
You are Invited to the South African Book Awards – 2023 to be hosted online on Tuesday, 3 October @ 12pm (South African Time). These annual Book Awards recognize books that are popular with Booksellers and the public, and celebrate the creativity and skills of Authors, Publishers, and their support teams, who came together in the past year to entertain, educate, and inform us. South Africa has a rich literary history, including 2 Nobel prizes for Literature. We encourage everyone to read more, support our Authors and Publishers, and buy these and and books from their local Bookstores. After a process of selection and voting the following have been shortlisted in the 4 categories below: Fiction > Doolhof by Rudie […]
The South African Booksellers Association would like to congratulate Ugan Poobalan, and the Van Schaik Team on his appointment as Managing Director of Van Schaik Bookstores. Ugan has a long history in bookselling starting with Juta Bookstores, and with over 18 years at Van Schaik Bookstore, he has a wealth of experience in the industry and the Academic Bookselling sector. Van Schaik Bookstores have been long standing members and their team have been active participants in the SA Booksellers Association. The Association looks forward to continue working with Ugan and his team to promote Academic Bookselling, Bookselling, a Culture of Reading and furthering Education in South Africa. We would also like to convey our best wishes to Stephan Erasmus the […]
Tan Twan Eng splits his time between Malaysia and South Africa. He came to SA to study for a Master’s degree in law at the University of Cape Town. South Africa has a long and rich literary history. We need to protect and preserve it. The Copyright Amendment Bill threatens authors livelihoods by removing protections and placing minimal consequences for those who steal their intellectual and creative property. Copyright Infringement is not a victimless crime. It is not the paper and ink you are paying for, but the “10 years” it takes to research, write, review, edit, and the lifetime before that developing the skills and art to tell a story in words. ‘Books need time’: Tan Twan Eng’s new […]

Dear Readers, Booksellers are the curators of our local community’s primary knowledge resources. This is more of a calling than a job. It is not for the faint-hearted nor those averse to risk. In fact, as with our compatriots on the front-lines of the war against Covid-19 in medical care casualty wards, few in this profession would be practising for the sake of self-enrichment. It is a higher desire than profit to educate our young, inspire our adults and exercise the minds of our aged. Our doctors depend on books, so too every facet of our lives is influenced by readership. If it were not so, every post-apocalyptic scenario would not depict freedom of speech and information as being essential […]

The South African book trade lost another stalwart on 12 December last year, when the death of LAPA’s fiction publisher Cecilia Britz stunned the Afrikaans book community. Britz started her publishing career at Perskor, and later worked as a story editor at Huisgenoot. She joined LAPA in 2004 and gained tremendous success with her Romanza division. Managing Director at LAPA, Sylvia de Wet, says her legacy will live on at the publisher: “Die nalatenskap wat Cecilia agtergelaat het is só sterk dat dit voel asof sy nog leef. Ons voel haar teenwoordigheid nog elke dag op kantoor, want Cecilia se skeppende gees is so verweef met alles wat LAPA is dat sy voortleef in alles wat ons doen. Dít wat […]

In 2019, many readers cultivated the art of not giving a damn while managing their wallets like grown-ups, despite clear indications that everything is well and truly messed up. Or at least, that is what the top 20 bestseller chart seems to tell us, and the prevalence of titles with the f-word on it. Mark Manson’s self-help classic, The Art of Not Giving a F*ck, outsold all other books by some margin and then some, contributing nearly R1 million per month to bookshop coffers. The sequel, Everything is F*cked, published in May last year, shot all the way to no. 10 on the back of the first instalment. Not to be outdone, South Africa’s own Sam Beckbessinger’s Manage Your Money […]
READ Educational Trust’s annual Word Warrior Competition has always drawn attention to the creative young wordsmiths in South Africa, and last year’s competition proved no different! The 2018 Word Warrior Competition required all entrants (aged nine through 16) to craft a story around Detective WW Inkomba (which means ‘clue’ in Zulu and Xhosa). Imaginations were encouraged to run wild in terms of who or what this detective was. This year’s first prize was awarded to young Griffin Robb of Kommetjie Primary School. Griffin’s story was entitled, ‘Jungle Trouble’. Griffins story focused on WW Inkomba, the ‘racooniest of all racoons’, who saved the day when the Bear Squad tried to rob the jungle ‘Bank-tree’, filled with fruit. Chaos ensued […]

One woman. One continent. Vagabond is Lerato Mogoatlhe’s story of her travels through twenty-one countries in Africa. Vagabond is a poetic, raw and honest diary of Lerato’s travels through Africa. “Watching Elizabeth and her family dance, the compound ringing with their joyful laughter, I’m ashamed of myself for belittling their home and sniggering at the crumbling buildings and shaking my head in despair at the woman sitting outside her doorless hut with her son, too conditioned to recognise that what I first think of as a place that’s not fit for habitation is actually a home.” – Kakuma refugee camp, Turkana, Kenya, 2011 From meeting President Mbeki at an event in Timbuktu to hanging out with one […]

The Cheeky Natives is a literary podcast primarily focused on the review, curatorship and archiving of black literature. Founded by Dr. Alma-Nalisha Cele and Letlhogonolo Mokgoroane, the podcast is a platform dedicated to the celebration of all things literary. This is done through the reviews of books, poetry and occasionally theatre performances, interspersed with author discussions at book signings and readings. Dr. Alma-Nalisha Cele is a doctor in public practice, having graduated from Wits in 2016. She has a strong interest in the socio-economics of health as it relates to public health and plans to pursue further studies in this area. An avid bibliophile who has been reading since the age of 4, she credits books as having […]

The READ Group is pleased to announce the launch of The READ Institute, a leading South African training provider in the Early Childhood Development (ECD) arena. As part of the READ Group, The READ Institute is built on the foundation of READ Educational Trust. This proudly South African NGO has worked tirelessly in teacher training and school resource provisioning, actively promoting literacy through successful programmes, since its inception in 1979. The READ Institute offers three different ECD qualifications: and FET Certificate (NQF level 4), a Higher Certificate (NQF level 5), and a Diploma (NQF level 6). All three qualifications are accredited by SAQA, the Education, Training and Development Practices Sector Education and Training Authority (ETDP SETA), and Higher Education […]

The count-down is on to the 2019 South Africa Children’s Book Fair (SACBF) which will be held at the Blue Wing Conference and Events Venue, Ticketpro Dome in Northgate. Running from 30 May – 2 June, the mandate of SACBF is to encourage children to get into the healthy habit of reading thus entrenching a culture at an early age. The goals of the Children’s Book Fair are to create a platform for children’s books writers to get exposure, provide a large scale opportunity for various stakeholders in the children’s books industry to interact and; encourage authors to continue telling stories that are easily readable and in the context of the African child. This year’s event marks the […]

The book industry forms an integral part of a country’s education system and is filled with a variety of professionals that play a specific role in the business of books. However, the average person on the street generally knows very little about what it means to be a publisher or an independent bookseller; highly popularized professions like doctor or accountant tend to be more sought after. Careers in the book industry is a brand new feature that will give the professions in the industry a voice. We will showcase the breadth and depth of the available career options through talking to active professionals within the industry. In this issue we chat to: Sibongile Machika Associate Editor – Pan Macmillan […]
Businesses in the educational sector operate in an ever-changing, tech savvy, digital centric market. Leading academic bookseller Van Schaik Bookstore has embraced the challenge with their innovative offering, SmartSWOT a digital learning solution, that links to a mobile app filled with curriculum-based resources, and brings textbook publishers, educators and learners onto one interactive platform. “SmartSWOT is a digital learning ecosystem that goes beyond the e-Textbook experience. In a nutshell, it is a digital learning solution based in an app, that enables blended learning – classroom teaching supported by digital technology and resources to be used at home,” says Stephan Erasmus, MD of Van Schaik Bookstore. Students install the SmartSWOT Learning App on a device of their choice at […]
The South African Booksellers Association wishes to express its concern with the Copyright Amendment Bill introduced to Parliament. Support for the need for new Legislation The SA Booksellers Association supports the updating of existing legislation (Copyright Act of 1978) that is over 40 years old, the alignment of legislation with the realities of the 21st century and new technologies, and appreciates the need to enhance the protection of creators of content. Reservations regarding the Copyright Amendment Bill The Association however has serious reservations regarding provisions in the bill that do not afford authors, as creators of the written word, protection and compensation for their talent, innovation, skills and hard work. While we appreciate the challenges in South […]

Soweto-born chef Lesego Semenya, well known as LesDaChef, shares his journey from the corporate world to being a chef, and offers township cuisine with a twist in his debut cookbook Dijo: My Food, My Journey . “My goal as a township-born African chef trained in fine-dining cuisine is to remove all the snobbery and showcase the important parts of our food: the stories and memories behind each dish, and the rich and beautiful heritage that comes with it.” This book is an affirmation of South African cuisine, its heritage and its unique flavours. Full of mouth-watering recipes such as Cape Malay Pickled Fish, Spicy Trotters, Asian-style Oxtail, Smoorsnoek with Croutons and Mint Chimichurri Crusted Lamb Rack with Mint […]

In a beautiful country with a rugged landscape, the stark reality is that the journey to equality and education for all is equally rough, where poor literacy levels still abound, 24 years into democracy. In as much as all eyes are on our education system, the real remedy lies in a concerted, collective effort by all facets in society to pull together and contribute to the goal: literacy for all South Africans. For the past two decades, Rally to Read has quietly ploughed forward, making inroads by actively furthering literacy in rural South Africa. Rally to Read delivers educational materials and provides teacher training to specifically identified rural schools that frequently tend to ‘fall through the cracks’ of […]
President’s Keepers by Jacques Pauw wins the grand prize! The much-anticipated Grammy’s of the book industry were recently announced at a packed ceremony held at the Wanderers Club in Illovo, Johannesburg. The annual event forms part of the booksellers and publishers of South Africa co-joined Annual General Meetings (AGM) where topical issues in various sectors of the book industry are discussed. The Awards acknowledge and celebrate booksellers and the role they play in promoting literacy and a culture of reading.. The winners are: Academic bookseller of the year – Protea Books Education bookseller of the year – Books 24/7 Library supplier of the year – Hargraves Library Services Trade bookseller of the year (chain stores) – Bargain Books […]
The South African Booksellers Association and Publishers’ Association of South Africa Annual General Conference 2018 South Africa’s flagship book industry event is set to happen on 28 and 29 August at Wanderers Club in Illovo north of Johannesburg. Booksellers and publishers of South Africa gather at co-joined Annual General Meetings (AGM) to discuss topical issues in various sectors of the book industry. “The two day conference is a gathering of key players in the business of bookselling. It is a time for all of us to celebrate our successes, share our concerns and collaborate in finding solutions.” explains Guru Redhi, President of the SA Booksellers Association (SABA), which organises the AGM with the Publishers’ Association of South Africa […]