweto, Under the Apricot Tree and…
Two new poems by Karen Jennings
The Johannesburg Review of Books presents previously unpublished poetry by Karen Jennings. ~~~ Nella We were both teaching then and more than…
Decolonisation is generating your own knowledge and understandings: Tawana Kupe discusses the new Wits-based African Centre for the Study of the United States
The African Centre for the Study of the United States (ACSUS), a new research centre based at Wits University, Johannesburg,…
New short fiction: ‘Gutting Instincts’ by Jarred Thompson
The JRB presents a new short story by Jarred Thompson. Gutting Instincts The ocean had always been a second skin…
Honouring literary stalwarts in their lifetime: Gcina Mhlophe and Sindiwe Magona celebrated for their contribution to children’s literature (including exclusive John Kani video)
Authors are sometimes only properly appreciated after they are gone, but Gcina Mhlophe and Sindiwe Magona are two writers who…
[The JRB Daily] Panashe Chigumadzi reflects on Zimbabwe’s ‘coup that was not a coup’ in her new book, These Bones Will Rise Again
Panashe Chigumadzi’s new book, These Bones Will Rise Again, will be out from United Kingdom-based independent publisher The Indigo Press in June….
[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…
[The JRB Daily] Exclusive to The JRB: ‘I’m going to market the hell out of our stories’—Zukiswa Wanner reveals the details of her new Africa-focused publishing company, Paivapo
Zukiswa Wanner is starting her own publishing company, with a focus on marketing and selling books throughout Africa. Wanner will launch…
[The JRB Daily] Sindiswa Busuku-Mathese wins 2018 Ingrid Jonker Prize for her debut collection Loud and Yellow Laughter
Sindiswa Busuku-Mathese has been announced as the winner of the 2018 Ingrid Jonker Prize for English Poetry, for her 2016 collection Loud…
[The JRB Daily] ‘None But Ourselves’—Percy Zvomuya charts the sonic cartography of a revolution in the new Chimurenga Chronic: ‘The Invention of Zimbabwe’
Image: Bob Marley performing at the Zimbabwe Independence celebration, Rufaro Stadium, Harare, 18 April 1980 The new issue of Chimurenga’s…
[The JRB Daily] Yewande Omotoso shortlisted for ‘world’s richest annual literary prize’—the International Dublin Literary Award
The shortlist has been announced for the 2018 International Dublin Literary Award, the world’s most valuable annual literary prize for a single…
The Johannesburg Review of Books Vol. 2, Issue 4 (April 2018)
Welcome to the fourth issue of Volume 2 of The Johannesburg Review of Books. In our April 2018 edition, we’re…
‘Imagination is everything’: Paul Gilroy chats to The JRB about race, land and South Africa’s role in overthrowing the racial order
The JRB’s Academic Editor Simon van Schalkwyk spoke to UK academic, historian and philosopher Paul Gilroy, who was in Johannesburg…
‘The argument between Beauty and, perhaps, War’: William Kentridge and Denis Hirson in conversation in Johannesburg
Artist William Kentridge and author Denis Hirson appeared in a public conversation at the Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, in February, to…
‘My main objective is still to help build a bigger reader base of fiction in this country and beyond’—Nozizwe Cynthia Jele chats to Jennifer Malec about her new book, The Ones with Purpose
Editorial Advisory Panel member Nozizwe Cynthia Jele chatted to The JRB Editor Jennifer Malec about her new novel, The Ones with Purpose, which…
The hidden history of an ordinary umZulu woman who asserted her freedom—Makhosazana Xaba reviews Nomavenda Mathiane’s Eyes in the Night: An Untold Zulu Story
Nomavenda Mathiane’s Eyes in the Night: An Untold Zulu Story illuminates the times, spaces and voices in-between, writes The JRB…
Africanism and Afrofuturism: Imraan Coovadia considers Blackness, Black Panther and Achille Mbembe’s Critique of Black Reason
Achille Mbembe’s vision is a guide to the revolution that stands on the other side of revolution, writes Imraan Coovadia. Critique…
[Audio] It’s a writer’s life: That hilarious time Zukiswa Wanner encountered her own book in a Joburg taxi
Zukiswa Wanner launched her latest book, Hardly Working: A Travel Memoir of Sorts, in Johannesburg at African Flavour Books recently, in…
Two new poems by Sarah Johnson
The Johannesburg Review of Books presents previously unpublished poetry by Sarah Johnson. Sixth sense Over a decade, your nerves…
[Photo Editor] Two original portraits of Natalia Molebatsi by Victor Dlamini
Victor Dlamini is The JRB’s Photo Editor. We feature his work on our Instagram channel. He made these portraits of…
Home is better than this place: Read an exclusive excerpt from Nozizwe Cynthia Jele’s forthcoming novel, The Ones with Purpose
Nozizwe Cynthia Jele’s new novel, The Ones with Purpose, will be out on 20 April, 2018. The Ones with Purpose Nozizwe…
[City Editor] Niq Mhlongo: Spinach, under my own apricot tree
Since the publication of City Editor Niq Mhlongo’s latest work of short stories, Soweto, Under the Apricot Tree, it has…
Letter: Christine Chiosi on the ‘discomfort’ and ‘estrangement’ of Wamuwi Mbao’s report from an exhibition of JM Coetzee’s boyhood photographs
This is an edited version of a letter The JRB received, from Christine Chiosi, in response to the essay by…
[The JRB Daily] 2018 Alan Paton Award for Non-fiction longlist announced
The 2018 Sunday Times Literary Awards longlists have been announced! The awards celebrate ‘the best of South African non-fiction and…
[The JRB Daily] 2018 Barry Ronge Fiction Prize longlist announced
The 2018 Sunday Times Literary Awards longlists have been announced! The awards celebrate ‘the best of South African non-fiction and…
‘I am me; I am black; I must be proud of my blackness.’—Read an excerpt from Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s memoir, 491 Days: Prisoner Number 1323/69
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela has died in Johannesburg at the age of eighty-one. Read an excerpt from her prison journal, published in 2013,…
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, 1936–2018, RIP
Nomzamo Winifred Zanyiwe Madikizela-Mandela, the iconic, controversial South African activist known as ‘the Mother of the Nation’ and, more simply, as…
[The JRB Daily] Former Caine Prize director Lizzy Attree joins Short Story Day Africa
Lizzy Attree has joined the board of Short Story Day Africa. Attree stepped down as the director of the Caine Prize for…
[The JRB Daily] Queer Africa 2, edited by Makhosazana Xaba and Karen Martin, announced as a 2018 Lambda Literary Awards finalist
Queer Africa 2: New Stories, a short story collection edited by The JRB Patron Makhosazana Xaba and Karen Martin, has…
The Johannesburg Review of Books Vol. 2, Issue 3 (March 2018)
Welcome to the third issue of Volume 2 of The Johannesburg Review of Books. In our March 2018 edition, hot…
‘In looking behind us the way forward may become clear’—Perfect Hlongwane reviews The Land Is Ours by Tembeka Ngcukaitobi
The Land is Ours is Tembeka Ngcukaitobi’s first book, and it must not be his last, writes Perfect Hlongwane. The…