What we’ve all been waiting for.

In a stunning turn of events, a big African literary journal has launched in South Africa. The Johannesburg Review of Books (The JRB), which debuted on 1 May, will publish reviews, essays, poetry, photographs and short stories from South Africa, Africa, and further abroad. Taking its cue from the London Review of Books and the New York of Books, The JRB will offer literary perspectives from a major urban and intellectual centre, but this time the perspectives will be African. Keeping with the times, the review is digital and available via a monthly newsletter and online (at johannesburgreviewofbooks.com).

Bookmark got in touch with the team and asked what gave them this fabulous idea and how they got it off the ground.

“Whenever a significant work of fiction or non-fiction is published, it is reviewed in literary cities around the world,” editor Jennifer Malec says. “There is the London Review of Books, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the New York Review of Books, the Berlin Review of Books, and many others. But there is no Nairobi Review of Books, no Kinshasa Review of Books. In fact, there is no ‘review of books’ based in an African city. We want to provide a space for cultural criticism on global literature and the arts originating from Johannesburg, southern Africa and Africa.

“We also want to create an environment where top-quality writing is given the space to breathe, and we are hugely encouraged by the enthusiastic response we have received to the longer pieces in our first issue, which backs up our belief that there is a market for such writing.

“For example, I have run into three people who have told me they bought Grace A Musila’s book A Death Retold in Truth and Rumour—which was largely ignored in the mainstream press—because they read the review by Makhosazana Xaba in The JRB.”

The JRB is published by Ben Williams, who as the founder of Books Live and one of the founders of the Open Book Festival needs no introduction, and edited by Malec, former Books Live editor. This dynamic team could not have timed it better amid worldwide calls for the decolonisation of the literary landscape and as African voices are truly finding their own space with a rhythm and a cadence that is truly of the continent.

I quote from JRB Editorial Advisory Panel member Philip Gourevitch, author and long-time staff writer at The New Yorker, who was editor of The Paris Review from 2005 to 2010. Gourevitch gave The JRB a long interview on the art of the literary review for the launch issue:

“I think that, as a rule, the great literary journals often arise from a particular moment and place, where there is an opening in the literary world that may or may not be aware of itself as such beforehand. Often they are started by young people who are breaking into writing about books and literature and ideas, the cultural and political life of their time and place, and their world—and they decide, ‘Why should we wait for the current gatekeepers, with their current frameworks, to make room for us? Let’s start our own magazine.’ Such magazines often have the feeling of a club, a group of friends, or of like-minded people as they start out—whether it’s The Partisan Review in the nineteen-thirties, or The Dial back in the eighteen-forties, or The New York Review of Books, which saw the opportunity to launch during a newspaper strike in New York in the sixties, and which really was a group of editors and writers who were very close friends already, calling on their friends to write and contribute. Obviously such a magazine also requires editors with a strong sense of their moment, who recognise that there is an opening for their authors to reshape the larger conversations about the culture in a way that people may not realise they’re missing or looking for, but will recognise once they get it.”

It couldn’t be said better, really, and the entire interview with Gourevitch on The JRB website is well worth the time invested.

“What is your vision for the future?” we asked.

“We’ve gathered together a formidable group of people: our Patrons are the esteemed writers Achmat Dangor, Ivan Vladislavić and Makhosazana Xaba—all three very much associated with Johannesburg—and our Contributing Editors include Bongani Madondo, Henrietta Rose-Innes, Efemia Chela, Victor Dlamini, Rustum Kozain, Niq Mhlongo and Simon van Schalkwyk. We also have an extensive Editorial Advisory Panel, featuring writers based around the world. With this brains trust and a talented pool of contributors, we hope to grow The JRB into an internationally recognised publication, encouraging other similar enterprises across the continent.”

Highlights from the first issue include new poetry by Kozain, as well as “Sailing with The Argonauts: A personal history of Christmas, queerness and Maggie Nelson” by Chela and Madondo’s review of 2016 PEN South Africa Student Writing Prize-winner Koleka Putuma’s debut collection of poetry Collective Amnesia, which reads like an extended love poem itself. Go and read it all.

“Our aim is to fill a conspicuous gap in world letters: namely, the lack of an authoritative review from Africa covering significant books from across the globe. While African literature itself is bursting at the seams, and very well-supported by digital literati (not to mention well-explored by the global academy), it’s still the case that critical voices from Africa are not as well-heard, when it comes to considering new works of fiction and non-fiction—whether these be from Cape Town, Johannesburg, Lagos, Mumbai, Toronto, Dublin or other publishing hubs—as voices from city-arbiters of literary taste like Sydney, Los Angeles, New York, and London. The JRB hopes to change that,” says their mission statement.

“We also hope provide a new space for writers from South Africa, Africa and beyond to ruminate on culture, politics, history and the arts, publishing pieces that stand up both to intellectual scrutiny and to the great wash of information that nowadays causes all but the most memorable writing to fade. To that end, we will publish reviews, essays, poetry, short fiction and photographs in a single issue each month, plus a regular sampling of African literary life on our blog.”

How best would you like the publishing and bookselling industry to use or get involved with The JRB?

“At the moment we’re looking for good writers, in all genres. While we keep a close eye on the publishing and bookselling industry, we’d also encourage people to get in touch with any bookish news or information they think deserves to be covered by The JRB. Our email address is editor@johannesburgreviewofbooks.com. We’re also on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Medium—all at the handle @joburgreview—so give us a follow on those platforms too.”