Join Jacana Media for the launch of Joburg Noir, an anthology crafted with finesse, flair and serious smarts.

Lorraine Sithole of the famous Bookworms Book Club will be in conversation with bestselling writer Niq Mhlongo, who edited the collection, and 2019 Ruth First Fellow Bongani Kona, who edited the contributors’ stories.

They’ll share the joys and excitements of the making of Joburg Noir. The highs, the lows, the dream, the selection, the why, the who, the wherefore. The best opening lines, the best closing lines, the surprises, the eye-openers, how the whole can enhance the parts, what it takes to edit a collection, and what it takes to edit the texts.

Event details

Date: Wednesday 11 November 2020
Time: 18:00 SAST
Register here

About the book

Joburg Noir is a collection of writings about memories, legends, loss, jokes, stories, myths and experiences by twenty-two gifted and versatile authors in South Africa.

It makes the reader experience present-day Johannesburg as if one were in the past.

The stories seek to understand, reconstruct, reinvent and recover this city space of loss, joy, deprivation, resistance and possibility by revealing its complex dynamics. They are funny, shocking, violent, absurd, strangely tender and memorable.

Their lasting resonance lies in the fact that they invoke the joys and traumas of the past and present, making the two to co-exist and interlock.

After reading this uncompromising and gritty anthology, the reader is bound to feel like a time-traveller who has voyaged into a magical alternate city and a reality that was either misnamed or not named at all.

The intention is to help the readers to delve into their own memories in search of pictures of their sweet childhood and fractured identities.

Contributors: Sam Mathe, Fred Khumalo, Lidudumalingani, Keletso Mopai, Sibongile Fisher, Styles Lucas Ledwaba, Mapule Mohulatsi, Khanyi Magubane, Sifiso Mzobe, Gloria Bosman, Nedine Moonsamy, Yewande Omotoso, Mabel Mnensa, Nthikeng Mohlele, Siphiwo Mahala, Nkateko Masinga, Mzuvukile Maqetuka, Sydney Mojoko, Michelle van Heerden.

Categories Fiction South Africa

Tags Bongani Kona Book events Book launches Jacana Media Joburg Noir Lorraine Sithole Niq Mhlongo Virtual book events Virtual book launches