Our titles

Lindiwe Nkutha

In her debut collection of short stories, Lindiwe Nkutha takes us through the minds of people you may overlook on an ordinary day. Nkutha’s words weave in and around the weights we drag behind us from one place to another, with a sensitivity and wit required for such vulnerabilities and intimate moments.

Shanice Ndlovu

The stories in The Pride of Noonlay are crackling, lyrical, and controlled, and the worlds Ndlovu conjures are fascinating and vivid.

Lynn Joffe

A furiously funny, feminist take on the myth of the Wandering Jew. Wanda B. Lazarus freewheels through the ages relating her musically-charged, irreverent tales in her quest to become the tenth muse.

Jeannie McKeown

Fall Awake is a study in contrasts, exploring belonging and unbelonging; tracking the coming to terms with a fluid sexuality, and examining how relationships work or don’t work.

Barbara Adair

A man is travelling to Africa from Europe. And yet it is also about waiting - waiting for Africa.

Various authors

Compiled by Marike Beyers

An anthology of poems by poets previously published by Modjaji Books. A celebration of 15 years of poetry by southern African women.

Crystal Warren

In a series of tender, bite-sized poems on being a writer, loneliness, faith, patriarchy, climate change, grief, and more, Crystal Warren offers up an ode to the every day.

Various authors

Compiled by Arja Salafranca

An anthology of selected short stories, to celebrate 12 years of publishing short stories. All of the stories were previously published by Modjaji Books.

Joan Metelerkamp

In Making Way, Metelerkamp demonstrates once again her unrivaled command of a poetry of movement and process.

Olivia M. Coetzee

Innie Shadows wrestles with the demons of one community overcome with the social ills of drugs, bigotry and homophobia, where lives intersect through ruthless brutality. A pioneering work of fiction in which the dispossessed are finally telling their own stories.

Barbara Adair

IN TANGIER WE KILLED THE BLUE PARROT is a novel set in Morocco in the 1940s and weaves a story around the well-known writers, Paul and Jane Bowles. Paul was a composer and author of The Sheltering Sky, and Jane was the author of Two Serious Ladies.

Nedine Moonsamy

Seeking adventure during the school holidays, five teenagers from the Indian suburb of Lenasia accidentally witness a violent crime that has a lasting impact on their lives.

Tariro Ndoro

An honest exploration of dislocation and (un)belonging in its forms: exile from language, exile from country, and exile from sanity.

Jo-Ann Bekker

The 39 interlinked stories in Asleep Awake Asleep can be read as a hand-drawn narrative map, charting the course of a country’s turbulent history.

Hester van der Walt

Two women, one from the Netherlands and the other one from the Free State Gold Fields, meet in a hospital hall in Bloemfontein. Fifty years later Hester tells the story of how life formed them as nurses, community workers, bakers, artists and life partners.

Jennie Reznek

Three incarnations of women: a mother, a daughter and an old crone. A haunting of past, present and future selves. A modern-day, South African, poetic re-telling of the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone

Fiona Snyckers

Who was Jim Grey and how did he die? Trinity Luhabe returns to school for the second term of Grade Ten determined to solve this mystery. Trinity is back in her most engaging story yet as author Fiona Snyckers tackles a sensitive subject.

Karin Cronje

A powerful memoir that is searingly honest, heart-achingly funny and deeply sad. There goes English Teacher spans three years of adventures and misadventures as an English teacher in a small Korean village and later at a university. This is an unusually honest memoir with strong reflective passages on, amongst other themes, the nature of identity and the loss of it; sexuality; belief; ageing; displacement; and nationhood.

An invaluable reference book for publishers or anyone interested or in any way involved in the African book/publishing/literary scene, or writers looking for a publisher. Lists a wide range of small and independent publishers in countries from around Africa. Also contains an article from Impepho Press on why they started, one from Sooo Many Stories on the lessons of publishing, and more.

Martina Dahlmanns

With contributions by Tumi Jonas-Mpofu

A deeply personal memoir by a white adoptive mother of children who are black. Urgently questions the very depths of what it means to be white in South Africa today. Unsettling, precisely because of what it reveals simultaneously about the enduring impact of inherited privilege and the repercussions of disadvantage.

Trifonia Melibea Obobo

Translated by Lawrence Schimel

The first novel by an Equatorial Guinean woman to be translated into English, La Bastarda is the story of the orphaned teen Okomo, who lives under the watchful eye of her grandmother and dreams of finding her father.

Annette Snyckers’ poems are as subtle and intimately telling as the differences between the three languages in which she writes and battles to live and dream. These verses touch and tug at one another like the Afrikaans of her childhood, the German of her husband and the South African English of her homeland. They agree to differ in all sorts of nuanced ways.

Kleur kom nooit alleen nie [Colour never comes alone], wrote Antjie Krog. Annette Snyckers powerfully reminds us that neither do languages, landscapes, countries, continents and their people.

 Kerry Hammerton

In poems that memorialise and celebrate both the extraordinary and every day with unnerving clarity, Kerry Hammerton traverses the landscapes of loss and living, recalling the weight of past loves, new life and imminent death.

Karin Schimke

In her second volume of poetry, poet Karin Schimke explores the idea of home, contemplating notions of belonging and un-belonging and the various places and ways in which one is “at home”.

New Poems

Robin Winckel-Mellish

In this second collection Messages from the Bees Robin Winckel-Mellish shows the same qualities as A Lioness at my Heels, but this time runs deeper, darker and stronger.

Phillippa Yaa De Villiers

In this, her third collection of poetry, Phillippa Yaa De Villiers invokes images of past and present with hypnotic clarity, summoning the heart and heat of memory – painful and happy alike  – with the distinct musicality and visceral punch she is known for.

Author: Ambre Nicolson

Illustrator: Jaxon Hsu

This is no ordinary A to Z. With each letter of the alphabet this book honours the contribution of women to South Africa’s past, present and future. Using short, easy to read biographies and illustrations that are as bright and bold as the women they depict, this book shares the life stories of 26 South African rebels, artists, troublemakers, athletes, dancing queens and freedom fighters.

Katleho Kano Shoro

Serurubele means ‘butterfly’ in Sesotho. It is the art of metamorphosis, a mind in flight and the beat of poetic expression.

I offer you my perspectives,
my many mothers’ teachings.
I present both hopelessness and moments that excite,
the taxi mgosi that makes me write.

Hester van der Walt

In hierdie memorie vertel sy van die sleutel oomblikke in haar lewe wat haar daartoe gedryf het om kulturele en etniese grense oor te steek om sodoende uit te vind wie sy werklik is. Haar besluite neem haar vanaf die Vrystaat na Distrik Ses en Venda, na Nederland en die Verenigde Koninkryk, na Heideveld en Hanover Park en uiteindelik na McGregor.

Haar nederige storie vertel van die geestelike isolasie van alle “vlugtelinge” wat die onversoenbare waardes van hulle “tuiste” (hetsy fisies of ideologies) verlaat en nuwe maniere moet vind om ‘n lewe te skep. Dit vertel ook van die wonder om ‘n metgesel langs die pad te vind.

Barbara Boswell

Family secrets run deep for Grace, a young girl growing up in Cape Town during the 1980s, spilling over into adulthood, and threating to ruin the respectable life she has built for herself. When an old childhood friend reappears, Grace’s memories of her childhood come rushing back, and she is confronted, once again, with the loss that has shaped her. The novel is permeated with the long shadow cast by personal trauma, violence and loss on people’s lives.

Dawn Garisch

Carol Trehorne’s only child, Max, is in ICU with severe burns. Max, a performance artist, has set himself alight. He recovers but it becomes clear that he is planning further performances that will put him at risk of serious injury or death. Carol, a single parent and a GP in a busy suburban practice, is worried that her son is not the genius his friends think he is, but might be on drugs or going psychotic.

Makhosazana Xaba

This edition is a re-release of Xaba’s first poetry collection (first published in 2005) due to demand from readers and academics. A powerful, ground breaking work that placed Xaba firmly as an important voice in the SA literary scene.

Tracey Farren

New edition of the novel that was first published as Whiplash in 2008.
Whiplash was published ahead of its time, it was ground breaking and initially was received with reservation. However nine years later the levels of sexual violence in South Africa and in the world continue to be an epidemic. Books like this resist that epidemic, and are an opportunity for society to examine itself and and to change for the better.

Colleen Crawford Cousins

A striking true voice, which is also warm, wise, rich, full of humour and sadness, and some quirkiness.

Marike Beyers

Lonely lovely lyric, these poems tell a uniquely South African story in a uniquely South African voice.

Shirmoney Rhode

Nomme 20 Delphi Straat (of Delphi Straat 20) is ʼn versameling van beide Kaaps-en Standaard Afrikaanse gedigte wat aanvanklik as performance poetry vorm aangeneem het.

Philippa Kabali-Kagwa

Soul-warming memoir tells of a life enriched by song, literature, food and spirituality at the heart of a loving family who move from Uganda to Addis Ababa to Cape Town.

Ishara Maharaj


“I wish I had a sister who loved me so fiercely.”

Surya and Anjani are twins, but they could not be more different. Anjani is calm, devout and responsible, while Surya just wants to party the days away.

Isobel Dixon

In her fourth collection, Isobel Dixon takes readers on a journey to far-flung and sometimes dark places. From Robben Island to Hiroshima, Egypt to Edinburgh, the West Bank and beyond, these poems are forays of discovery and resistance, of arrival and loss.

Charlotte Otter

Karkloof Blue is the sequel to critically acclaimed Balthasar’s Gift.

Greenwashing, corporate intransigence and bloody secrets.
Maggie Cloete’s back.

Michelle Hattingh

That morning, Michelle presented her Psychology honours thesis on men's perceptions of rape. She started her presentation like this, “A woman born in South Africa has a greater chance of being raped than learning how to read …”

Ameera Patel

Outside the Lines is both a thriller and a family drama.

Anne Woodborne

The Cry of the Hangkaka is the story of young Karin  and her mother Irene. Shamed by a divorce, Irene seeks to flee with her daughter from post WWII South Africa.

Reference book, catalogue. Lists a wide range of small and independent publishers in the following African countries: Algeria, Mauritius, Namibia, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Senegal, Zimbabwe.

Fiona Snyckers

Now Following You is a clever, chilling and compelling read, which skilfully weaves relevant issues – most notably, the power social media gives to stalkers and others who intend harm -- into a captivating story with believable characters.

Sandra Hill

Whether drawn from the distance of history or located in contemporary Cape Town, these eight stories create a tender and luminous account of just how extraordinary the everyday life of women can be.

Elisa Galgut

These deeply felt poems are at once plain-speaking and alive with complexity; Galgut’s elegant response to both pain and loveliness is inspiring.

Eliza Kentridge

Against the dramatic background of her home country’s history, her focus is quieted, small and interior.

Wendy Woodward

At once poignant and luminous. These intimate poems (about families, journeys, and the burial of dogs) have a certain clarity that reaches into the heart.  - Julia Martin

Personal Narratives of Marriage and Beyond

Zaheera Jina and Hasina Asvat

A collection of life stories exploring issues of marriage, love, loss, family life, culture, religious beliefs, suburban life, local and international politics, freedom and education among other important issues faced by professional and well-educated Muslim women who have not been held back by global stereotypes.

Arja Salafranca

Arja Salafranca’s new poetry collection offers portraits of people on trains in England, as well as recounting the experience of being a stranger in Spain, where she was born.

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Mellisa de Villiers

In her finely woven collection of stories – spanning South Africa, London and Singapore – De Villiers deftly probes the ambiguities of different kinds of love and empathy as she brings a variety of people closer together in unexpected ways.

Christine Coates

Homegrown looks backwards, at childhood, and delves into the pain and beauty of a time that has passed.

Tanvi Bush

“It is a monstrous bruise of a sky.  Thunder mutters and pounds the horizon sending vibrations through the slumbering city.”

This is modern Lusaka where the line between juju and religion is blurred, the arcane and the mundane muddle and nothing is what is seems.

Priscilla Holmes

‘I’m warning you, get off this case, Thabisa Tswane, otherwise you’ll die. Here’s a taste of what you’ll get.’

Tiah Beautement

Ella Spinner stumbles through a single day after the tragedy. Set in Mossel Bay, it explores why – despite the grief, the struggles – there remains an urge to try.

Futhi Ntshingila

In her second novel, Futhi Ntshingila once again introduces us to a cast of strong women who have little, but are determined to shape their own destinies.

Joan Metelerkamp

As we have come to expect with Joan Metelerkamp’s work, these poems can be read individually or, more rewardingly, as a body, from cover to cover.

Charlotte Otter

Balthasar's Gift continues the tradition of pacy, hard-boiled South African crime fiction.
This title has already been published to critical acclaim in Germany.

Makhosazana Xaba

When Phil entered my bedroom, he was breathing heavily, carrying a parcel in old newspaper, folded  as neatly as only Phil could fold. It was the suit. I was shocked he had even remembered to bring it with him. But that was Phil. He thrived on detail.  From “Behind The Suit”

Kholofelo Maenetsha

The capriciousness of life and love in South Africa now, and the strength of a group of women friends in the face of a crisis.

Margaret Clough

“Margaret Clough’s poems are poignant and hilarious; an indispensable guide to being the last to leave.” Finuala Dowling

Thandi Sliepen

The Turtle Dove Told Me is the long awaited, debut collection of poetry from emerging South African poet and artist Thandi Sliepen.

Fiona Snyckers

South Africa’s favourite heroine is back!

“I told you to stay away from him, but you never listen, do you, Trinity?”

Toni Strasburg

Fractured Lives is a memoir of one woman’s experiences as a documentary filmmaker covering the wars in southern Africa during the 1980s and 1990s.

Hester van der Walt

Hester's Book of Bread is an honest and delicious, down to earth book that tells of Hester van der Walt’s passion for baking bread.

Colleen Higgs

A collection of short stories set in Yeoville from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s.

Robin Winckel-Mellish

The hemispheric pull between Europe and Africa and the restlessness that results from inhabiting both worlds is reflected in A Lioness at my Heels.

Haidee Kruger

This, her second collection, is sharp, intelligent, sensual poetry of love, loss, sexuality and creativity.

Ingrid Andersen

Meditations on love, loss, family and faith, the poems in Ingrid Andersen’s second collection gleam with humanity and insight.  Each poem in Piece Work is precisely crafted and builds a mosaic of an attentive life.

Michelle McGrane

McGrane demonstrates her obvious passion for the music of language. She plucks words from specialist lexical fields and unselfconsciously weaves them into the fabric of her own poetic voice.

Kerry Hammerton

Phillippa Yaa de Villiers

The Everyday Wife is poetry–to-go, a handy little book of practical poetry for any occasion.

Helen Moffett

Strange Fruit is a courageous debut with a remarkable range in theme and tone, from the nostalgic to the comedic and bawdy, from angry, melancholic to steadfast and comforting.

Melissa Butler

Sindiwe Magona

From the languid innocence of the poems about her village, to her shattering images of Africa at war, Magona leads you headlong into her fireside circle where archetypes flicker like shadows on a face that has seen, and been.

Funded by the Cape 300 Foundation

Azila Talit Reisenberger

Life in Translation is full of wry humour, longing, bitterness, sweetness, playfulness, and subversions of traditional meanings and texts – a delightful book that charms and surprises anew with each reading.

Megan Hall

Megan Hall's first collection of poems, Fourth Child, has the texture of a carefully wrought, hand-stitched garment.

Joan Metelerkamp

Like all of Metelerkamp’s work, these generous poems draw on the details of family and rural life, dreams, landscapes and journeys and weave together, with her distinctive energy and passion.

 

Karin Schimke

Masterful in its technique and heart-rending in its emotional range, this memorable collection tells the story of sexual passion, its devastating aftermath and the slow road home.

Sappho’s Daughters Out in Africa

Dr Alleyn Diesel

A collection of biographical writings by South African lesbian women. The women’s stories eloquently deal with the depth and complexity of lesbian experiences, and serve to contradict stereotyping.

Phumzile Simelane Kalumba

Jabulani Means Rejoice is a dictionary comprised of hundreds of African names in local South African languages, meticulously assembled and expounded upon for the curious reader. Names are listed in alphabetical order with gender indications, as well as information regarding their ethnographic origins and meanings.

Malika Ndlovu

This book breaks the silence around stillbirth, often seen as a non-event, something women are expected to “get over” as soon as possible. Invisible Earthquake is placed in the wider South African context by Sue Fawcus, who writes tenderly and expertly about stillbirth from the point of view of an obstetrician, and by Zubeida Bassadien and Muriel Johnstone, social workers who accompany women going through this shattering experience.

Hester van der Walt

Hester se Brood  is an honest and delicious, down to earth book that tells of Hester van der Walt’s passion for baking bread.

Tracey Farren

An unputdownable, gripping debut novel, a ‘Cinderella’ story about a Muizenberg (Cape Town) prostitute, Tess, who while being addicted to painkillers and selling her body on the street finds redemption in unexpected places.

Meg Vandermerwe

Ten stories. Ten voices. Ten diverse perspectives of what home has meant to South Africans during our country’s challenging history.

Compiled by Lauri Kubuitsile; edited by Joanne Hichens

A collection of short stories by new and established Southern African women writers on the theme of Bed.

Sponsored by

Tracey Farren

Snake is a tabloid tale told in a young girl’s voice; sincere, anxious and human.

Reneilwe Malatji

The stories in this collection have an intimate feel, like conversations eavesdropped on.

Maren Bodenstein

An old man is woken up by the wailing of a prophetess. Sitting on the veranda and staring into the dry veld he is beset with images of snakes hiding in the cellar beneath him. His peace is further disturbed by visits from his angry daughter, Susanna. Memories of his childhood on a remote mission station in Venda come flooding in.

Colleen Higgs

Alternating between the most economical of free verse and the most elastic of prose-poetry, Higgs shows a dazzling facility with both mediums.

Margaret Clough

At Least the Duck Survived offers a series of lyrical observations about old age, retirement and approaching death; about Tai Chi classes, dogs, lesbian aunts, grandchildren, bicycles and symphony concerts.

Dawn Garisch

As both a medical doctor and a writer, Dawn Garisch has lived a split life for many years. Finally, Eloquent Body allows the two streams of her life to converge.

Rosemary Smith

Swimming with Cobras is a memoir about a journey to find a foothold in a foreign land grappling with its own identity, offering rare and important insight into a corner of South Africa’s past.