Modjaji Books: 20 books

The Last to Leave is Margaret Clough�s second collection of poetry. These poems follow on from her first extremely popular collection, At Least the Duck Survived (2011) in that the light, warm-hearted tone continues as does Clough�s engagement with aging and mortality. These poems are a tonic and...

Eloquent Body explores the juxtaposition of healing and creativity both from a personal as well as medical point of view. Dawn Garisch works as a medical doctor and a writer in equal measure and advocates dialogue between our bodies and our creative selves. Her novel Trespass was nominated for the Commonwealth Prize in Africa.

Swimming with Cobras is a memoir about a journey to find a foothold in a foreign land grappling with its own identity, offering rare and important insight into a corner of South Africa's past. Rosemary Smith�s life as an activist in the Eastern Cape began when she moved from England with her South...

This brave and moving collection of stories by South African lesbian women from different backgrounds reminds us, again, that rights are never finally won in legislatures or in court rooms. They are won by people exercising them. The authors of the stories and poems in this book have done just that....

In Terra Incognita, Short Story Day Africa is proud to present nineteen stories of speculative fiction. Contained within the pages are stories that explore, among other things, the sexual magnetism of a tokoloshe, a deadly feud with a troop of baboons, a journey through colonial purgatory, along with...

The bed, dressed in hand sewn quilt or threadbare blanket, may in and of itself be memorable, but it is what happens in the bed � the sex and lovemaking, the dreams, the reading, the nightmares, the rest, giving birth and dying � which give �bed� special meaning. Whether a bed is shared with...

Turning her back on what is considered conventional, Makhosazana Xaba engages with her subject-matter on a revolutionary level in Running and Other Stories. She takes tradition � be that literary tradition, cultural tradition, gender tradition � and re-imagines it in a way that is liberating and...

Johannesburg performance-poet Katleho Kano Shoro puts her stage presence into print with this metapoetic debut collection that captures the cadences of her fearless voice, her unassuming sense of humour, and her enthusiasm for an Afrocentric literary culture. Katleho reflects on creativity, on the...

In poems that memorialise and celebrate both the extraordinary and every day with unnerving clarity, Kerry Hammerton traverses the landscapes of loss and living, recalling the weight of past loves, new life and imminent death. Hers is the poetics of honesty: an un-filtered account of dying paired...

In her second volume of poetry, Karin Schimke explores the idea of home, contemplating notions of belonging and un-belonging and the various places and ways in which one is “at home”. With her characteristic lyricism, Schimke questions the poet’s right or duty to speak, while delivering a meditation...

In this second collection Messages from the Bees Robin Winckel-Mellish shows the same qualities as A Lioness at my Heels, but this time runs deeper, darker and stronger. She delves not only into the riotous colours of southern Africa: birds, bees and caracals, but also climate change, while different...

Life at boarding school is not all diets, dresses and dances, as Trinity Luhabe discovers when her parents move overseas for a term. She has hardly settled into Sisulu House when she finds herself caught up in the most unexpected love triangle of her life. Zach is the school sports hero, while James...

The title should have warned me. On reading the title poem, I realise any of the poems is a gateway into this passion with compassion, into a garden whose fragrances colour every sound lovers make when words have to cope. Make the lovers poets, see how each facet is etched, each jewel worked and polished. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. � Hugh Hodge

Malika Ndlovu takes us right into the heart of her grief - the loss of her third child, who was stillborn. The book breaks the silence around stillbirth, often seen as a non-event, something women are expected to "get over" as soon as possible, Invisible Earthquake is placed in the wider South African...