Two Modjaji titles make the 2021 Sunday Times CNA Literary Awards longlist
Out now: Go Away Birds by Michelle Edwards
It’s finally here! Michelle Edwards’s debut novel, Go Away Birds, drops this month.
“Skye is looking for normal. She grew up different and it rankles. Home isn’t normal; her mom isn’t normal. Her brother, beloved as he is, isn’t quite normal, either. Her marriage was kind of normal (Cam is a wealthy, handsome man who’s nice enough) and now it’s a dumpster fire. And look at South Africa—entirely NOT normal.”
You can order Go Away Birds on our website, find it in all good South African bookstores, or buy it internationally via African Books Collective.
Coming Soon: The School Gates by Fiona Snyckers
“We know what’s best for our children.”
Burnt out after years as a professional dancer, Ella Burchell moves to a small town on the KwaZulu Natal north coast hoping to rebuild her life. Things look up when she gets a job teaching dance to children at a for-profit private school.
But Ella hasn’t reckoned with the cabal of private-school mums who run the Pines Academy as their own personal fiefdom. Circling into cliques at the school gates every morning, the mums are a force to be reckoned with.
The School Gates, the new novel from Fiona Snyckers, will be in stores from early May. Pre-order now on our website and read and interview with Fiona Snyckers on our website.
Cover Reveal: Dreaming in Colours
We’re so excited to reveal the cover for our forthcoming title, Dreaming in Colour by Uvile Ximba. This debut will be dropping in June, and we’ll share more information about the book and the author closer to the time.
The Pride of Noonlay launched in Joburg
Jaipur BookMark Literature Festival 2021
In February 2021 Colleen Higgs participated on a panel at the Jaipur Literature Festival, “Look back in hope: A Conversation with Independent Feminist Publishers” with these awe-inspiring publishers: Urvashi Butalia, Margaret Busby, Susan Hawthorne, Zöe Beck, Laure Leroy, & Lennie Goodings. You can watch the recorded talk here.
You’re invited: Exclusive Books Cavendish launches Cosmonauts do it in Heaven
We’ve published Cosmonauts do it in Heaven by Keith Gottschalk, under our imprint, Hands On Books.
Keith will be in conversation with Ken Barris at the launch at Exclusive Books Cavendish at 17:30 on Thursday, the 6th of May. We’d love to see you there.
From left to right: Bernard Levinson, Nadia Goetham, Phumlani Pikoli and Jonathan Ball
Modjaji sends our condolences to Bernard Levinson’s loved ones
It is with sadness that we share that Bernard Levinson had passed away in Johannesburg at the age of 94.
Modjaji Books published Bernad’s first poetry collection, Collected Poems, earlier this year, under our imprint Hands Ons Books. Bernard was a graduate at Wits University. He was the first post-war intake of ex-servicemen in 1945. He spent several years as a General Practitioner in the False Bay area in the Cape, before he specialised in Psychiatry. He practised in Johannesburg first as a General Psychiatrist and for the last thirty years as a Psychiatrist/Sexologist. He was an editor of the South African Journal of Sexology for fifteen years. His poetry has been anthologised and is taught in Gauteng schools.
It’s been a rough few weeks with a lot of sad news. We extend condolences also to the friends and loved ones of publisher Nadia Goetham of Jacana who passed away this week, and author Phumlani Pikoli and publisher Jonathan Ball, who both passed away in April. The publishing landscape, and the world at large, is emptier without them.