Revolutionising South African Literature: Jacana Media’s Collaboration with DSAC and ANFASA

Jacana Media is delighted to announce a contract from the Department of Sports, Art, and Culture (DSAC) and the Academic and Non-Fiction Authors Association of South Africa (ANFASA) to publish work by five new authors writing across South Africa’s official languages.

These talented writers have been selected by DSAC in collaboration with ANFASA as part of their new initiative, DSAC Publishing Hub.

Jacana Media looks forward to sharing these authors’ titles with you and to work with ANFASA and DSAC on developing a dynamic literary community in South Africa, growing writers, editors and publishers in all of South Africa’s languages.

Jacana Media’s exciting new imprint, Vela Books, will house the work of these and other writers, writing in South African languages. Vela means ‘to emerge’ in isiZulu, and with Vela Books, Jacana Media celebrates emerging writers, and reading in all of South Africa’s languages.

Meet the authors whose books will be published under the Vela Books imprint in February 2024:

A news editor at Inkonjane FM, Bulelani Matshoba writes fiction from Flagstaff, Eastern Cape. His upcoming book is titled Akwaba Ndandingambonanga and is written in isiXhosa.
Mukovhe Radzilani hails from Benoni. His book Davha La Mayiayhathu is written in Tshivenda.
Currently living in Bloemfontein, Bönham Jayden Jimmy Kukari is a language practitioner who writes in Afrikaans. The title of his upcoming book is Die Kleine Klitse.
The youngest of the five authors, ‘Puna’ Motshegofatsi Pitsane comes from Kuruman in the Northern Cape. She writes in Setswana and will make her debut as a 13-year-old author with her novel Molayakgosi.
Elias Thapelo Mailula’s book, Ke Mararankodi, has been written in Sepedi.