Wamuwi Mbao imagines a serial adaptation of Angela Makholwa’s Black Widow Society, a sleekly executed interpretation of HJ Golakai’s The Lazarus…
Fred Khumalo recalls being swept off his feet by Alan Paton, the African Writers Series and James Hadley Chase. It’s a question…
Two problems are gnawing at my heart as we leave Dar es Salaam to Morogoro on the Sunday afternoon of…
Two weeks before the end of our JIAS Fellowship, Niq Mhlongo and I decided that as we had been to…
Author Siphiwo Mahala gave gave his inaugural postdoctoral address last night at the Market Theatre, Johannesburg, as part of a…
Ugandan author Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi visited Wits University in August, for a discussion around her debut novel, Kintu. Kintu Jennifer…
About five months ago a very close friend of mine invited me to his wedding. His big day was Saturday,…
VS Naipaul, who died aged eighty-five on Saturday, spent some months in South Africa in 2009, researching his final book….
A major change is happening on the South African literary landscape, and it has its roots in the formation of…
‘Johannesburg is a fragmented city. It is not a place of smoothly integrated parts. And it has a name that…
The Swedish Academy, responsible for awarding the Nobel Prize in Literature, is currently being rocked by a sexual abuse and…
Image: Bob Marley performing at the Zimbabwe Independence celebration, Rufaro Stadium, Harare, 18 April 1980 The new issue of Chimurenga’s…
TO Molefe believes Raoul Peck should have claimed I Am Not Your Negro as a new, original work, not as James…
An exhibition of JM Coetzee’s newly discovered childhood photography was recently held in Cape Town. Wamuwi Mbao was there. With…
Ta-Nehisi Coates is not the voice of black people—and, crucially, neither does he aspire to be, writes Kibo Ngowi. We…
Elinor Sisulu shared this tribute to South Africa’s Poet Laureate Keorapetse ‘Bra Willie’ Kgositsile, who died on the third of…
The JRB Photo Editor Victor Dlamini interviewed South African Poet Laureate Keorapetse ‘Bra Willie’ Kgositsile back in 2008. Listen to the…
Nthikeng Mohlele honours South African National Poet Laureate Keorapetse ‘Bra Willie’ Kgositsile, who passed away in January. A Person of…
The JRB’s Editor takes a look back at 2017 and picks out the single work that left the biggest impression….
Since our launch in May, we have published eight issues of reviews, interviews, essays, poetry, photography and short fiction. From…
Childhood photographs by JM Coetzee are currently on exhibition at the Irma Stern Gallery in Cape Town. The exhibition, titled…
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o is odds-on favourite to win the Nobel Prize in Literature this week. The JRB’s Editor Jennifer Malec…
When New York’s pout-fully punk weekly, The Village Voice, announced the end of its print issue last month, Gotham City…
The perfect tragic vision of love and collective violence: Francophone & Contributing Editor Efemia Chela travels to Sierra Leone by reading Aminatta…
Niq Mhlongo reveals what to see and do for the complete experience of Soweto. Of all the entrance points into Soweto,…
The JRB’s City Editor Niq Mhlongo takes some time out from sitting under his apricot tree in Soweto to visit…
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….
‘Let’s meet at 5 pm at the Big Clock.’ My host Olivier Moreillon’s words are ringing in my head as…
Binyavanga Wainaina spoke eloquently about his writing career and his life, and how the two are intertwined, at Wits University…
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has been named one of the nouvelle héroïnes of literature by the French newspaper and veritable institution,…
‘In the US we have just elected a government committed to white supremacy. Tonight I wanted to talk about what…
Having been here for three weeks now, I think it should be considered an act of blasphemy to describe or…
The JRB brings you an exclusive excerpt from a work in progress by Deejay Manaleng, which tells the story of…
One morning at the beginning of February 2009 I was approached by Indra Wussow, founder and curator of The Sylt…
The Argonauts Maggie Nelson Graywolf Press 2016 Actually, no one is inspired by anyone except his own self and his…
