September newsletter: new website, new writers, and a whole lot more!

Modjaji has a fresh look and a new website! We’re so proud of all the work that went into creating our new online home. Thanks to Toni Olivier of TnT Designs for the fabulous upgrade!

Preorder the book here.

Author Lynn Joffe’s website can be found here.

One of the great joys of running a press like Modjaji is being able to take a chance on exciting new authors. Here’s a look at some of the new writers who’ve recently joined our Modjaji stable. This is just a taste – there are more to come!

Lindiwe Nkutha is an author of short stories and a reluctant poet, whose stories and poems have appeared in a number of journals and anthologies. Although trained as an accountant, and working as one, she keeps kindled inside her heart (with varying levels of success) the fire to tell stories as often as she can manage it.

She is fascinated and inspired to tell these stories by the world, and the quirky and eccentric people that populate it.

Although born in Soweto, she now lives in Johannesburg with her wife Lerato, surrounded by a capricious veggie and herb garden.

Uvile Ximba (she/her) is a creative producer who completed her Bachelor of Arts Joint Honours in Politics and International Relations and Dramatic Arts in 2019. She is an intern at Sonke Gender Justice and has been selected as an ASSITEJ South Africa ‘In The Works’ 2020 playwright. Uvile is the co-founder of Thamba Creatives, a multi-media production company premised on creating narratives for and by black womxn and believes in interdisciplinary praxis. When it comes to her creativity, her stance is, “Why wait?” In a past life, she may have been a cat.

Shanice Ndlovu is a twenty-five-year-old Zimbabwean writer. Over the past seven years she has written numerous short stories in the genre of epic fantasy. Ndlovu was educated in part in Zimbabwe, and completed a law degree with the University of South Africa.

A longtime admirer of poetry, Shanice also started and runs a poetry podcast called the Poedcast. Ndlovu has previously published short stories in local anthologies such as Botsotso and the K&L prize. The Pride of Noonlay is her debut collection of short stories.

She currently lives in Johannesburg and spends most of her spare time at the Johannesburg City Library where she is a longtime member of their bookclub.

Michelle Edwards obtained a Bachelor of Journalism from Rhodes University in 2005. She has lived in Taiwan, the United Kingdom and Zambia, and is now living in South Africa with her husband and two children. Go Away Birds is her first novel, which was long-listed for the Dinaane Debut Fiction Award in 2018.

If you still haven’t gotten your hands on Barbara Adair’s latest novel, this excerpt (as published on Bruce Dennill’s blog) is sure to tempt you into getting a copy.

Read the excerpt here.
Buy the book here.

Jeannie Wallace McKeown’s collection of poetry launched under lockdown and as such has not had the fanfare it deserves. Today, we’d like to celebrate Fall Awake by sharing some clips of Jeannie reading from the collection.

Listen to Jeannie reading here.

Buy the book here.

Barbara Boswell, award-winning Modjaji author, recently wrote a piece for the Mail & Guardian about her second childhood home – her local library. She touches on the importance of libraries as refuges from a cruel world, as well as the sense of completion she felt when donating a copy of her book, Grace, to the Belhar Library. An unmissable read for all those who love libraries.

Read the article here.