#110. Go to a book reading and be enchanted by a Zimbabwean writer who has everybody talking. Her name is Petina Gappah and her book is “An Elegy for Easterly”, a collection of short stories that has garnered gushing reviews comparing her to writers as diverse as Anton Chekhov and Chinua Achebe. Continue reading
#14: Attend the Sunday Times Literary Awards dinner. The Sunday Times book awards were held at Summer Place on Saturday night. I used to be an organiser and now have joined the ranks of the guests — which I have to say is infinitely more pleasant as I didn’t have to sweat any of the detail. The theme of the night was “Writers in Troubled Times” and it left me wondering why South Africa’s writers seem so dislocated from the place, mostly unable or unwilling to engage with this country or to attempt to define some part of it. Continue reading