Conjectures by James Leatt, originally published in 2021 by Karavan Press, will be released in the United States following Wipf & Stock’s acquisition of US rights.
Established in 1995, Wipf and Stock Publishers has been publishing books that serve the church and academy under its general imprint, Wipf & Stock. The publishing focus of Wipf & Stock is broad, offering titles in biblical studies, theology, ethics, church history, linguistics, history, classics, philosophy, preaching, and church ministry.
Conjectures is Professor James Leatt’s philosophical reflection on his life and times as he grapples with the realities of parish work in black communities, teaching ethics in a business school under apartheid, managing a university in the dying days of the Nationalist regime, and eventually working in higher education in post-apartheid South Africa.
Weaving strands of his personal life with the questions of theodicy and modernity as well as drawing upon the Western…
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.
Family, friends, readers gathered last night at Liberty Books to celebrate the launch of Elton Baatjies, the eagerly awaited debut novel by local author Lester Walbrugh.
Cleo wanted to do the interview …
… but the humans insisted that they would do a better job and even dressed up – Elton-style! – for the occasion.
Full house for Lester, Christy, Elton and Cleo!
The humans did a great job for a while …
… but then Cleo did take over!
She (and the tiger) wanted to know about the role of wild horses in the novel, and whether any cats featured.
The novel is fiction, but it is so believably written and feels so real that the local cops showed up to arrest Elton!
To find out whether Detective Junaid Japtha is as successful in fiction, and about what happens to Tyron May, you will have to read Elton Baatjies.
Lester’s job is done: Elton Baatjies is in the hands of readers. Books were celebrated, sold and signed.
Thank you to Liberty Books and all who attended for another amazing literary event! Thank you to Peregrine Farm Stall for the delicious snacks! And thank you to Paul Cluver Wines for the elegant wines which made the evening all the more special!
Above all, thank you to Christy and Lester for a great conversation and all the literary joy you bring into our lives!
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.”
karavanpress.com 