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Mail & Guardian

Literary Festivals

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Nostalgia: The fair itself carried that familiar warmth, such as readers walking slowly between stalls. Photos: Supplied
ALEX BOUCHE

In a world built for scrolling, can book fairs still survive?

A quiet conversation at the Kingsmead Book Fair became a reflection on shrinking attention spans, digital culture and the fragile future of reading

  • Lesego Chepape
4 min read
The Time of the Writer Festival returns with a bold hybrid vision, using literature to challenge power, amplify voices and reconnect communities across borders
AFRICAN STORYTELLING

How the Time of the Writer Festival is taking the stories to the people

The Time of the Writer Festival returns with a bold hybrid vision, using literature to challenge power, amplify voices and reconnect communities across borders

  • Riley Hlatshwayo
7 min read
The MTN Bushfire Festival in eSwatini, which included a poetry and acoustics showcase. (Umsamo we Culture)
AFRICAN POETS

‘Travel has been my classroom’

From eSwatini to Johannesburg, poets are finding new voices through travel, collaboration and the transformative power of cultural exchange

  • Rolland Simpi Motaung
6 min read
One of Kintu’s singular achievements is that Makumbi doesn’t “write back” in this fashion; instead of centring colonialism, Uganda (and, earlier on, Buganda) are depicted on their own terms.
DURBAN

Kintu, a refusal to ‘write back’

Time of the Writer is cancelled. Instead of hearing Jennifer Makumbi speak, we read her first novel

  • Theresa Mallinson
4 min read