The year has flown by, in spite of all that has happened. We hope that this festive season is a time for you to rest and recharge so that we enter 2021 with excitement. Of course, we also hope you have time to read some of our books this month!
Holiday discounts
Our Black Friday discount was so popular we thought we would extend our discount of 20%, this time until the 20th of December. Use the code #holidaygift. Our titles make fantastic festive season gifts, so stock up today! Offer limited to South Africa only.
Some celebratory launches
The pandemic got in the way of launching many of our new books, but we are delighted to report that we recently launched both The Gospel According to Wanda B Lazarus, a rollicking comedic ride through history, and WILL, the Passenger Delaying Flight…, a meditation on humanity through the lens of 24 hours in an airport. Both launches were recorded and you can watch them on Facebook.
We’re so grateful to Exclusive Books for partnering with us on this launch and making it a fabulous event for all.
Watch the Wanda launch here.
Buy Wanda from our website here.
Buy Wanda from Exclusive Books here.
We’d also like to thank Bridge Books for their role in launching WILL, the Passenger Delaying Flight…
Watch the WILL launch here.
Buy WILL here.
Rave reviews
Reviews continue to come in for our books; this month, Tydskrif vir Letterkunde reviewed three of our publications. Here’s what they had to say:
“While reading the collection, you become the shadow of this silent girl, later disillusioned woman, following her as she seeks belonging and attempts to reach herself […] Yet this displacement brings a unique gift— looking from the outside, the poet describes the places where she has lived but not belonged, the people who shaped her, so evocatively and with a clarity that speaks of a deep attentiveness to the world around her.” – Judy-Ann Cilliers on Agringada: like a gringa, like a foreigner
Read the full review here.
Buy the collection here.
“What I find inventive in Bekker’s collection, is the way in which she intertwines historical and fictional material; the juxtaposition of Mandela’s victory walk with the birth of her child and the final confrontation with the Cradock Four in a gallery dedicated to them: ‘A humble shed in the museum’s yard. The curator unlocked the door. Large full-body photographs of the men walked towards her from four pillars… In the photograph Matthew, Fort and two comrades are walking towards the camera, towards Rip’ (132).” – Marius Crous on Asleep Awake Asleep
Read the full review here.
Buy Asleep Awake Asleep here.
“Hester van der Walt’s memoir is equally the coming-of-age story of the author, the story of the relationship between Hester and Lies and the story of the freedom struggle in South Africa […] Each of these aspects […] would provide enough material for a much larger book, but Van der Walt somehow manages to intertwine them in a manner that is easy and exciting to read.” – Martina Vitackova on Are you two sisters?
Read the full review here.
Buy Are You Two Sisters? here.
Barbara Boswell
Barbara Boswell, author of Grace: A Novel and published Modjaji author, recently appeared on The Wonderful Words podcast with Waseem Imam Saheb. They talk about violence, the patriarchy, and Grace.
Listen to the podcast here.
Buy Grace here.
Barbara also has a new book out with Wits University Press! “Part literary history, part feminist historiography And Wrote My Story Anyway: Black South African Women’s Novels as Feminism critically examines influential novels in English by eminent black female writers.”
Buy the book here.
Thinking of publishing? A seminar for you
Our founder, Colleen Higgs, is set to appear in a seminar on How to Get Published with Sibongile Machika, Phehello Mofokeng, and Carol Broomhall. Organised by Jacana Media, this seminar is one of a series which brings together representatives of different publishing houses. The seminar takes place on Thursday 10 December from 16h00 to 18h00 SAST and is free.
Click here to RSVP.
For more on the series of seminars, click here.
69 Jerusalem Street
Don’t miss this sparkling debut collection! “Each story here has the velocity and voluptuous fullness of a novella, or a street corner epic banter. The writing is a flourish of (un-pretentious) philosophical gravity, leavened with everyday dialogue, and accessible beauty. This is an imaginative collection that sets fire to the confines of genre: it is both poetry and prose, and all the richer for it. Unorthodox, and ultimately alive.” – Bongani Madondo
Pre-order the book here.
Collected Poems
Bernard Levinson’s Collected Poems was recently published by Hands-On Books, an imprint of Modjaji. Bernard was a South African psychiatrist and sexologist whose poetry has been widely anthologised. He is 94 and this is his fifth book – it’s never too late to publish!
You can order from us by emailing info@dna945.dnaclient.co.za or from African Books Collective by clicking the link below.
Order from ABC here.
Until next time, stay safe and keep reading.