Karina M. Szczurek talks to Orange Prize winner Lionel Shriver (Should We Stay Or Should We Go) and her knack for exploring social and cultural fault-lines.
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Fred Khumalo joins Sindiwe Magona (When the Village Sleeps) and Mandla Langa (The Lost Language of the Soul) to explore the crisis that binds their new novels – children searching for missing parents.
Jackie Phamotse talks to Deon Meyer (The Dark Flood) about his new thriller and creative process – from the seed of the idea to the last edit.
Adriaan Basson grills political trainspotters Ralph Mathekga (The ANC’s Last Decade) & Qaanitah Hunter (Eight Days in July) on the possible futures of the ruling party …
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Máire Fisher invites Daisy Jones and Lucinda Hooley, authors of Love you Madly, to take us under the bonnet of a feel-good novel. What tickles a reader’s happy bone?
What’s the real point of education? Why do some children hate school? Why are teenagers so susceptible to mental health problems? These questions go to the heart of a new educational philosophy developed by educationalist and historian Christopher Lloyd. Join him on a fascinating journey into the natural learning system of our brains, fusing educational philosophy, evolutionary biology and personal experience.
Marthinus Basson talks to 2021 Booker Prize winner Damon Galgut (The Promise) about fiction as an act of resistance – against ageing, complacency or depression.
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Shaun de Waal asks Andrew Harding (Sunday Times/CNA Non-fiction Award winner for These Are Not Gentle People) about his foreign correspondent’s experience of South Africa. What can outsiders see in our social fabric?
Melinda Ferguson joins Terry Angelos (White Trash) & Robert Hamblin (Robert) to mash up their sensational memoirs, which share a backdrop of underworlds and inner worlds, transgressions and transitions …
Dennis Davis grills Malcolm Ray on his polemic The Tyranny of Growth, in which he argues that an obsession with GDP expansion has betrayed more important engines of progress …
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Sara-Jayne Makwala King digs deep with two writers of fiercely honest memoirs of personal crisis: Shana Fife (Ougat: From A Hoe Into A Housewife & Then Some) & Nompumelelo Runji (How I Took Back my Power).
Finuala Dowling asks Karen Jennings (An Island) and Joanne Joseph (Children of Sugarcane) about the art of creating morally complex characters.
Joanne Joseph speaks to novelist Elif Shafak (The Island of Missing Trees) about Turkey, Cyprus and fiction as resistance to political and cultural rupture. Can tribes divided by history understand each other through story? (Via Zoom)
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Adriaan Basson challenges Tony Leon (Future Tense – Reflections on my Troubled Land) to imagine SA’s brightest futures.
Fred Khumalo talks SA crime fiction with the writers of two fiery new thrillers, Andrew Brown (The Heist Men) and Mike Nicol (Hammerman). How do they devise all their twists? And how do they reimagine the chaos of real-world policing in SA?
Carol Paton talks to Phakamisa Ndzamela about Native Merchants, his history of black entrepreneurs in colonial and apartheid South Africa, long before the playing fields were levelled.
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Bongani Kona, editor of Our Ghosts Were Once People – Stories on Death and Dying, mulls mortality with two contributors to the collection, Karin Schimke and Malika Ndlovu.
Sarah Bullen talks to Glynis Horning about Waterboy, her harrowing exploration of her 25-year-old son’s decision to take his own life. Horning’s book aims to destigmatise the visceral pain of suicide in a family.
Join Simon Mundy (Race for Tomorrow) as he travels across 26 countries on six continents, spanning the global fight for climate action. He shares the stories of a diverse cast of characters locked in this historic struggle – from communities hit by extreme physical shifts, to business leaders grappling with the implications for the world economy.
A documentary revolving around the controversial 1974 boycott-breaking British Lions Tour to South Africa, with rugby player Dugald Macdonald, and protester Jenefer Shute. A chilling account as themes of truth, forgiveness and reconciliation unfolds years later.
Andrew Brown confronts the banality of evil with Captain Ben Booysen and Nicki Gules, co-authors of On the Devil’s Trail – How I Hunted the Krugersdorp Killers, that rocked South Africa.
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Hermione Cronje asks Karyn Maughan (Nuclear: Inside South Africa’s Secret Deal) how nuclear deals may have contaminated South Africa’s position on Russia & Ukraine.
Dennis Davis kicks some nostalgic grubbers to Andre Odendaal – co-author with Peter Hain of Pitch Battles: Protest, Prejudice and Play – and former Bok Dugald MacDonald, whose memoir Ja-Nee relives the 1974 British Lions tour.
Antony Altbeker talks to Ziyanda Stuurman (Can We Be Safe?) and Qaanitah Hunter (Eight Days In July) about the toxic politics of policing in SA.
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Ingrid Jones asks Mia Arderne (Mermaid Fillet) and Shana Fife (Ougat): how do you process trauma through writing?
Michiel Heyns asks SJ Naudé about his new short-story collection, Mad Honey, which moves from Iceland to Joburg to New England – and the courage to imagine distant lives.
Sally Cranswick invites Colleen Higgs (my mother my madness) and psychologist Leslie Swartz (How I Lost my Mother) to swap notes on their unflinching retellings of their mothers’ last years.
Mark Gevisser talks to 2021 Booker Prize winner Damon Galgut about The Promise, its literary influences, and its reflections on post-apartheid South Africa.
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Shafiq Morton talks to humanitarian pioneer Dr Imtiaz Sooliman, the subject of his book Imtiaz Sooliman & the Gift of the Givers: A Mercy to All.
Andrew Harding and acclaimed writer-reporter Michela Wrong reflect on Do Not Disturb, her devastating portrait of Paul Kagame’s Rwandan regime – and the risks and rewards of investigating autocrats.
Dr Pumla Dineo Gqola joins internationally acclaimed Tsitsi Dangarembga (Nervous Conditions, The Book of Not & This Mournable Body) – to discuss her stellar writing career, her life in Harare, and the choices of women besieged by patriarchy.
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Dr Wamuwi Mbao talks to Yewande Omotoso about her new novel An Unusual Grief, whose protagonist outlives her daughter – and then rediscovers her.
Melinda Ferguson talks about reawakenings caused by emotional and physical crisis with Sarah Bullen (Love and Above) and Nompumelelo Runji (How I took Back My Power).
Writer Bongani Kona speaks to Karen Jennings about her novel An Island, a parable about refugees and xenophobia, which made the Booker long list 2021 after many publishers’ rejections. What has sudden success meant for her writing life?
Join us for a fun musical evening to help raise funds to promote reading in disadvantaged communities. Franschhoek’s very own Uncorked will play popular music from Credence to Coldplay.
Food and drinks will be charged extra, from the delicious Hey Joe menu.
Bespoke items and experiences will be on auction.
Come and make a difference!
R200 per ticket donation for FLF members
R250 per ticket donation full price
Experience the evolution of West Coast food with multi-award-winning chef Kobus van der Merwe as he joins ranks with Richard Carstens at Arkeste. The two chefs will present 5 courses, inspired by recipes from Kobus’ newly released book Strandveldfood.
R750 per person excluding wine. Space is limited. Enquire and book at reservations@arkeste.com
