The seventh edition of Wordsetc, South Africa’s foremost literary journal, has just reached the shelves! The publication continues to showcase the best of South African literature. This time around it focuses on crime fiction as a theme. Guest edited by author and editor Joanne Hichens the edition explores the ins and out of the genre, the motivation of crime writers to write crime fiction, and takes a look too at real-life crime in our society.
Read all about Margie Orford’s success – how she makes crime pay – with her Clare Hart series, in the main profile by Sam Beckbessinger.
There are also illuminating essays by writers such as Hichens, Jassy Mackenzie, Sarah Lotz, Richard Kunzmann, Roger Smith, Helen Moffett, Andrew Brown, Justice Malala, Emma Chen, Thembelani Ngenelwa and Megan Voysey-Braig. It’s a feast of reading for the literati or those who simply can’t get enough of South African literature.
Contents at a glance:
Mains
Personal notes: First loves: Justice Malala remembers the crime thrillers of his youth
Essay: Of heroes and villains: Jassy Mackenzie sizes up different characters in krimis
Real life: With best intentions: Andrew Brown on the humiliation of an innocent man
Feature: Oscar replies: The intrigue of Bubbles Schroeder’s murder continues by Carla Chait
Profile: The queen of crime fiction: Margie Orford lets the blood flow on her pages by Sam Beckbessinger
Essay: A little bit of ultraviolence : Richard Kunzmann finds it unavoidable, even necessary
Essay: Community matters: Novelist Joanne Hichens guards her neighbourhood
Essay: Sex and crime: The portrayal of prostitution in local crime novels by Nora Krüger
Essay: Fictional justice: Sarah Lotz, writer of Exhibit A, ruminates on the growth of the legal thriller
Real life: A letter to my killer: Writer Thembelani Ngenelwa relives the day he was shot and left dead
Real life: Crimes of passion: Poet Fungisayi Sasa ponders this ugly British stain
Perspectives: Crime and punishment: Five South Africans offer their views on the scourge of crime, as told to Phakama Mbonambi
Regulars
Letters: How readers feel about us
Fiction: Burning A short story by Megan Voysey-Braig
Book reviews & etc
A look at the latest local and international reads
Appraisal: A man of our times: How Deon Meyer revived the local crime thriller
Fiction: Poppy A short story by Helen Moffett
How I write: My life of crime: Crime writer Roger Smith examines the “what ifs” in his stories
Lifestyle
Travel: Up the River Niger: Joanne Rushby journeys to Timbuktu the hard way
Travel: A taste of Russia: Bronwyn McLennan’s enchanting visit
Food & drink: Served up the Chinese way: Emma Chen on her life, love for good food and her new book
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Visit us at www.wordsetc.co.za
Subscription is R170 for four editons.
For more information, write to: info@wordsetc.co.za
Wordsetc is in need of some stellar book reviewers to take on the latest batch of books that have made their way to our door.
We’ve got a long list of titles to choose from and reviewers get to keep the book. Our deadline is the end of the month, so write to Flamencomail@gmail.com asap to claim your patch of the next Wordsetc!
Wordsetc is looking for book reviewers. The next edition will be out at the beginning of April. There’s no pay but you get to keep the book and get your name in this classy journal. If you are interested, please respond to info@wordsetc.co.za.
By turning to books to tell his complicated life story, Barack Obama successfully sold his grand vision for his country that would otherwise have viewed him as too exotic, and perhaps, unelectable, because of his race and Islamic name.
This fourth edition of Wordsetc, South Africa’s foremost literary journal, looks at the life of the US President-elect through the prism of literature. Inside Obama the politician there’s Obama the writer. The edition also looks at what he stands for and the unprecedented results of the 2008 US presidential election. In addition to the main profile, there are plenty of in-depth essays offering different perspectives on what Obama represents.
Contents at a glance
In the main profile Wordsetc editor and publisher Phakama Mbonambi notes that Obama used a stirring memoir (Dreams From My Father) to sell his life story and convince a sceptical electorate that his name and heritage may be exotic to a US audience but he was, in fact, electable to the ultimate public office – the Oval Office. His roots as a writer are also explored, with his mother looming large.
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Obama: From Promise to Power by David Mendell, reviewed by Phakama Mbonambi
At a Democratic Convention in Boston during the 2004 presidential race, a little known senator from Illinois called Barack Obama gave a keynote address that sought to unify the US.
He said there were no red states for Republicans and no blue states for Democrats; that there was no America for whites, blacks and Latinos but one United States of America for all.
Many at the convention shrieked with delight and many more were moved to tears. His powerful speech catapulted Obama to political stardom and helped him launch his current history-making run for the White House with a promise of change.
With Obama-mania in full swing across the world, it is timely to get a book that looks at his rise to political superstardom.
Journalist David Mendell followed Obama for three years, covering his political ascent. So he knows his subject intimately, enabling him to paint a well-rounded portrait of Obama, a man who has become synonymous with clean politics and hope.
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We are busy with the fourth edition of Wordsetc. We’re looking for excellent book reviewers. There’s no pay but you get to keep the book and you become part of the exciting and ever-growing Wordsetc family!
Books are chosen by Wordsetc. If you are keen, please come back to me – Flamencomail@gmail.com.
Wordsetc: What third edition is about
Apt for Women’s Month, the third edition is a dedicated to women writers. It’s called “Women & Words”. It looks at the gender issues through the prism of literature. It has some exciting and stimulating content. The lead story is about Olive Schreiner, written by Heather Parker Lewis, who describes herself as a Schreiner groupie. Other contributors are Jo-Anne Richards (My Brother’s Book), who writes about how she composes her characters as well as Anne Landsman (The Rowing Lesson). There’s also an exciting story about the plight of Mumbai bar dance girls, while local women publishers tell us what makes them choose manuscripts – gender or quality.
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