fiction

South African literature

An overview of the main currents in South African literature, from Olive Schreiner's depiction of life on isolated Karoo farms to more recent work...

A Thousand Tales of Johannesburg, a city like no other

The spell-binding new novel by South African playwright and author Harry Kalmer, A Thousand Tales of Johannesburg, describes Africa’s greatest city as a living, breathing...

South African author Ivan Vladislavić wins Yale’s Windham-Campbell prize for fiction

Ivan Vladislavić, the writer and editor, has won the Yale University Windham-Campbell Prize for fiction. The cash it brings will allow him "to pursue my own work in a way that's never been possible before", says the Wits University professor.

Starry-eyed under a Shared Sky

Indigenous astronomy in the southern hemisphere colourfully blurs the lines between fact and fiction; ancient humans used the stars scientifically to track seasons and navigate, but also wove magical myths about the origins of the universe based on the shining spheres. The Shared Sky exhibition captures these stories in handmade quilts and textiles.

International Literacy Day promotes understanding

As the world commemorates International Literacy Day, the Department of Education proposes changes to its language policies, making it compulsory to learn an African language at school.

South African literature on stage

A colloquium on South African literature, "Writing South Africa Now: Twenty Years On", is planned for Britain's University of York. The diversity of voices in the country and how they have reflected on the complex changes and continuities in writing and literary studies over the past 20 years will be under discussion.

Cape Town gets a literary nod

The list of finalists for the Man Booker International Prize will be announced in the Mother City next March, in another feather in the cap for the city on the mountain. It will be the first time the list is announced in Africa.