12:35-13:15 In Conversation (Adults): Sara-JayneMakwala King (Mad Bad Love) & JOY WATSON (The Other Me)
15:20-16:00 In Conversation (Adults): Colleen Higgs (my mother, my madness) & NANCY RICHARDS (The Skipper’s Daughter) moderated by Leslie Swartz (How I Lost My Mother)
As many of you would have seen when the original press release about the University of Johannesburg Prize for Creative Writing shortlists went out on 15 September, our A Hibiscus Coast by Nick Mulgrew was included — troublingly, however, for the debut prize.
But the novel is the author’s fourth book, a fact clearly stated both inside the book and on its cover.
We were thrilled nevertheless, because we thought that the inclusion of the novel might have been a simple administrative mix-up, and that the novel belonged on the main category’s shortlist.
When we asked for clarification before making an official announcement on our side, however, the response was:
“Unfortunately, the UJ literary prize panel erroneously shortlisted Nick Mulgrew’s The [sic] Hibiscus Coast as a debut publication. As his publisher pointed out that he had published creative writing previously, we have removed this wonderful book from the debut shortlist. Apologies for any inconvenience caused.”
With considerable disappointment, therefore, the book has been withdrawn entirely from consideration for the University of Johannesburg Prizes.
Thank you to all who congratulated Nick and Karavan Press after the initial press release. We are celebrating this exceptional novel (shortlist or no shortlist) and continue to congratulate the shortlisted authors.
Here is the updated, correct (sadly for us), press release: JRB.
Kim Gurney, the author of Panya Routes: Independent art spaces in Africa, is participating on a public panel in Cape Town on Saturday about the politics, legacies and inheritances of independent spaces. Along with:
Ukhona Ntsali Mlandu, Director, Greatmore Studios
Nqaba Shakes Mbolekwana, Location Studio Practice
Phokeng Setai, Interdisciplinary Scholar
Itumeleng wa Lehulere, Revolutionary Papers
Date: 24 September
Time: 12h00-14h30
Venue: Theatre Arts Admin, Observatory
The panel is part of ‘Power Talks’, convened by Goethe-Institut Johannesburg and African Centre for Cities, as a roving national series to unpack power mechanisms in the cultural world. The Cape Town iteration is curated by Ukhona Ntsali Mlandu, director of Greatmore Studios, to look beyond the trauma and violences of power and see what constructive manifestations of power might look, taste, sound and feel like. It involves sonic explorations, food networks, theatre explorations, and more.
The latest issue of the Johannesburg Review of Books features an excerpt from Lester Walbrugh’s debut novel Elton Baatjies and an interview with Joy Watson.
Catch Cathy Park Kelly, the author of Boiling a Frog Slowly, and other fabulous authors at the Friends of Tokai Library Book Sale this Saturday between 9am and 12pm.
THURSDAY 15 SEPTEMBER14.00 – 15.00So you want to write? How to start – how to continue: three writers give insight into their writing journeys and the genres they have exploredLester Walbrugh – Elton Baatjies & Let It Fall Where It Will
Shameez Patel – The Last FeatherPenny Haw – The Wilderness Between Us
Moderator: SarahBelle Selig
FRIDAY 16 SEPTEMBER
9.30 – 11.30Writing workshop with Cathy Park Kelly and Máire Fisher (Library Hall)
14.00 – 15.00What we know and what we learn – about ourselves, our families, our history
Sara-Jayne Makwala King – Mad Bad Love
Erika Bornman – Mission of MaliceCathy Park Kelly – Boiling a Frog Slowly
Moderator: Karina Szczurek
16.00 – 17.00 The stories we choose to tell – memoir, biography and the fictions between
Colleen Higgs – My Mother My MadnessNancy Richards – The Skipper’s Daughter
Hedi Lampert – The Trouble With My AuntModerator: Cathy Park KellySATURDAY 17 SEPTEMBER16.00 – 17.00
Personal, social, political – stories that create the fabric of our countrySindiwe Magona – Theatre RoadIn Our Own Words: Nurses on the Front Line
Nick Dall and Matthew Blackman – Spoilt Ballots
Moderator: Tracey Farren
The shortlists of the prestigious Sunday Times Literary Awards have been announced and we are thrilled that An Island by Karen Jennings is nominated for the Fiction Prize! Congratulations, Karen, and all the other shortlisted authors.
FICTION PRIZE CRITERIA The winner should be a novel of rare imagination and style, evocative, textured and a tale so compelling as to become an enduring landmark of contemporary fiction.
JUDGES: Ekow Duker (chair), Nomboniso Gasa, Kevin Ritchie
CHAIR OF JUDGES EKOW DUKER SAYS:
I’m sure we can all remember our school days when the teacher would pose a question to the class. Some pupils would immediately strain to answer. Others might look at each other in puzzlement, the answer tantalisingly out of reach. This year’s judging of the Fiction Prize was a little like that. Some novels by their magisterial telling of an important story, screamed at the judges to, “Pick me! Pick me!”. Others were more restrained, quietly confident in their ability to narrate a memorable tale. Each of the five books that made this year’s shortlist met the criteria but in remarkably different ways. An Island by Karen Jennings is a masterful depiction of a fragile life lived in near-solitude. With its cast of indentured labourers and colonial administrators, Joanne Joseph’s Children of Sugarcane took us on a meticulously detailed journey from India to the cruel fields of Natal, and back again. All Gomorrahs Are The Same by Thenjiwe Mswane gently lifts the veil of familiarity that shrouds the existence of three women, allowing us a powerfully intimate view into their inner lives. Damon Galgut’s The Promise, winner of the 2021 Booker Prize, is a compelling study of a once privileged family in terminal decline. Finally, and without any warning to buckle up, Junx by Tshidiso Moletsane, flung us headlong into the exhilaration of inner-city Joburg.
AN ISLAND KAREN JENNINGS (Karavan Press)
Jennings doesn’t continue the postmodernist leitmotifs of living on an island which were established by Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and JM Coetzee’s response to it in Foe. Our reviewer wrote: “Instead of writing ‘back’ to another text, she digs deeper into the long term impact of a colonist rule, and the twisted dictatorship that follows it. This allegorical tale could be read as a warning of the long lasting impact of fear, violence, depravity and poverty and the role isolation plays in feeding these conditions.” Our judges said: “Haunting in its depiction of a life lived in solitude, where the past is more real than the present. She is masterful in building the suspense, stone by blood-soaked stone.”
We are delighted to invite you to the launch of Lester Walbrugh‘s eagerly awaited debut novel, Elton Baatjies. Equally delighted that it is going to take place at Liberty Books in Elgin – Lester will be in conversation with Christy Weyer.
Thank you to Paul Cluver Wines for sponsoring the wine for this special occasion!
We can’t wait to share this hauntingly dark, absolutely stunning novel with Readers.
karavanpress.com 