This threesome reflects seemingly quite different sensibilities but running underground are common sources, primarily a genuine sense of observation and empathy. Parenzee's fine delineation of detail, his ideological openness but strong sense of justice link well with Vonani Bila's 'makoya poetry' (rendered largely in Xitsonga with English translations). This poetry that rails in its own manner against money madness and apartheid barbarism stands apart from Finlay's quieter voice but both command reflection. After all, it is a phrase in a Finlay poem that titles this anthology. Finlay's work in general contains images of dissolution in a search for meaning from suffering.

No Free Sleeping

Literature & Fiction

Parenzee, Donald

Finlay, Alan

Bila, Vonani

Poetry

Botsotso Publishing

The contributors of this anthology make up a wide spectrum of South Africans: black, white, men and women, established and budding who write in either English or Afrikaans. Among these are writers who began their careers in the fifties (George Weideman), to those who were active in the black consciousness period of the seventies (Achmat Dangor, Chris van Wyk, Maropodi Mapalakanye) through to writers who first appeared in print in the eighties and nineties (Rayda Jacobs, Finuala Dowling, Zachariah Raphola, Roshila Nair, Roy Blumenthal, Allan Kolski Horwitz). While many of the writers in this anthology have established themselves as poets, novelists, dramatists and oral storytellers, they all choose the short story as another means of expressing a diverse South Africa of rural and urban life, white suburbia, black township, childhood, love, hate, reconciliation, the grim as well as the funny that make up the tapestry of a country as it used to be and as it is today.

Post-Traumatic: South African Short Stories

Short Stories & Anthologies

The Botsotso literary journal started in 1996 as a monthly 4 page insert in the New Nation, an independent anti-apartheid South African weekly and reached over 80,000 people at a time – largely politisized black workers and youth – with a selection of poems, short stories and short essays that reflected the deep changes taking place in the country at that time. Since the closure of the New Nation in 1999, the journal has evolved into a stand-alone compilation featuring the same mix of genres, and with the addition of photo essays and reviews. The Botsotso editorial policy remains committed to creating a mix of voices which highlight the diverse spectrum of South African identities and languages, particularly those that are dedicated to radical expression and examinations of South Africa's complex society.

Botsotso 15: jozi spoken word special edition

Botsotso

Ikasi and other plays

Diniso, Gha-Makhulu

Dramas & Plays

Kuyanuka and other Plays

Bluesology and Bofelosophy: Poetry and Essays

wa Bofelo, Mphutlane

Emotional Pain (Zulu and English Edition)

Mbanjwe, Bongekile Joyce

History & Criticism

Sindiswa Busuku-Mathese's debut collection of poetry Loud and Yellow Laughter, published by Botsotso, was awarded the 2018 Ingrid Jonker prize for poetry. 
Busuku Mathese's entry was described by one judge as 'completely original: the presentation of family history as a play, in which the narrator is an unreliable character'. The poet was praised for the 'the mix of WW2 history, the narrator's dilemmas about being adopted, and the way she manages to weave these together without ever losing her balance or falling into incongruity'. Another judge highlighted how Busuku Mathese's 'memoir in the form of a collage... offers fragments in several voices, some of them "reconstructed". [The collection] 'movingly reflects the quest of the 'The Girl Child', as intimate 'curator' of family memory and experience, to integrate the surprising puzzle that is her current self'. 
The original version of this collection was written as part of the poet's Master's thesis in Creative Writing at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. 
A collection of 39 pieces, some mystical and elliptical, some seemingly mundane snatches of prose-poetry that retain a poetic intensity, together they create an atmosphere of nostalgia tinged with a subtle yet matter-of-fact sadness. Accompanied by a series of graphic images, made up of old photographic portraits and scenes of natural beauty.

Loud and Yellow Laughter

Busuku-Mathese, Sindiswa

Meditations of a Non-White

Horwitz, Allan Kolski

A History of Disappearance

Lubala, Sarah

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Books by Botsotso Publishing