events
Following the success of her first book, Disaster at Gogo’s Spaza, Salaminah has come up with a second book also targeting young readers between the ages of 6 and 9 years old. In the book, Tumi and the twins are back again, this time, Gogo’s Goodies Spaza transforms into a culinary battleground during The Great Soweto Cook-Off! When Gogo Tina decides to enter the prestigious competition, Tumi thinks she has the perfect plan: she and her twin cousins will surprise Gogo and help her win the competition by any creative means necessary..
This is a book about a changing South Africa, mirrored in and made vivid by the lives of the Bam family. This book is, in short story of a family that survived and even benefited from colonial conquest that managed to keep integrity and self-assurance under the degradation of apartheid and that went on to comfort the difficulties and opportunities of the post 1994 dispensation.
Patient 12A is Lesedi Molefi’s absorbing memoir, reflecting on his time spent in a psychiatric clinic in 2016. With vulnerability and candour, Lesedi reflects on the moments, large and small, that led him there. It is at once a personal history, an observation of how childhood experiences can have a profound effect on the adults we become, and a commentary on how mental illness remains a difficult conversation in black families. Patient 12A is Lesedi Molefi’s absorbing memoir, reflecting on his time spent in a psychiatric clinic in 2016. With vulnerability and candour, Lesedi reflects on the moments, large and small, that led him there.
On The Stage of Time” chronicles extraordinary life of a school girl who became steeped in ANC struggle for freedom I the mid-70s. As a teenager Sikose Mji became involved in clandestine underground and mass mobilization work which drew the attention of the Special Branch compelling her to leave South Africa to find refuge in the ANC community in exile. Amb. Mji is a former senior civil servant and diplomat who has served in Warsaw, Cotonou and Lusaka
Following the runaway success that was Thicker Than Water is The Family Matriarch by Rudzani Khashane. The book has all the hallmarks of a juicy family saga. Join us for the launch where the author will be in conversation with Lorraine Sithole.
Join Ouma Katrina Esau on her inspiring journey and discover the power of language and the importance of never giving up on your dreams.
Esau Katrina and her family are forbidden from speaking their language, N|uu, but they continue to do so secretly. For many years N|uu is rarely spoken and nearly disappears. But Katrina is determined to save her language.
N|uu holds stories of hunters and gatherers, of starry nights and connections to our ancestors. It’s a language that sings the songs of the land.
Come learn from one of the best Children’s book author in the country. Refiloe is the best-selling and award-winning author of How many ways can you say hello? and How many ways can you say goodbye? Yes Yanga!, We Are One, Know My Name, You Are Loved and Part of a Team. Her awards include a South African Literary Award and South African Book Awards. We Are One is included in the 2022 IBBY Honour List (International Board on Books for Young People) and was awarded the 2022 IBBY SA Picture Book Award
The book tells the tale of a nameless woman plagued by visions. She works for the Good Foundation and its museum, a place filled with artifacts from the family’s various explorations in Africa, the Good family members all being descendants of Captain John Good, of KING SOLOMON’S MINES fame. The novel explores how the continent’s past continues to haunt its present and examines the collusion of colonialism, patriarchy and capitalism in creating and normalising a certain kind of womanhood.
Folklore Literature Talks as part of the Folklore Festival 24 – Folklore Festival is all about building community through collaborations that celebrate and embrace diversity! At the heart of it is storytelling, intergenerational dialogue and showcasing and sharing our Indigenous Knowledge Systems through music, poetry, literature, art, and dance! Entrance to the session is free – please book your seat on the link below – https://qkt.io/FolkloreFestival2024BookCircleCapital12September
Join us for the launch of two books from some of the greatest minds in the country, Lukhanyo Publishers. NGOs, Africa and Global Power by Prof. Siphamandla Zondi and Reading: Biko: Critical and Reflective Essays.
Join us for the launch of Cross of Gold – an expansive, heartrending, anger-inducing portrayal of Black life in South Africa after the Sharpeville massacre of 1960. Through the experiences of a range of characters, chiefly Mandla Zikode and his mother, Sindisiwe, the novel portrays the Sharpeville massacre and its brutal aftermath, the hardship of exile, and the brutal impact of the apartheid regime on Black lives and personhood.
Join us for the launch of The City Is Mine with world renowned South African author Niq Mhlongo. Mangi searches for meaning as he makes his way through the streets of Joburg in The City Is Mine. “The city is mine is a book of harsh grind and grime and the realities of basic needs for survival in the city: a world of street vendors, domestic workers, taxi drivers, ladies of the night, vetkoeks, hard liquor, traditional shops, petty thieves and hardened criminals who bring and carry with them the smells and noises of the inner city and townships” – Mpush Ntabeni.
Join the conversation on our creative platform #WeTheFolk for 30 days of Contemplating 30 years of Freedom in 3 Cities on 24 August 2024 at the theatre at Artistry, Sandton ,Johannesburg for a Book Fair curated by BOOK CIRCLE CAPITAL and facilitated by Pendoring award-winner, SEWELA LANGENI themed: ‘Enter a generation of Young Women Writers’, we present authors, JANINE JELLARS & ZIBUZETHU SITHOLE
join us for the launch of Izimpabanga Zomhlaba on Tuesday, 13 August 2024. This is a new isiZulu translation that brings his work to the masses, new for students by Prof Makhosazana Xaba. Frantz Fanon became one of the most important thinkers on 20th century colonialism, racial segregation, and this, his magnificent work, which is timeless along with Orientalism and The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Crossroads of the World is an incisive study of psychology of the colonized and their path to freedom.
What happens when a novelist, a poet, an artist and an art critic walk into a bookshop? Join us for a discussion and reading of works by David Mann, Anna Stroud, Salimah Valiani and Serena Moodley. RSVP on email address below.
Book Circle Capital is proud to collaborate with Folkore Festival 2024. The Festival is aimed at driving a gathering of communities to celebrate each other’s culture, creativity and heritage. To have resonant conversations, to hold space for our shared values and to contribute to nation-building. This year’s theme is centred around contemplating 30 years of Freedom – #WETHEFOLK. This year, Festival goers can expect a rich line-up of Artivists and Storytellers: from authors, filmmakers, thespians, and oral traditionalists, to poets, selectors, sound curators and musicians.
Three book sessions are planned during the 30 day celebration starting with the first session that will be held in Pretoria on 9 August 2024 in line with the Women’s Month focus. Visit – https://folklore.community/ for the full line up and tickets info
Bring the kids to experience the magic. Take this amazing journey with Gregory Vuyani Maqoma, multi-award-winning dancer and choreographer, through his extraordinary life, and feel the magic of dance in this astonishing tale.
June has worked hard for her family, but she is starting to feel like the dull accountant trope. She is safe and comfortable and bored. June wants more. And on the eve of the new year, when the radio DJ encourages listeners to make the most of it, June feels like he’s talking to her, and she decides to make a vision board — magazine cutouts, silver glitter and all.
Join us for an engaged discussion around the critical work of Black women’s nonfiction, and the urgent need for creative and radical platforms of support. In conversation will be Momtaza Mehri, Panashe Chigumadze, Victoria Collis-Buthelezi and Cassava Republic Press founder and Director Bibi Bakare-Yusuf. This unique gathering is collaboratively presented by Cassava Republic Press, the Johannesburg Institute for Advance Study (JIAS), the Centre for the Study of Race, Gender & Class (RGC), and Book Circle Capital.
Join us for the launch of “Not Afraid of Greatness: From the Pen of a Provocateur” is Acting Judge Bongani Luthuli’s attempt at narrating his first draft of history as well as some of the thoughts that vex him and keep him awake at night. It is an antidote to invisibility and the writer writes not so much as an attempt to curate an intellectual legacy but to create his own scholarship based largely on his life experiences and his intellectual curiosity. It details some of his most operant cases and exposes the reader to his triple heritage of the law, religion and intellectualism.
Join us for the launch of Coming Home To Yourself by Yvette Ratshikhopha. “As women, we give much of ourselves to others, often leaving nothing for ourselves. This book is meant to guide you home to yourself through insightful notes in each chapter, reflective questions and affirmations that will help you find the answers to guide you back to your authentic self. So you can live a life that is true to you, honour yourself, understand your needs and love yourself better”.
Join us for the launch of We Were Always Here: Stories of Black Inventors Across the African Diaspora. The books tells the unknown stories of the innovation and ingenuity of Africans around the world. These stories include heart-rending accounts of African American inventors at the turn of the 20th century who struggled to have their inventions recognised under relentless racism. In the modern era, discover inventors from the African continent who found answers to issues that are particular to their situations.
Queenie Jenkins is a 25-year-old Jamaican British woman living in London, straddling two cultures and slotting neatly into neither. She works at a national newspaper, where she’s constantly forced to compare herself to her white middle class peers. After a messy break up from her long-term white boyfriend, Queenie seeks comfort in all the wrong places…including several hazardous men who do a good job of occupying brain space and a bad job of affirming self-worth.
As Queenie careens from one questionable decision to another, she finds herself wondering, “What are you doing? Why are you doing it? Who do you want to be?”—all of the questions today’s woman must face in a world trying to answer them for her. Come meet Candice Carty-Williams in conversation with Cheeky Natives!
Positively Me is told with gut wrenching honesty, Nozibele Mayaba is at her most vulnerable in this brave account about what it means to live and love beyond HIV. She went public with her story in a video that when viral and launched her onto a new path. Nozibele, who has since gotten married and recently became a mother, has made it her mission to hold open conversations about her journey living with HIV. Join us for what promises to be a riveting and life changing conversation.
Come meet queer authors and activists Angelo C Louw and Kabelo Maleke wa Ncube as they officially launch their respective debut titles, The Problem with Black People and Taverning After 9. They will be joined by former UNCUT editor Zenaida Martin in a discussion on queerness in African literature, as they reflect on their own literary work. Louw’s The Problem with Black People is a collection of his writing spanning his decade-long journalistic career, which focuses on issues of racial oppression, and its knock-on impact on queer communities. Makeke wa Ncube’s Taverning After 9 is a refreshing work of fiction centering queer characters set in an Mphumalunga township. The protagonist Paballo’s life is turned upside down after meeting a new, and dangerous, love interest – who takes him on incredible highs and, equally low, lows.
I Do … Don’t I? is the much-anticipated sequel to the popular novel The Thing with Zola. It continues the sparkling and tender love story of free-spirited Zola and charismatic Mbali, traversing the vibrant landscapes of Kigali and Johannesburg as they navigate a long-distance relationship and the question of commitment. Will they say I do?
This book is an incredible chronicle of life challenges, each of which would floor the life of any lesser person. As the title proclaims, I Survived It ALL, is a story of resilience and the triumph of the human spirit as manifested in this one woman’s life. This is not to mention the difficulties of a forced, child marriage, into a security establishment where the escape plot is the stuff of a movie. Then there is the struggle for a basic education, to be eked out in the midst of an insensitive and abusive bunch of boy classmates. And what was supposed to be the final bliss in a marriage of choice becomes a nightmare of neglect and abuse. And the book title says it all – I Survived It All.
The first edition of A Life of Purpose is about Wiseman’s resilience and determination in the face of economic adversity and political repression. It is as much about the forging of his professional career as it is about the formation of his foundational values, work ethic, and leadership skills. This second edition, which includes the original chapters of the first edition, describes Wiseman’s life and achievements from 2006 to 2023.
Join us for a discussion of “Women in Crime” focusing on the latest books by Angela Makholwa and Fiona Snyckers. The Reed Dance Stalker by Angela Makholwa is a gripping thriller that delves into the dark side of the human psyche. With its suspenseful narrative and well-drawn characters. It kept me on the edge of my seat from beginning to end! The Hidden focuses on a seemingly normal American family whose lives are turned upside down following a terrorist attack. Secrets are revealed and lives are changed forever. All in all nothing is what it seems.
Join us for a one-of-a-kind event. Margaret Busby is in town, join us as we celebrate her world-renowned book New Daughters of Africa through reading and poetry. Some of the daughters featured in the book will be there – Phillippa De Villiers, Zukiswa Wanner, and Vangile Gantsho.
Margaret Busby’s groundbreaking anthology Daughters of Africa illuminated the “silent, forgotten, underrated voices of black women” (Washington Post). New Daughters of Africa continues that mission for a new generation, bringing together a selection of overlooked artists of the past with fresh and vibrant voices that have emerged from across the globe in the past two decades, from Antigua to Zimbabwe with numerous South African contributors.
This book is both a tribute and a deliberation on Mzala Nxumalo’s intellectual work. Nxumalo’s death in 1991 robbed the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party of one of their most prolific writers, a revolutionary intellectual and thinker. His death was a huge loss, particularly at a time when his thinking skills were much needed during both the negotiation period and the time of rebuilding the ANC in the country. This though-provoking book considers the value of Mzala’s work in the context of contemporary South Africa’s left politics.
For three young women in Joburg, the new age of internet celebrity presents them with obstacles, opportunities, opulence and a chance at fame, fortune and fierce fashion. As Lin, Lebo and Mbali jostle to take their places in the fame hierarchy, their ambitions, aspirations and agendas collide. Their wins and woes not only affect one another, but can mean that they either individually rise or collectively crumble. Will Lin’s past threaten her future? Will Lebo’s (self-)sabotage prevent her return to the top? Will Mbali’s reign as the Queen of Gossip continue – or reach a dead end? The choices they make can balance or break their entire ecosystem
This book will help you recognise the thoughts, feelings, and beliefs that stand in your way of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual fulfillment. It will equip you with the agency to reframe these barriers into positive energy that will catalyse and catapult you into action. With short, easy-to-digest pep talks, you can read this book from cover to cover or choose a specific chapter to read when you need a little support and inspiration. Join us as we talk to Prof. Alistair Mokoena.