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2021 African Small Publishers Catalogue
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 over 60 small and independent publishers in countries from around Africa. The catalogue also contains articles about publishing the indie way, book-making in the time of COVID-19, and more.
Includes publishers from South Africa, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Senegal, France, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Nigeria, the United States, Canada, Togo, Mozambique, Morocco, Uganda, Rwanda, Malawi, Algeria, Egypt, Uganda, and Namibia.
Includes publishers from South Africa, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Senegal, France, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Nigeria, the United States, Canada, Togo, Mozambique, Morocco, Uganda, Rwanda, Malawi, Algeria, Egypt, Uganda, and Namibia.
The Girl Who Chased Otters
The Girl Who Chased Otters is a sensitive tale of friendship, love and acceptance set in the southern suburbs of Cape Town.
A keen observer of human behaviour, Nathan has never cared about fitting in, but when Olivia asks for his help becoming popular, he can’t refuse. But as she is swept into a world of gossip and bullying, they must both question what they really want. A story about friendship and falling in love.
Content Warning: rape, self-harm/suicide attempt.
A keen observer of human behaviour, Nathan has never cared about fitting in, but when Olivia asks for his help becoming popular, he can’t refuse. But as she is swept into a world of gossip and bullying, they must both question what they really want. A story about friendship and falling in love.
Content Warning: rape, self-harm/suicide attempt.
Dreaming in Colour
As students at university in Makhanda during the #RUReferenceList campaign, Langa and her lover Khwezi have a passionate and complex relationship. Puzzling gaps in her memory haunt Langa, yet her dreams are vivid with colours and symbols that hint at a nightmare of forgotten violations and losses. So many secrets -- and Langa has had enough of secrets and silences. Who can she turn to? Her mother? Her grandmother? Khwezi? Or herself?
Stem of the Moon
The much-anticipated sequel to the turtle dove told me (Modjaji Books, 2013), which won a SALA Award in 2014, stem of the moon is the second volume in a trilogy that spans the years 1990 – 2010.
In this collection, Sliepen paints impressions of a small town, Clarens in the Free State, as well as glimpses of life in the Netherlands and Bali. The reader shares the intimate experience of the birth of her first child and the poems take us on a profound journey through Namibia. Sliepen’s latest collection is a love song to a child, a lover, a mother, and the quiet strength of the moon that connects us all.
In this collection, Sliepen paints impressions of a small town, Clarens in the Free State, as well as glimpses of life in the Netherlands and Bali. The reader shares the intimate experience of the birth of her first child and the poems take us on a profound journey through Namibia. Sliepen’s latest collection is a love song to a child, a lover, a mother, and the quiet strength of the moon that connects us all.
Collaborative Conversations : Celebrating Twenty-One Years of The Mothertongue Project
To celebrate Mothertongue’s 21st anniversary, Collaborative Conversations weaves together the reflections of a group of artists, scholars and writers who have journeyed with the organisation over the last two decades.
Since its inception in 2000 with What the Water Gave Me, The Mothertongue Project has used participatory, integrated arts methods to create theatrical works that strive for personal and collective dialogue and healing in South Africa.
In poetry, scholarly writing and transcribed oral conversations, the contributors now think and feel their way through the aspirations and achievements – and the alchemy – of The Mothertongue Project’s work. Accompanied by photographs of performances from across the 21 years, this book provides a sense of what a Mothertongue theatre piece does: it draws audience and performers into transformative, embodied conversations.
Includes work by Awino Okech, Genna Gardini, Koleka Putuma, Makgati Mokwena, Malika Ndlovu, Mwenya B Kabwe, Nicosia Shakes, Nina Callaghan, Ntomboxolo Makhutshi and Rehane Abrahams.
Since its inception in 2000 with What the Water Gave Me, The Mothertongue Project has used participatory, integrated arts methods to create theatrical works that strive for personal and collective dialogue and healing in South Africa.
In poetry, scholarly writing and transcribed oral conversations, the contributors now think and feel their way through the aspirations and achievements – and the alchemy – of The Mothertongue Project’s work. Accompanied by photographs of performances from across the 21 years, this book provides a sense of what a Mothertongue theatre piece does: it draws audience and performers into transformative, embodied conversations.
Includes work by Awino Okech, Genna Gardini, Koleka Putuma, Makgati Mokwena, Malika Ndlovu, Mwenya B Kabwe, Nicosia Shakes, Nina Callaghan, Ntomboxolo Makhutshi and Rehane Abrahams.
between the apple and the bite
The poems in ‘predicaments’ explore women’s responses to the constraints and consequences of choices they have made. Their responses are not much changed through the millennia of myth, history and into contemporary times. The poet reflects on significant moments in the lives of women such as Helen of Troy, Delilah and Joan of Arc, and the predicaments they are faced with in a man’s world.
Women out of Water
Eighty-five-year-old Alma tracks a stallion through the wild bush. A young woman leaves her corporate job to start a wine farm as her marriage stales. A mother leaves her war-torn home to seek safety for herself and her daughter and a girl begs for survival.
In a series of ten mesmerising stories, Cranswick pulls aside the covers to let us in on the lives and inner lives of women thrown out of their comfort zone. With chilling clarity and a haunting lyricism, Cranswick slows down time, zooms in close, and refuses to look away.
In a series of ten mesmerising stories, Cranswick pulls aside the covers to let us in on the lives and inner lives of women thrown out of their comfort zone. With chilling clarity and a haunting lyricism, Cranswick slows down time, zooms in close, and refuses to look away.
The Gospel According to Wanda B. Lazarus
Lynn Joffe
The Gospel According to Wanda. B. Lazarus is just what the world needs now. A fizzing, fulsome and fiercely funny heroine, and a novel charged with music, energy, bounce, juice and joy.’ – Stephen Fry
Go Away Birds
Skye is looking for normal. She grew up different and it rankles. Home isn’t normal; her mom isn’t normal. Her brother, beloved as he is, isn’t quite normal, either. Her marriage was kind of normal (Cam is a wealthy, handsome man who’s nice enough) and now it’s a dumpster fire. And look at South Africa—entirely NOT normal.
The School Gates
Fiona Snyckers
“We know what’s best for our children.”
Burnt out after years as a professional dancer, Ella Burchell moves to a small town on the KwaZulu Natal north coast hoping to rebuild her life. Things look up when she gets a job teaching dance to children at a for-profit private school.
But Ella hasn’t reckoned with the cabal of private-school mums who run the Pines Academy as their own personal fiefdom. Circling into cliques at the school gates every morning, the mums are a force to be reckoned with.
The Summer We Didn’t Die
Christine Coates
The Summer We Didn’t Die is Christine Coates’ third poetry collection. It is an assured, tender collection that offers the reader a way to think about the mysteries at the heart of what it means to be human, in this place and time.
69 Jerusalem Street
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.
The Pride of Noonlay
Shanice Ndlovu
The stories in The Pride of Noonlay are crackling, lyrical, and controlled, and the worlds Ndlovu conjures are fascinating and vivid.
Fall Awake
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.
WILL, the Passenger Delaying Flight …
Barbara Adair
A man is travelling to Africa from Europe. And yet it is also about waiting - waiting for Africa.
The Only Magic We Know
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.
Predictive Text
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.
Fool’s Gold
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.
Making Way
Joan Metelerkamp
In Making Way, Metelerkamp demonstrates once again her unrivaled command of a poetry of movement and process.
Innie Shadows
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.
In Tangier we killed the blue parrot
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.
The Unfamous Five
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.
Agringada: Like a gringa, like a foreigner
Tariro Ndoro
An honest exploration of dislocation and (un)belonging in its forms: exile from language, exile from country, and exile from sanity.
Asleep Awake Asleep
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.
Are you two sisters?
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.
I turned away and she was gone
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
Trinity on Track
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.
There Goes English Teacher
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.
African Small Publishers Catalogue 2018
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.
A Person My Colour – Love, Adoption and Parenting While White
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.
La Bastarda
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.
Remnants, Restante, Reste
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.
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.
Secret Keeper
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.
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.
Navigate
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”.
Messages from the Bees
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.
ice-cream headache in my bone
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.
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.
A to Z of Amazing South African Women
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.
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.
Serurubele Poems
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.
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.
Sê my, is julle twee susters?
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.
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.
Accident
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.
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.
These Hands
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.
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.
Tess
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.
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.
Unlikely
Colleen Crawford Cousins
A striking true voice, which is also warm, wise, rich, full of humour and sadness, and some quirkiness.
A striking true voice, which is also warm, wise, rich, full of humour and sadness, and some quirkiness.
How to Open the Door
Marike Beyers
Lonely lovely lyric, these poems tell a uniquely South African story in a uniquely South African voice.
Lonely lovely lyric, these poems tell a uniquely South African story in a uniquely South African voice.
Nomme 20 Delphi Straat
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.
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.
Flame and Song: A Memoir
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.
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.
Namaste Life
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.
“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.
Bearings
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.
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.
Karkloof Blue : A Maggie Cloete Mystery
Charlotte Otter
Karkloof Blue is the sequel to critically acclaimed Balthasar’s Gift.
Greenwashing, corporate intransigence and bloody secrets.
Maggie Cloete’s back.
Karkloof Blue is the sequel to critically acclaimed Balthasar’s Gift.
Greenwashing, corporate intransigence and bloody secrets.
Maggie Cloete’s back.
I’m the Girl Who Was Raped
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 …”
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 …”
Outside the Lines
Ameera Patel
Outside the Lines is both a thriller and a family drama.
The Cry of the Hangkaka
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.
African Small Publishers’ Catalogue 2016
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.
Now Following You
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.
UnSettled and other stories
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.
The Attribute Of Poetry
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.
Signs for an Exhibition
Eliza Kentridge
Against the dramatic background of her home country’s history, her focus is quieted, small and interior.
A Saving Bannister
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
Riding the Samoosa Express:
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.
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.
Beyond Touch
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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Choose an amount and type of donation from the drop-down lists below.
Note: You may also add an additional amount during the checkout process if you would like to contribute a different amount.
The Chameleon House
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.
Homegrown
Christine Coates
Homegrown looks backwards, at childhood, and delves into the pain and beauty of a time that has passed.
Witch Girl
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.
Now I See You
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.’
This Day
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.
Do not go gentle
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.
Now The World Takes These Breaths
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.
Balthasar’s Gift
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.
Running and other stories
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”
To The Black Women We All Knew
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.
The Last to Leave
Margaret Clough
“Margaret Clough’s poems are poignant and hilarious; an indispensable guide to being the last to leave.” Finuala Dowling
The Turtle Dove Told Me
Thandi Sliepen
The Turtle Dove Told Me is the long awaited, debut collection of poetry from emerging South African poet and artist Thandi Sliepen.
Team Trinity
Fiona Snyckers
South Africa’s favourite heroine is back!
“I told you to stay away from him, but you never listen, do you, Trinity?”
Fractured Lives
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’s Book of Bread
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.
Beyond the Delivery Room
Khadija Heeger
Popular performance poet, Khadija Heeger’s debut collection of poems.
Looking for Trouble
Colleen Higgs
A collection of short stories set in Yeoville from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s.
A Lioness at my Heels
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.
The Reckless Sleeper
Haidee Kruger
This, her second collection, is sharp, intelligent, sensual poetry of love, loss, sexuality and creativity.
Piece Work
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.
The Suitable Girl
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.
These Are The Lies I Told You
Kerry Hammerton
Hammerton’s poetry ranges over the themes of relationships, of that often difficult thorn-strewn path of love gained, and then love lost.
The Everyday Wife
Phillippa Yaa de Villiers
The Everyday Wife is poetry–to-go, a handy little book of practical poetry for any occasion.
Strange Fruit
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.
Removing
Melissa Butler
The experience of reading the poems in removing is, wonderfully, one of a late-night conversation with a warm, imaginative, thoughtful, observant and compassionate friend.
Please, Take Photographs
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
Oleander
Fiona Zerbst
Oleander explores life’s complexities, both beautiful and poisonous – love, death, art, the aftermath of war and genocide, travel, religion, revelation.
Life in Translation
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.
Fourth Child
Megan Hall
Megan Hall's first collection of poems, Fourth Child, has the texture of a carefully wrought, hand-stitched garment.
Burnt Offering
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.
Bare & Breaking
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.
Reclaiming the L-Word
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.
Jabulani
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.
Invisible Earthquake
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 Se Brood
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.
Whiplash
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.
This Place I Call Home
Meg Vandermerwe
Ten stories. Ten voices. Ten diverse perspectives of what home has meant to South Africans during our country’s challenging history.
The Bed Book of Short Stories
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
Snake
Tracey Farren
Snake is a tabloid tale told in a young girl’s voice; sincere, anxious and human.
