The Fair has been revamped and promises something for everyone so it is to be expected that a program catering to young and old, covering all genres and interests has been lined up. Those with an interest in history and politics are, however, in for a special treat.
The South African landscape has been shaped by our unique and turbulent past. The fight against oppression has raised some great thinkers and role models, who have changed the course of our history. The African National Congress has been at the forefront of this change. 2012 marks the centenary celebrations of the ANC, and in honour of this, they are focusing each month of the year on one of their previous leaders. June is the month of Dr. Alfred Bitini Xuma.
A book titled AB Xuma Autobiography and Selected Works chronicles the life of Dr. Alfred Bitini Xuma and will be launched with a special introduction from the book’s editor Peter Limb.
Dr. Xuma came from a humble background in the Transkei. He traveled to America and worked his way through medical school and eventually made his way to Europe where he furthered his studies. Xuma returned to South Africa in 1927 where he set up his surgery in Sophiatown, and became involved with political activities. By 1940 he was elected to lead and rebuild the ANC.
Peter Limb is an Adjunct Associate Professor at Michigan State University. He is a prolific writer, having published numerous political and historical works. A better person couldn’t have been found to compile this book and give insight into Xuma’s life and the political climate at that time. He will be attending the Book Fair for the launch.
Other political books to be launched at the Fair include a Zulu and English version of Essence of Zuma by Nomkelemane Langa. As the name suggests it discusses the ANC and South African President Jacob Zuma.
Visitors can also look forward to discussion forums set up by academic publishers. Some of these forums have a political focus and boast experts like Professor Susan Booysen (political scientist from the Graduate School of Public and Development Management), Anthony Butler (Political Studies UCT), and author and investigative journalist, Glenda Daniels (Mail & Guardian).
If politics is not quite your cup of tea, don’t let that turn you away. There is a large assortment of activities, publishers and genres on tap at this year’s Book Fair. You can look forward to the poetry café and digital zone. For all the youngsters we have a comprehensive children’s section that should keep the kids entertained for hours.
So What’s the Big Fuss?
This year’s Cape Town Book Fair hosts hundreds of exhibitors and new books. There will be book signings, celebrity spotting, kids entertainment, special prizes and goodie bags. For more information call +27 11 549 8300 or email info@capetownbookfair.com.
Save! Save! Save!
You can save R10 on your ticket price by booking online through Computicket before 31 May. Discounts are available for students and pensioners and children under the age of 12 get in for free.
The morning of 15 June will be reserved for trade visitors only. Thereafter the Fair will be open to the general public as follows: Friday, 15 June: 14h00 – 22h00; Saturday, 16 June: 09h00 – 18h00, and Sunday, 17 June: 09h00 – 17h00.
Press release from the CTBF regarding the Fair in 2011 and 2012:
The Cape Town Book Fair organisers announce that the Cape Town Book Fair will not be staged in 2011, but in a new and remodeled format in 2012, along with the IPA Publishers Congress which is going to be held in Cape Town 12 – 14 June 2012.
The reason for this new move is that publishers in South Africa have voiced their support for a bi-annual Fair, starting in 2012. We thank all exhibitors and interested parties for their support and very much hope to be able to accommodate their needs and wishes again in 2012.
A planning committee will start working and planning a revamped Cape Town Book Fair for 2012 very soon and will be announcing new details for the fair as soon as they become available.
A long wait is over: We are happy to announce that the Cape Town Book Fair will go back to its old dates in June 2011. It will once again be held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. While the programme is in the making, we are working on making the CTBF an even stronger African fair with more publishers from all over Africa. As the networking opportunities of the trade day were very well received, this element will be kept and further developed as well.
We much look forward to welcoming you in Cape Town in June 2011
“Die boekebeurs wat in same werking met die Frankfurtse Boekebeurs aangebied word, moet lof toegeswaai word vir sy volgehoue, uitnemende aanbod.” Willem de Vries het vanjaar se Kaapstadse Boekebeurs bygewoon en bied hier sy opvatting van die vier-daagse beurs.
Die metaalribbe in die gewelf bo die woelige hoofsaal van die Kaapstadse Boekebeurs was vanjaar sigbaarder as voorheen. Minder advertensievlae het in die Kaapstadse Internasionale Konferensiesentrum gehang. En groot Suid-Afrikaanse rolspelers soos Exclusive Books en Random House Struik was afwesig. Die boekwinkelgroep Wordsworth het vir Penguin verteenwoordig.
Moeilike markomstandighede en die vulkaan vroeër vanjaar net mooi tydens die Londense Boekeskou met sy Suid-Afrika-fokus het aan begrotings gevreet. En tog was talle kleiner uitgewerye soos in vorige jare weer op hul pos. Die skynwerpers is vanjaar op die uitgewersbedryf in Afrika gerig en kundiges het handels- en ander gesprekke daaroor gevoer. Die jaarlikse bekendstellings en besprekings was weer reeds rede genoeg om die boekebeurs by te woon.
Dan Sleigh het vertel van Afstande, ’n verhaal wat afspeel in die tyd tussen die Ou en Nuwe Testament, in daardie enkele wit blad tussen die twee wat 450 jaar beslaan. En van ’n wit blad na die virtuele: e-boeke. Die toekoms van die boek in al sy moontlikhede is opnuut oor gewik en geweeg. Tussen die lofuitings vir die toekomsmark en marktaal deur is dit interessant om daarvan kennis te neem dat e-boeke die verkope van papierboeke stimuleer.
We’re pleased to be able to bring you, at long last, the speeches that Nobel laureates Wole Soyinka and Desmond Tutu gave at the opening of this year’s CTBF. Soyinka told a humorous “Tale of Two Cities and Two Writers” – involving Johannesburg, Lagos, himself and Dennis Brutus – while Tutu sang the praises of those who bring books into the world. Following their speeches, please listen to the remarks of PASA’s Brian Wafawarowa, who introduced the speakers:
Wole Soyinka at the Opening of the Cape Town Book Fair
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Desmond Tutu at the Opening of the Cape Town Book Fair
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Brian Wafawarowa at the Opening of the Cape Town Book Fair
Meanwhile, Botswanan newspaper Mmegi has a write up on the two African giants’ attendance at this year’s Fair. Read on:
Professor Wole Soyinka and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu are no ordinary souls, and between them, there are striking similarities, as are contrasts. They are contemporaries and both have more white hair than grey. Their fathers were schoolteachers. They are writers of great repute. They both at some point lectured as visiting professors overseas. Between them, they raised Africa to unprecedented pedestal by winning the most coveted literature prize – the Alfred Nobel. They are vocal against despotic regimes and use the pen to seek justice for the masses. Their contrasts start off with their physique: Soyinka is tall, Tutu is short. Soyinka is Nigerian, Tutu is South African. Soyinka is a teacher, Tutu is a preacher. Soyinka lived in exile for his vociferous stance against despotism; Tutu luckily never found himself either banished or having to go into self-imposed exile for the same activism.
Their paths have crossed many a times as they have appointed; they deeply respect each other – Soyinka refers to Tutu as ‘the individual institution.’ But what brought the two men together at this year’s fair was not their personal friendship or glory in the Nobel Prize; rather it was to launch their books. Soyinka launched his second memoir: You Must Set Forth at Dawn, a 578-page non-fiction narrative of his role to transform African despotic regimes into democracies, not just his own native country of Nigeria, chronicling why such a role led to his hunt, hence he went into exile for his safety. Soyinka, who has written 11 novels, 18 plays, six collections of poetry and two memoirs, is Africa’s celebrated writer, whose work of activism earned him the wrath of his once-a-time personal friend in Sani Abacha, who declared Soyinka a wanted man dead-or-alive. Neither his other personal friends in Ibrahim Babangida nor Olusegon Obasanjo could swallow the criticism of Soyinka, when they took over the reins of power as Nigeria’s presidents. Talk of power and how it corrupts absolutely! Friends turn foes at an instant.
A report filed by visitor to the CTBF Rebecca L Weber – which mentions BOOK SA among others. Thanks for stopping in, Rebecca!
Cape Town readers enjoyed brushing shoulders with such notables as Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu (he’s the editor of a new children’s bible), American novelist Jodi Picoult, and Nigeria’s Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka. The latter two were launching the local editions of their most recent books, which were published previously in the US.
Soyinka spoke with a smile about the continuing strength of Nigeria’s culture of reading and the centrality of Yoruba culture in his writing. “That doesn’t mean I’m not at home with Italian pasta and American jazz,” he says. “I’m made up of all these things I consume culturally.”
In this, its fifth year, a day for the trade lent some heft and new direction to the program.
“Lots of people came here to sell books,” says Claudia Kaiser, the fair’s director. “Our intention is to provide a platform for people to talk business and hear new info about the industry.”
From our colleagues over at L14, this splendid snap of Claudia Kaiser, Shaun Stuart and Sadika Ahmed, with a certificate acknowledging the HSRC Press as having the most creative small publisher’s stand at the Cape Town Book Fair.
Melinda Ferguson spoke to Wordsworth’s Andrew Majoribanks at the Cape Town Book Fair about her latest book Hooked and the re-issue of Smacked.
Hooked tells the story of internet seduction and how one addiction can translate into other kinds of addictions. Once off drugs, Ferguson became addicted to Facebook where, she remarked, “you forget how old you are”. Ferguson would spend 7 hours a day chatting to a young stranger who befriended her online, until it reached what she called “the 13th step”, it gained a sexual dimension. However, Ferguson also noted that “I only have the luxury of being hooked (on Facebook) because I’m clean.”
Quote of the hour: “I might as well have been using heroin but I was using the internet” – Melinda Ferguson
Topics on discussion included the move to digital publishing and the craft of short story writing. The panel also discussed the development of distinct genres within short story writing, Lotz having just written one for a zombie erotica anthology. Anthologies like The Bed Book of Short Stories and Home Away were contrasted to collections by a single author like those of Rose-Innes, Salafranca, and Vandermerwe. Rose-Innes spoke on the commissioning and publication of short stories, noting that anthologies are often created from “a small pool of writers.”
Williams also addressed the topic of flash fiction, short fiction’s even briefer cousin, and the general shortening of written pieces, including news stories, and asked of the authors, “How short can you go?”. Lotz responded by mentioning the 6 word crime novels commissioned by Mike Nicol and published on Crime Beat where each word had to be carefully considered.
Quote of the hour: “For me the short story is all about the idea, and its usually an idea that I can’t extend to a whole novel” – Sarah Lotz
