Monthly Archives: September 2013

The futures of books

Sarah Duff reports on recent discussions on the evolution of the novel and the culture of reading.

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Zakes Mda reads from ‘Sometimes There Is a Void: Memoirs of an Outsider’

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Writing after Apartheid

Jeanne-Marie Jackson reports on a conversation between Jonny Steinberg and Zoë Wicomb, both winners of the Windham Campbell Literature Prizes.

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Amakwerekwere/queer

What does it mean to be African, to be queer, and to be an African creative writer? These are the questions addressed in ‘Queer Africa’, a new anthology of creative short fiction.

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People see you and they see a whole continent

A dream-team of African writers struggles to break out of the continental box.

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Social healing starts with personal healing

Can poetry be an instrument for social change? Dawn Garisch speaks to poets and social activists Malika Ndlovu, Clinton Osbourne and Adrian Different Van Wyk at this year’s Open Book festival.

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It depends on who is looking

The 2013 Open Book festival ended on a high note, with bright young things NoViolet Bulawayo, Teju Cole, Tope Folarin and Mũkoma wa Ngũgĩ discussing the advantages of making a self.

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How to win the Caine prize

Tope Folarin shares his writing experience and recounts his journey to the Caine prize at the Open Book festival.

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Future writers

The Open Book festival launch of a new anthology by young writers raises questions of multilingualism and access to resources.

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Discursive curveballs

Teju Cole discusses his stylistic choices and the strangeness of fiction.

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Building a vision for 2078

Why, after 20 years, is it still necessary to write about what is wrong in South Africa?

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A life full of stories

The Open Book festival has been the launching pad for a number of books this year. Shaun Viljoen’s ‘Richard Rive: A Partial Biography’ got a head start at the District Six Museum.

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An untidy inheritance

Grace Musila and Pumla Gqola ponder the contradictions of living in a country that can both produce and be deeply unsettled by an artist like Simphiwe Dana.

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Mal oor misdaadfiksie

Hoekom die opbloei in Afrikaanse misdaadfiksie? Ettienne Bloemhof Deon Meyer, Ilza Roggeband, Karin Brynard en Kerneels Breytenbach bespreek die nuutste genre gier.

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They write what they like

Chantelle Gray van Heerden is troubled by the economically biased rhetoric of the Ramphele-Bikos at the Open Book festival.

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Playing victim

Niq Mhlongo reflects on his representation of a suppressed South African history in his latest novel, ‘Way Back Home’.

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A genre for all stories

Is there any story that crime fiction cannot tell? Find out what Mũkoma Wa Ngũgĩ, Ian Rankin and Angela Makholwa have to say on this topic.

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Any book festival audience’s dream

NoViolet Bulawayo knows ‘how to write about Africa’. Read all about the Man Booker prize shortlisted author’s appearance at the Open Book festival here.

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How to make a writer

Are creative writing courses really effective in schooling aspirant writers? Established writers grapple with this question at the Open Book festival.

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The heft and feel of real books

Rumours of the death of ‘real’ books appear to be greatly exaggerated, if the opinions at this Open Book festival conversation are anything to go by.

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Through the eyes of Teju Cole

Too much written about Lagos is written badly. Find out how Teju Cole manages his relation to this complex city.

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The many faces of feminism

Five panellists, five different feminisms. Wanjiru Koinange and Maria Geustyn reflect on what feminism means in South Africa.

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InZync vs. Naked Word

It was a face-off between InZync and Naked Word at the first Open Book Poetry Slam over the weekend. Find out who rules spoken word in Cape Town here.

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Future of Literature I: The Novel

Teju Cole, Imraan Coovadia and Henrietta Rose-Innes in conversation with Hedley Twidle, 8 September 2013, Fugard Annexe 1. KAVISH CHETTY In 1984, Fredric Jameson wrote of an “inverted millenarianism, in which premonitions of the future, catastrophic or redemptive, [had] been […]

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An Evening with Teju Cole and Yewande Omotoso

9 September 2013, UCT (in conjunction with the programme in Creative Writing) KAVISH CHETTY Teju Cole speaks of his latest visit to South Africa as one accompanied by the sense of “arriving in the aftermath of some great disaster”. This is […]

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Doffing our cap

Doffing Our Cap: André Brink, Sindiwe Magona, Mongane Wally Serote, 7 September 2013, Fugard.  KAVISH CHETTY “My writing stems from the exquisite agony of being South African”, says Sindiwe Magona. This kind of phrasing, one that draws on an embattled sense of […]

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Cornering crime in Cape Town

Crime fiction writers fighting over territory? Read Jonathan Amid’s report of this intimate exchange between Mike Nicol and Deon Meyer.

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