Allaboutwriting

By journalist, scriptwriter and producer Janet van Eeden,  guest blogger for our publishing month. We have bookended November with two workshops on publishing in Johannesburg– each coming at publishing from a different perspective. 

When I first started reviewing books I was given the occasional South African novel to review because no one else wanted to read it. That was more than ten years ago and the novels were mostly “worthy” takes on the “new” South Africa written by guilt-drenched writers. Slowly a change took place. As the years passed the novels became less obsessed with the damages of the past. Ordinary issues became matters of primary importance. Our political history formed only a backdrop for much more universal themes.

Now we have such a rich production of South African writing that the reviewers at the newspaper I review for fight over who gets the next SA book. Fortunately Litnet continues to give me a platform to review as much SA literature as I can. Our literature has grown up and can stand proud without leaning on the crutch of our Apartheid past. This is sign of maturity in a nation finally at peace with itself. Our writers are no longer apologising for who they are or where they’ve come from. Our writers know themselves and are able to write, without self-consciousness, about the country and the people they know best.  These novels have become my first choice. Now, when I’m sent a novel set in the icy wastes of Canada, for example, my heart sinks. I’d far rather read about a landscape and people who are familiar to me.

Another aspect of SA writing is that many more women, post-Apartheid, seemed to have found their voices in a way they never have before. SA women authors now write the funniest, the most profound and the most illuminating first class fiction and poetry to be found in any bookshop. The support of a proactive publisher like Modjaji Press, which publishes exclusively women’s writing, has enhanced this phenomenon in a country where women have never been first class citizens.

So I can’t understand why bookshops haven’t realised that South African literature is the best it’s ever been. In spite of my preferences and those of many reviewers, bookshops are still punting books from the UK and the USA at the expense of our own writers. This shows a tremendous lack of awareness. Exclusive Books’ Homebru section doesn’t do our writers any favours either, in my opinion. It reinforces the idea that SA literature is separate from “real” literature. So instead of putting SA fiction in the African Literature ghetto, as others have coined the distant shelves to which “South African Writing” is relegated, bookshops should promote our literature as the best on their shelves. It is the best, in my humble opinion.

Two rare exceptions are firstly, the Liberty Midlands Mall’s Exclusive Books in Pietermaritzburg. This shop usually has a display of South African books right at the front of the main entrance. Secondly, the delightfully old-fashioned Book World at the Cascades Centre in Pietermartizburg also places SA literature on their main shelves. They must be reading our reviews!

So how can we promote South African literature if most bookshops don’t take home-grown writing seriously? Perhaps independent and large publishers like Dyehard Press, Modjaji, Penguin, Jonathan Ball, Random House, Jacana and others could arrange an award for the bookshop that supports SA Literature the most? Perhaps websites such as Litnet and Book SA could give regular commendations on their sites for the bookshop that displays South African writing most prominently? Perhaps readers of these sites could nominate bookshops which promote SA writing in their areas so that these bookshops could get kudos for publicising SA literature?

The above suggestions would create a great incentive for bookshops to join the trend of the strongest wave of South African fiction in this country’s history. It’s time our writers were given the first class treatment they deserve.

Janet van Eeden is a journalist, playwright, scriptwriter and producer. 

Read Janet’s  in-depth interviews with independent publishers, Dye Hard Press,  Modjaji Books, Deep South, Aerial Publishing, Darlington Richards Press and Junkets, from her series Independent publishers: How do they survive? , for LitNet.

Janet offers an online Scriptwriting Course.