BOOK Southern Africa

Media Watch: BOOK SA Bids Adieu to the Witness

by Ben - Editor on 18 Mar 2010   |   

Alert! KwaZulu Natal’s Witness newspaper appears to be the first of SA’s free-to-web media outlets to scurry behind a pay wall. Literary punters visiting the Witness books section and clicking an article – say, an interview with Thando Mgqolozana – are, as of today, if they’re not subscribers to the newspaper, confronted with this:

(Either that, or they’re confronted with an ad for the Witness Maritzburg Matchmaker, which, for those of a certain bent, could provide hour upon hour of literary pleasure.)

Previously, nearly all content on the Witness was free-to-read online. BOOK SA couldn’t find a notice warning subscribers of any imminent change, but perhaps the newspaper has been secretly sold to Rupert Murdoch, and is being used as a test case for the “gain market share as you retreat into a provincial enclave” strategy.

It would appear, then, to be goodbye, but hopefully not adieu – given the nature of the web, which is a helluva shapeshifter – to our reviewing and profiling friends Margaret von Klemperer, Anthony Stidolph, Carol Brammage, Moira Lovell, Nalini Naidoo, Christopher Merrett, Stephen Coan, Sharon Dell, Hazel Barnes, Janet van Eeden and the other members of the Witness‘ lit team. We’ll miss ya!

• More media watch

Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature Winners

by Ben - Editor on 17 Mar 2010   |   

Alert! The winners of the 2009 Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature – given biennially – were announced last night in Cape Town. Two gold and three silver prizes were dished out – and BOOK SA member Alex Smith was amongst the gong-ees, winning a silver award in the English category. Congratulations to her!

The other winners were Dumisani Sibiya (Zulu – gold), Adeline Radloff (English – gold), Derick van der Walt (Afrikaans – silver) – all pictured above – and Mabonchi Motimele Goodwill (Sotho – silver). All the medalists will have their works published by Tafelberg Publishers, an imprint of the NB group, in October 2010. It’s not certain whether there are other prizes involved (i.e., cold hard cash).

One note of interest is that it’s Sibiya’s third Sanlam win, and van der Walt’s second.

Here’s the release from NB:

Press release

A unique relationship between Sanlam and Tafelberg Publishers has over the years fostered the publication of new titles in youth literature: the biennial Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature. The names of the 2009 winners were announced at a gala evening held at the Officers Club in Century City on Wednesday, 17 March 2010.

The theme of the winning stories, and the evening as a whole, was humour, and there was no shortage of laughs and smiles as the audience was regaled on a choice selection of contrasting tales by master of ceremonies Marc Lottering. The event marked the announcement of the thirteenth Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature after its inception in 1980, when it was initially awarded only every three years, later transforming to a biennial event.

This year, two gold and three silver prizes were awarded. The judges in the English- and Nguni-language categories were especially impressed with the quality of entries they received.

The gold medal winner for 2009 in the Nguni languages category is the Johannesburg author and publisher Dumisani Sibiya, for his story Ngiyolibala Ngife (IsiZulu). The moderator, Professor Bheki Ntuli, recommended that this story be awarded the highest honour. It is the third time that Dumisani Sibiya has received a Sanlam Prize.

In the English-language category debutante Adeline Radloff was named as the winner of a gold prize for her story Sidekick, which the judges described as “a well-plotted adventure story written with a sure hand, a very competent grasp of dialogue, and a fine-tuned sense of irony, which gives the story its rather dark humour”.

The silver award in the English category went to Alex Smith for her story Agency Blue, described as follows by the judges: “Whacky and sophisticated with an accomplished sense of magic realism…sassy and highly original.”

Adeline Radloff and Alex Smith both live in Cape Town.

In the Afrikaans category only one prize was awarded. Derick van der Walt from Pretoria won again, after debuting in 2007 with Lien se lankstaanskoene. This time he received a silver prize for Willem Poprok. The judges were impressed by the flowing story development, fine characterisation and surprising twists that readers will find consistently captivating. They added that “it is an exciting and strong attribute of this story that it also has an underlying theme (that does not impose itself) of diversity between the genders, races and generations”.

In the category for Sotho languages, debutante Mabonchi Motimele Goodwill from Limpopo received a silver prize for his story Ke a hwa, ke a ikepela, written in Sepedi. It is the first time a Sanlam Prize has been awarded to a Sepedi work.

All the winning titles will be available in bookstores from October 2010.

Sanlam and Tafelberg are extremely proud of the positive reaction that the Sanlam Prize elicits. Over the past 13 years many of the winning works have been awarded other prizes, among them the MER Prize for Youth Literature, the Scheepers Prize, ATKV prizes (awarded by young readers), the CP Hoogenhout Award, and M-Net prizes. Some of the works have also been published internationally. Through this competition Sanlam helps develop both readers and authors, providing a much richer literary landscape for young readers.

In her speech, Eloise Wessels, chief executive officer of NB Publishers (of which Tafelberg is an imprint), announced the theme for the next Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature, to be held in 2011. This time round the organisers will be looking for stories in which hope plays a role. The closing date for entries for the next competition is 30 June 2011.

Ends

Media Watch: "Free the Web" to Hopefully Reveal that it's not a Guerilla Marketing Campaign Tomorrow

by Sophy on 17 Mar 2010   |   

The jury is out on the intentions of the mysterious “Free the Web” Campaign that has nuzzled its way onto networking sites and advertising spaces across the net – including taking up prime Google ad space on BOOK SA (see images above).

What exactly does it mean to “Free the Web”? One ADSL discussionista has proposed that this could simply be another promise of cheap uncapped internet. But, with 12,568 fans to their Facebook group, we think there’s more to it than that. This could be good – if Free the Web were getting Telkom to slash its 4mb line rates, for instance. Or it could be cynical and awful – if it amounted to just another guerilla marketing campaign along the lines of the National Skirt Extension Project or the CanYouTwist promotion.

Do fans of Free the Web really know what they are backing or are they simply clicking and following blindly? There are zero – zero – organisational details available online, just a lot of happy-clappy Orwellifying like this:

The purpose of this page is to highlight the effect of high bandwidth costs on ordinary South African small and medium business owners as well as the man on the street.

Something big is on the horizon… the time for change has come.

It’s time to Free the Web! Be part of this movement for change!

But the fog of Free the Web’s surreptitiousness is slowly lifting: a “whois” search on thewrightidea.co.za, which redirects to the Free the Web Facebook page, reveals its registrant to be Grant Wright of Quirk e-Marketing. Finally, some real finger-pointing can commence! Grant, alternatively Quirk, what the hell is going on here?

Grant’s answer would likely be: “Wait till tomorrow” – that’s Thursday, 18 March, when more on the campaign is set to be “revealed”. BOOK SA’s money is on: Free the Web is either driven by iBurst (in which case: fail) or an iBurst-like service that’s slightly cheaper than iBurst (in which case: fail again, unless the speed is 4mb and the bandwidth is essentially uncapped). BOOK SA’s hopes are pinned on: Free the Web will blow us out of the water with a truly innovative offering that will actually bring about the unshackling of web users in SA. Ooh, can’t wait. Now, about Telkom’s line rates…

Source links

• Seabrook007 @BOOKSA
• MyBroadband.co.za Forum
• FreeTheWebSA on Twitter
• Free The Web South Africa on Facebook

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Kopano Matlwa Returns with Spilt Milk, A Parable for Our Times

by Thando on 17 Mar 2010   |   

This April from Jacana Media

Spilt Milk is the story of two passionate people who share a shameful past and a tenuous present.

Decades after a childhood love affair earns upright school principal Mohumagadi and disgraced preacher Father Bill expulsion from their communities, the two characters are brought back together under the most unlikely of circumstances.

Mohumagadi, headmistress of the elite Sekolo sa Ditlhora school for talented black children, takes in Father Bill as a teacher much to the dismay of her students and faculty. Thus begins a battle of wills and wits for the hearts and minds of the students living in the shadow of revolution and change.

About the Author

The EU Literary Award-winning Kopano Matlwa is one of South Africa’s most vibrant young writers. A medical graduate, Kopano is the author of the critically acclaimed novel Coconut. She is a founding member and chairperson of Waiting Room Education by Medical Students, a non-profit organisation run by students and is a 2010 Rhodes Scholar.

Book details

• Spilt Milk by Kopano Matlwa
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  EAN: 9781770097919
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Alan Yu Interviews André P Brink at the Man Hong Kong Literary Festival

by Chris on 16 Mar 2010   |   

Author André P Brink is a man with a lot to say – as Alan Yu found out at the recent Man Hong Kong Literary Festival. Yu caught up with Brink to chat about South African letters post-Apartheid. It makes for insightful reading:

“Language,” André Brink says, “is the starting point of literature, an invention in and through language.”  As someone who writes in both English and Afrikaans, he should know.  He tells me that since the transition to multi-racial democracy in South Africa, more literature is written in Afrikaans, often seen to be the language of racial oppression.  It is perhaps not so surprising, since Afrikaans was, in the words of Brink, “shaped in the mouths of slaves” which in a process of “creolisation” became the language of the bourgeoisie in the 19th century.

In a wide-ranging, erudite and stimulating lecture at the 2010 Man Hong Kong International Festival, held recently at the University of Hong Kong, Brink talks about South African fiction after apartheid.

He begins by observing that apartheid  has not been eliminated, but is “receding”.  “The road to freedom for the creation of literature,” he says, “still has to be walked.”

• Read the complete article at Alan Yu @ Wordpress

Book details

• ‘n Vurk in die pad deur Andre Brink
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  EAN: 9780798149969
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• A Fork in the Road by André Brink
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  EAN: 9781846552441
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Ngugi wa Thiong'o's New Book: Dreams in a Time of War, a Childhood Memoir

by Ben - Editor on 16 Mar 2010   |   

Alert! This month, Kenyan author Ngugi wa Thiong’o releases Dreams in a Time of War, a memoir that publishers Harvill Secker describe as “a mesmerising portrait of a young boy’s experiences in an African nation in flux”.

Said country being Kenya, of course. Here’s more from the blurb:

Beginning in the late 1930s, this moving and entertaining memoir describes Ngugi’s day-to-day life as the fifth child of his father’s third wife in a family that included twenty-four children born to four different mothers. Against the backdrop of World War II, which affected the lives of Africans under British colonial rule in unexpected ways, Ngugi spent his childhood as the apple of his mother’s eye before attending school to slake what was then considered a bizarre thirst for learning.

As he grows up, the wider political and social changes occurring in Kenya at this time begin to impinge on the boy’s life in both inspiring and frightening ways. Through telling the story of his grandparents and parents and of his brothers’ involvement on different sides of the violent Mau Mau uprising, Ngugi wa Thiong’o takes us back to a momentous period in Kenyan history, deftly etching a bygone era, capturing the landscape, the people and their culture, and the social and political vicissitudes of life under colonialism and war.

The reviews for the book have started to trickle in – watch out for a sampling from the best on BOOK SA later this week.

Book details

• Dreams in a Time of War by Ngugi wa Thiong’o
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  EAN: 9781846553776
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Photo courtesy Victor Dlamini

Fatima Meer, RIP: The Links

by Ben - Editor on 15 Mar 2010   |   

As widely reported, author and activist Fatima Meer died in Durban on Friday, and received a state funeral on Saturday, where Winnie Madikizela-Mandela delivered the main speech. Here are the main stories related to Meer’s death published so far:

Obituary: Mail & Guardian

Fatima Meer, the African National Congress stalwart, died in a Durban hospital on Friday afternoon at 81. She had been admitted to hospital a few weeks ago.

The former South African Broadcasting Corporation board member and sociologist, despite crippling banning orders, built up a reputation as a prolific academic and a powerful advocate of gender equality.

Meer survived an apparent assassination attempt by apartheid hitmen in 1977, and attacks in later years, which she blamed on the Black Consciousness Movement and the Inkatha Freedom Party.

• Complete article

Feature: Hamba kahle, Fatimaben: Sunday Times

He said Meer, whom Madiba affectionately called Fatimaben (meaning sister Fatima), published Higher than Hope, an early biography of Mandela while he was still in prison.

“In the latter years of his imprisonment, she sent him drafts of her manuscript for correction. After interest was expressed in a film version of the book, she suggested to Mr Mandela that he be played by Sydney Poitier, to which he agreed, in a letter to her in 1989, adding, however, that he was not sure that the American actor would accept the offer.”

Dangor said Meer visited Mandela at his home in Johannesburg in October last year.

• Complete article

Funeral coverage: IOL

A tearful Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was among the hundreds of mourners who paid their last respects to struggle activist Fatima Meer at her state funeral at the Durban Exhibition Centre yesterday.

Meer died on Friday at St Augustine’s Hospital after suffering a stroke a few weeks ago at 81.

Madikizela-Mandela said that Meer “was never truly recognised for the work that she had done during her life”.

“I will work for her home to be declared a national heritage site. May her soul rest in peace.”

• Complete article

Links from BOOK SA

• Livetweets from Meer’s burial service, Grey St Mosque to Badsha Peer Cemetery
• John Carlin interviews Fatima Meer

Photo courtesy Victor Dlamini

Welcome to Exclus1ves.co.za

by Ben - Editor on 11 Mar 2010   |   

Alert! Tonight, Exclusive Books launches its new web retail portal, Exclus1ves, at a gala do in Fourways, Johannesburg. Follow my and others’ livetweets at #x1s to learn more about the online retail revolution that Exclusives hopes to bring SA.

Marié Heese and Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani Win the 2010 Commonwealth Writers Prize - Africa Region Awards

by Ben - Editor on 11 Mar 2010   |   

Alert! Authors Marié Heese and Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani have won the Commonwealth Writers Prize – Africa region awards, for their novels The Double Crown: Secret Writings of the Female Pharaoh, which took the Best Book gong, and I Do Not Come to You by Chance, which was acknowledged as Best First Book. Heese and Nwaubani each win £1 000, and go on to compete for the overall prizes of Best Book (£10 000) and Best First Book (£5 000) in May.

The works were each selected from shortlists of seven. The announcement was made in Johannesburg this morning, at the SABC’s Radio Park campus, where Lebo Mashile – a Noma Award winner – presided over addresses by the British High Commissioner, Nicola Brewer, Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Africa Region judge Dan Ojwang, chairperson of the Africa Region prize, Elinor Sisulu and the SABC’s Phil Molefe. Brewer and the Acting High Commissioner of India, Shri Shambhu Kumaran, announced the winners.

Heese hails from Stilbaai in South Africa’s Western Cape, and is previously best-known for her children’s books. She publishes in both Afrikaans and English, and is the daughter of the revered Afrikaans author Audrey Blignaut (see her book on her mother, Audrey Blignault: uit die dagboek van ‘n vrou). The Double Crown has emerged as the winner from an extremely strong field, which included the likes of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Mark Behr, Zakes Mda and Andrew Brown.

Nwaubani keeps Nigeria’s “Best First Book” winning streak alive, following as she does in the footsteps of a certain Uwem Akpan, who rose to the heights of world literature after winning the prize last year and going on to become an Oprah Book Club choice. “I was born in Enugu, Nigeria,”, she tells African Writing in a comprehensive 2009 interview, “A year later, my parents moved to my hometown, Umuahia. I spent the first part of my childhood years in Umuahia Town—in the GRA, close to the railway station, amongst the expatriates and the Rotary Club members.” In a refreshing development for Nigerian letters, Nwaubani remains based in her home country. Her fellow shortlistees included the likes of Ghana’s Ayesha Harruna Attah and South Africa’s Alistair Morgan.

Speaking on behalf of the CWP Africa Region judges, Dan Ojwang remarked:

It is noteworthy that of the 14 books that made it onto the shortlists this year 10 are by women, which is unprecedented in the history of the CWP, Africa Region.

Given the exceptional depth and variety of books submitted for the prize, it is not possible to reflect at length about every single highpoint. However, there are a few interesting trends about which the panel of judges would wish to comment. These broad trends can be seen in the thematic content of the books, elements of interesting formal innovation and also areas of glaring problems.

One of the remarkable aspects of the entries was the high number that concentrated on human trafficking and migration. The most striking of such novels were Eyo by Abidemi Sanusi (Nigeria), On Black Sisters’ Street by Chika Unigwe (Nigeria) and Refuge by Andrew Brown (South Africa). Reading these entries, the panel of judges was struck by the way slavery, in new guises, has come to speak powerfully of the plight of a generation of Africans who have come of age at a time of destitution, political repression and out-migration—a time when home is all too often quite unhomely. Yet, in spite of the harrowing experiences presented in these novels, none of them resort to the neat endings that readers may expect after being shown so much suffering.

• Read the complete CWP Africa Region judges’ statement (doc download)

Here are condensed blurbs for both books:

The Double Crown

“I am the chosen of the Gods. I have always known that. This knowledge has been the source of my strength and power, and it is the reason why I know that those who now seek my death and desire to usurp my throne shall not succeed.” Marié Heese breathes literary life into the bare historical bones of ancient Egypt’s female pharaoh, Hatshepsut, with breathtaking success. She recuperates ancient Egypt for contemporary gender politics while also providing a highly imaginative account of how life may have been lived in the ancient world. A female leader who realizes her political ambitions in a male world, constantly confronting the challenges of wielding state power at an enormous personal cost, Hatshepsut provides a wonderful protagonist for a modern feminist readership. Hatshepsut’s voice is compelling, direct, insistent and totally believable.

I Do Not Come to You by Chance

“I do not come to you by chance. Upon my quest for a trusted and reliable foreign businessman or company, I was given your contact by the Nigerian Chamber of Commerce and Industry ….” There are few e-mail users around the world who have not received a ‘419’ letter promising them a large share of an equally obscene amount of money. We have all wondered about the people behind these scams. Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani’s novel provides some of the answers. Taking its title from the opening line of an e-mail scam letter, I Do Not Come to You by Chance provides a behind-the-scenes look at the 419 phenomenon, which takes its name from the section of the Nigerian Criminal Code which deals with advance-fee fraud.

You can read the first chapter of Heese’s The Double Crown via the Little White Bakkie preview service below (click here if it doesn’t load). Nwaubani’s UK publisher, Orion, has made chapter twelve of her book available online: click here to read an excerpt from I Do Not Come to You by Chance.

Heese has also compiled “reading notes” on her novel; take a look:

Readers Guide to The Double Crown by Marié Heese

Congratulations to both winners, who now go on to compete with other regional winners for the overall “Best Book” and “Best First Book” awards, to be announced at a ceremony held in Dehli, India, just a few weeks from now.

Best of luck to Heese and Nwaubani!.

Book details

• I Do Not Come to You by Chance by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani
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  EAN: 9780753826973
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• The Double Crown: Secret Writings of the Female Pharaoh by Marié Heese
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  EAN: 9780798150361
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Scribd.com book preview:

The Double Crown: Secret Writings of the Female Pharaoh

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Image courtesy African Writing

Damon Galgut's Newest: In a Strange Room

by Tracey on 11 Mar 2010   |   

A young man makes three journeys that take him through Greece, India and Africa. He travels lightly, simply. To those who travel with him and those whom he meets on the way – including a handsome, enigmatic stranger, a group of careless backpackers and a woman on the edge – he is the Follower, the Lover and the Guardian. Yet, despite the man’s best intentions, each journey ends in disaster. Together, these three journeys will change his whole life.

A novel of longing and thwarted desire, rage and compassion, In a Strange Room is the hauntingly beautiful evocation of one man’s search for love, and a place to call home.

“The Lover”, one of the three parts that make up In a Strange Room, has been chosen for “The O Henry Award” – the only annual award, in the United States, given to short stories of exceptional merit.

About the author

Damon Galgut was born in Pretoria in 1963. He wrote his first novel, A Sinless Season, when he was seventeen. His other books include Small Circle of Beings, The Beautiful Screaming of Pigs, The Quarry, The Good Doctor and The Impostor. The Good Doctor was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the Dublin/IMPAC Award. The Impostor won the 2008 University of Johannesburg Prize for Creative Writing, and was shortlisted for the 2009 M-Net Literary Prize and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for the African Region. He lives in Cape Town.

Book details

• In a Strange Room by Damon Galgut
  Book homepage
  EAN: 9780143026273
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