Karina Author, Book, Event

Feminist Readers Book Club: The Frightened by Lethokuhle Msimang

The chosen book for the next Feminist Readers Book Club read is The Frightened by Lethokuhle Msimang. The book club will meet at The Book Lounge on 25 June 2025, 5.30 for 6PM. Can’t wait!

In this lyrical, fragmented novella, Lethokuhle Msimang uses autobiographical and poetic interventions to lead the reader through landscapes of loss and longing, travelling between France, China, Spain and South Africa, to explore the troubled terrain of leaving and finding home. At once exhilarating, heart-breaking and haunting, The Frightened speaks to the complexity of relationships, the pain of love, the effects of trauma, the necessity and constant work of healing, and the unfulfillable wish to feel a true sense of belonging. It is the story of finding one’s voice amidst inherited violence, and the importance of art and creativity in that process.

Karina Author, Book, Event

Shari Daya and Megan Hall reading at the Red Wheelbarrow | The Commons

Megan Hall and Shari Daya will be reading to us at The Commons on Wednesday, 4 June at 19:30 SAST.

Megan Hall won the Ingrid Jonker Prize for her poetry collection Fourth Child (Modjaji Books, 2007). Published in various journals since 1995, her work has been anthologised for schools (Worldscapes, 2005) and for university students (TheNew Century of South African Poetry, 2018), amongst others. She also writes short stories. She lives and works in Cape Town.

Shari Daya is a geographer and poet from Cape Town. Her poetry and essays explore the entangled geographies of lineage, memory, place and the body, and her work has appeared in the literary journals Obsidian, Stanzas, New Contrast and the anthologies Africa! My Africa! and I Wish I’d Said… Vol. 5, from the AVBOB Poetry Project. Shari completed an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Cape Town in 2023 and her debut collection of poetry and prose Land | Lines was published by Karavan Press in 2024.

As always, the reading by the featured poet will be followed by an open mic session for poets from the audience. Poets are welcome to read from their own work as well as from the work of a favourite poet.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Date: Wednesday 4 June 2025

Time: 19:30

Venue: The Commons, Surfer’s Corner, Beach Rd, Muizenberg, Cape Town, 7970
phone: 083 799 8294

For more info, including the link to the Red Wheelbarrow complete poetry archive, visit their website. Recordings of the weekly Zoom readings are on their YouTube channel.