Announcing Still Further: New Poems, 2000–2020 by C.J. Driver

uHlanga’s first book for 2021 – and C.J. Driver’s first full collection of poems since 2005 – is cause for celebration.

Selected from the many poems Driver has written and published in magazines, booklets, and anthologies since his professional retirement in 2000, Still Further manages to take in the international scope of his many careers: as anti-apartheid activist, teacher, headmaster, and – of course – as writer and poet.

While showing an impressive range of formal poetics, weighty philosophy, and Driver’s trademark political forthrightness, this is a book bound by love, replete with reflections on family, companionship, and old friends remembered. Imbued with a sense of history – not to mention an ample wit and sharp eye for irony – this collection does not just portray one of South Africa’s great living poets; Still Further is a testament to the value of people – no matter how great or humble – whose shared lives and histories make one’s own life worth living.

Affirming, immersive, and generously conceived, this is a must for any serious reader of English poetry.

Author photo by Douglas Reid Skinner

C.J. Driver, always known as Jonty, was born in Cape Town in 1939. He was President of the anti-apartheid National Union of South African Students in 1963–4, and during that time was detained in solitary confinement by the security police. The renewal of his passport was refused when he was at Oxford in 1967. He became stateless for five years. His first two novels were banned in South Africa and, even after becoming a British citizen, he was refused permission to visit his home country until after the end of apartheid.

Driver has been a productive and increasingly celebrated writer, publishing five novels, two biographies, two memoirs and twelve collections or booklets of poems. He was a teacher for many years, in Africa, Hong Kong, India and England, latterly a headmaster. Since his retirement from teaching in 2000, he has been a full-time writer. He lives with his wife in East Sussex, England.

This book will be available mid-April in all good bookstores in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. They are distributed to those bookstores by Protea Boekhuis Distribution.

Outside of South Africa, all of our books are available through the African Books Collective.

Cancellation of 2021 open submissions period

This is a very difficult post for me to write, but I have decided to cancel uHlanga's 2021 open submissions period, which was planned for February. As this will undoubtedly cause frustration and disappointment, I have decided to be open about the reasons for making this decision, especially as I am aware that some poets are already planning to send in work.

If you are upset by this decision, I can only apologise – but I would ask you please to read the rest of this letter.

When I started uHlanga in 2014, I had no idea that it would be a successful publisher of poetry. Part of uHlanga's success has been the open submissions periods, which I try to schedule every two years, both as a service to South Africa's poets and because some of our best books have come from these open submissions. For just one example, Saaleha Idrees Bamjee's 2020 Ingrid Jonker Prize-winning book, Zikr, came from our 2017 reading period. As such, I was looking forward to reading new work from new and established poets, but the reading period simply cannot go ahead this year.

There are two main reasons for this. We are all aware of the context of the first: in addition to other unexpected things that happened to uHlanga in 2020, the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has more or less halved our sales income. This means we cannot publish as many books as we would like to. We can only afford – and just barely – to publish the books we already have planned. Of course, I could open submissions and reject every manuscript without reading them, but – having been on the receiving end of such practices by (surprisingly large) publishing houses myself – I know how callous and unfair this would be, and possibly fatal to the hopes of promising new writers.

The second reason is personal. With the notable exceptions of a distribution and sales contractor, as well as help from two excellent interns a few years ago, I have run uHlanga almost entirely by myself. That also means that, come submissions time, I – or, in the minority of cases, someone I trust very much – must read every single of the 200-plus manuscripts sent in to uHlanga. Previously I have relished this challenge – I find it illuminating and often inspiring, even if only one per cent of all submitted manuscripts end up published.

But over the past year, my health has been significantly worse than what it needs to be. In order to recover, and to keep uHlanga running for any amount of time beyond this year, I must relieve myself of some weight. uHlanga – as many poetry presses around the world are – is a part-time project for me. It makes me no money, and sometimes I'm not sure if it brings me much else other than the satisfaction of producing books that make their writers and readers happy, and that, in addition to their artistic and literary merit, embody to different degrees a shared politics of visibility, expression, collaboration, historical redress, love, and justice.

So, however disappointing this news may be, rest assured that I am probably just as disappointed. I am very sorry to have announced a reading period only now to cancel it, especially in the midst of a terribly dispiriting time in South Africa and most of the rest of the world. I hope to have another reading period as soon as I can handle it. Other presses will have open reading periods this year, and I wish you the best of luck in placing your work with them.

Until then, keep safe,

Nick Mulgrew
Director, uHlanga

Musawenkosi Khanyile wins the 2020 SALA for Poetry in English

Congratulations to Musawenkosi Khanyile, whose debut collection All the Places has won the South African Literary Award for Poetry in English. This rounds off an already successful year for Musa – the book was also a finalist for this year’s Ingrid Jonker Prize.

Congratulations, too, to Marlise Joubert, who won the Afrikaans SALA for Poetry, for her collection Grondwater.

On Musa’s behalf, we would like to thank the administrators and judges of the SALAs for recognising Musa’s immense talent.

Announcing Jesus Thesis and Other Critical Fabulations by Kopano Maroga

uHlanga are thrilled to announce the release of Kopano Karoga’s first collection, Jesus Thesis and Other Critical Fabulations.

In a provocative yet unexpectedly tender debut, Kopano Maroga immerses themself in Christian myth and mystery, emerging reborn.

In a riotous, innovative and unapologetic display of self-exposure, self-examination and self-love, Maroga appropriates and creates a (sometimes literal) collage of religious imagery, sexual want, and embodiedness – eventually widening their gaze to encompass the realities faced by black, queer, femme and trans folk in South Africa and further afield.

Indeed, these are poems of pain, loss, introspection, and regret; but they are also works of great and usual beauty, depth, desire, and ambition – in sum, the evidence of a powerful new voice in South African poetry.

Kopano Maroga was born in Benoni in 1994. They are a performance artist, writer, cultural worker and co-founding director of the socio-cultural arts organization any body zine. Currently they are working as a curator and dramaturg at Kunstencentrum Vooruit in Ghent, Belgium. They very much believe in the power of love as a weapon of mass construction.

We’re also happy to announce that the proceeds from the first print run of this book will be donated to GALA Queer Archive in Johannesburg.

Please note that this title contains depictions of nudity and sex acts.

The book will be available and available to order from mid-November from bookstores in South Africa, Namibia and Botswana, and soon from the African Books Collective.

uHlanga and Koleka Putuma part ways

It is with sadness that uHlanga announces that it will no longer be publishing books by Koleka Putuma. This includes 2017’s bestseller, Collective Amnesia, and her unreleased second book, which we were planning to release in 2021.

This is a decision made by mutual consent and without animosity. uHlanga was informed this past week that Putuma has decided to pursue the sole ownership of all of her intellectual property under her new media company, Manyano Media (Pty) Ltd. As part of this process, uHlanga has sold and transferred all rights for the seven translations it has brokered for Collective Amnesia to Manyano Media, and has reverted rights for both books in English back to the author.

As of today Collective Amnesia is also no longer available in the uHlanga edition (ISBNs 978-0-620-73508-7 and 978-0-620-89364-0), which has sold over 5500 copies since 2017. Some books that are already stocked by stores may still be available for purchase, but in general the edition will no longer be sold through bookshops, nor distributed by Protea Distribution in Southern Africa or the African Books Collective in other territories, effective immediately. Manyano Media will be producing and distributing its own edition, and they will notify the industry of the details of the new edition.

uHlanga wishes Koleka all the best in her new endeavours. All queries relating to her books may now be directed to Manyano Media at manyanomedia@gmail.com.