The following is an edited excerpt from a work in progress by American author Adam Smyer, whose debut novel, Knucklehead,…
A significant first step in documenting the life writing of black Zimbabwean women—The JRB Contributing Editor Panashe Chigumadzi reviews Township Girls:…
This August marks one hundred years since the birth of Noni Jabavu. Makhosazana Xaba reflects on the life of this…
The shortlists for the 2019 Sunday Times Literary Awards have been revealed! The duo of awards—the Alan Paton Award for…
In 2016, the late Binyavanga Wainaina contributed a piece of writing to a United Kingdom-based art project titled Inside: Artists and…
The JRB presents an extract from Like Family: Domestic Workers in South African History and Literature, by Ena Jansen. Like…
City Editor Niq Mhlongo finds a cautionary tale in an interaction with one of his (heretofore unknown) international publishers. In…
The longlists for the 2019 Sunday Times Literary Awards have been revealed! The duo of awards—the Alan Paton Award for…
In this excerpt from his forthcoming book on non-fiction in South African literature, Experiments with Truth, Hedley Twidle revisits Dugmore…
Kigali-based Huza Press has just released the English translation of Yolande Mukagasana’s Not My Time To Die, translated by Zoe Norridge….
Header image: Book cover (left); and Sobukwe, inside the grounds of Orlando Police Station, awaiting arrest, on the morning of 21…
The JRB Poetry Editor Rustum Kozain reviews David Austin’s new book Dread Poetry and Freedom: Linton Kwesi Johnson and the Unfinished Revolution, finding…
Lebohang Mojapelo reviews Ngũgĩ: Reflections on His Life of Writing, a collection of essays that reflects on the life and work of Ngũgĩ…
The JRB presents an excerpt from Vintage Love and Other Essays by Jolyon Nuttall. Vintage Love Jolyon Nuttall Jacana Media, 2018 …
The JRB presents an excerpt from Stones Against the Mirror, the memoir of journalist, author and anti-apartheid activist Hugh Lewin,…
Journalist, author and anti-apartheid activist Hugh Lewin has died, aged seventy-nine. Lewin passed away at his home in Killarney, Johannesburg…
As part of our January Conversation Issue, Emmanuel Iduma, author of A Stranger’s Pose, in conversation with writer and photographer Lidudumalingani….
As part of our January Conversation Issue, The JRB Contributing Editor Efemia Chela chats to Chike Frankie Edozien about his memoir, Lives of Great…
As Bongani Madondo experienced tinges of nostalgia occasioned by the twentieth anniversary of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, HipHop Feminist…
A giant of black feminist writing and thought, Maryse Condé was recently awarded the New Academy Prize in Literature, a…
After a pleasant day that perhaps included a light lunch in Hotel Zator, they would write postcards to family or…
Aminatta Forna sat down with The JRB Editor Jennifer Malec at the Open Book Festival in Cape Town to talk about her new novel,…
Flares exploded in the sky. Stun grenades fired into the water. From the dunes came a volley of gunshots. It…
The winners have been announced for the University of Johannesburg Prizes for South African Writing in English for works published in…
The 2018 South African Literary Awards shortlists have been announced, with nominees including Malebo Sephodi, Nick Mulgrew, Kelwyn Sole and…
The shortlists for the 2017 University of Johannesburg Prizes for South African Writing in English have been announced. Unlike most…
VS Naipaul, who died aged eighty-five on Saturday, spent some months in South Africa in 2009, researching his final book….
‘History is created in the mouth …’ Novuyo Rosa Tshuma and The JRB Contributing Editor Panashe Chigumadzi both have new…
Torn for so long between anxiety and awe at the idolisation of Nelson Mandela, The JRB Contributing Editor Bongani Madondo…
Chigumadzi’s exploration of personal, family and national history reincarnates in stark, vivid images, many of those interred in the shadows…
The JRB is proud to present an excerpt from Africa’s Cause Must Triumph: The Collected Writings of AP Mda. Africa’s Cause…
This July marks the sixtieth anniversary of the publication of Chinua Achebe’s seminal novel Things Fall Apart. Lebohang Mojapelo reviews…
The JRB Francophone and Contributing Editor Efemia Chela reviews Not One Day, Anne Garréta’s memoir and the second of her books to be…
‘I dedicate this win to my mother and my father, who never went to school. It just shows what…
The JRB City Editor Niq Mhlongo reviews Clinton Chauke’s debut book, Born in Chains: The Diary of an Angry ‘Born Free’. Born…
Pwaangulongii Dauod has won the R25 000 Gerald Kraak Award, which honours African writing and photography that ‘provokes thought on the…
The shortlists for this year’s Sunday Times Literary Awards have been announced! The Alan Paton Award for Non-fiction and the…
Ntombizikhona Valela considers two very different books, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s 491 Days: Prisoner Number 1323/69 and Anne Marie du Preez Bezdrob’s…
Adekeye Adebajo reviews Woman in the Wings by Carien du Plessis, offering concluding reflections on Agenda 2063, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma’s dubious…
Panashe Chigumadzi’s new book, These Bones Will Rise Again, will be out from United Kingdom-based independent publisher The Indigo Press in June….
