The Johannesburg Review of Books. We are @ joburgreview on most platforms – see you there!
Joined February 2014
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21 Dec 2025
We leap on the flat dry grass.
One hundred lesbians? More.
Queer women everywhere.
It’s as queer as the eye can see.
The JRB presents poetry by Deborah Seddon, from Magnitude:
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21 Dec 2025
But the wind is not the weather.
Water flows, the bird has flown.
I am not a paltry griever
and my mother’s not a tomb.
The JRB presents poetry by Dawn Garisch, from The Consulting Room: johannesburgreviewofbooks.co…
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21 Dec 2025
Although jail thickens the skin,
birthing its chitin fold
The beetle will teach you how to turn mud into gold
To unfold your hind wings for a smooth take-off.
The JRB presents previously unpublished poetry by Sandile Ngidi:
johannesburgreviewofbooks.co…
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20 Dec 2025
The JRB presents ‘The Nazi Insurgence Reaches Blairgowrie’, an excerpt from Werner Pretorius’s debut collection of short fiction, Lone Wolf Living.
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17 Dec 2025
The JRB presents an excerpt from Robert Lowell’s Imitations and the Cold War: Containment, Leakage, Anarchy, the new book by our Academic Editor, Simon van Schalkwyk.
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17 Dec 2025
From Douala to Yaounde, a philosophical journey—Sanya Osha encounters the contradictions fueling Cameroon’s fertile intellectual culture: johannesburgreviewofbooks.co…
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17 Dec 2025
She could translate lived experience into art and return it with dignity—Sean Jacobs honours the late Zöe Wicomb:
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16 Dec 2025
Happy #janeausten250 day! To celebrate, why not revisit Helen Moffett's 2020 novel Charlotte, which tells the story of Pride and Prejudice's Charlotte Lucas, who marries the unfortunate Mr Collins after Lizzy Bennet spurns him? Enjoy ⤵️
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16 Dec 2025
Muthi Nhlema and Ivor W Hartmann discuss trust, inspiration, writer’s block, and Nhlema’s latest work ‘Piss Corpse’, which was selected to be the debut story for ZamaShort, a new imprint specialising in publishing short stories by African authors.
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16 Dec 2025
‘Performing poetry is a naked affair, but I’d rather be naked than take up residence behind a mask.’
Khadija Tracey Heeger in conversation with Makhosazana Xaba:
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15 Dec 2025
Kevin Goddard reviews What is Owed? by Kelwyn Sole—a poet’s summing up of a life dedicated both to verse and to activism in South Africa.
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15 Dec 2025
Sean Jacobs reviews Slow Poison by Mahmood Mamdani, a rich and textured account of Ugandan and postcolonial African politics, and a layered personal history.
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15 Dec 2025
Barbara Boswell reviews Elleke Boehmer’s Ice Shock, a novel saturated with extremes of love and increasingly calamitous climate events.
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15 Dec 2025
The JRB Fiction Issue has arrived!
In this edition we celebrate short fiction, from the mysterious to the sublime, by way of the South African gothic (PLUS ALSO reviews, interviews, poetry, essays and all good things).
Unwrap your present here: johannesburgreviewofbooks.co…
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15 Dec 2025
The day is today. The moment is now. Well, the moment is actually a few hours from now. But The JRB, that slow train, is pulling out of the station, a BUMPER issue in tow. Want it first? Subscribe (always free) ⤵️
bit.ly/TheJRBSubscribe
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14 Dec 2025
Cometh the hour, cometh the issue. It's almost time for the next edition of The JRB. And what an action-packed edition it is! Want it before everybody else? Subscribe here (always free) ⤵️
bit.ly/TheJRBSubscribe
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12 Dec 2025
There's a hint in the air, a rumour on the wind. Is The JRB is sending a fresh edition to the digital presses? Yes! It's time for our annual Fiction Issue, which also features poetry, reviews, interviews, and more. Get it before everyone else. It's free⤵️
bit.ly/TheJRBSubscribe
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14 Oct 2025
Zoë Wicomb, the pioneering South African author and academic, has died in her home of Glasgow, Scotland. She was 77 years old.
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The JRB retweeted
22 Aug 2025
The children have their spleens burst open.
The children’s skulls are cracked torn apart
bone blown open. The children have no eyes.
The children are torn apart small
torsos shorn...
New poetry by Rustum Kozain johannesburgreviewofbooks.co… via @joburgreview
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