Zukiswa Wanner.

Ahead of the 2017 Abantu Book Festival in South Africa in December, Zukiswa Wanner and Nthikeng Mohlele have been booked to teach creative writing masterclasses, and applications are open for writers.

Here is the announcement.

The Abantu Book Festival invites aspiring writers to submit 500-2000 word samples of their short stories, novels, creative non-fiction or plays to qualify for a Creative Writing Masterclass with award-winning authors Nthikeng Mohlele and Zukiswa Wanner.

Email your submission to [email protected] no later than 10 November 2017.

Venue: Eyethi Lifestyle Centre, Mofolo

Date: Friday, 8 December 2017

Time: 10 a.m.

Selected for the prestigious Africa39 list in 2014, Zukiswa Wanner is the author of the novels: The Madams (2006), which was shortlisted for the K Sello Duiker Award at the 2007 South African Literary Awards (SALA); Behind Every Successful Man (2008); Men of the South (2010), which was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (Africa region) and the Herman Charles Bosman Award in 2011; and London Cape Town Joburg (2014), which won the 2015 K Sello Duiker Memorial Literary Award. In 2010, Zukiswa co-authored two works of nonfiction: A Prisoner’s Home, a biography on the first Mandela house 8115 Vilakazi Street, with the South African photographer Alf Kumalo; and L’Esprit du Sport, with the French photographer Amelie Debray. A judge of the 2015 Etisalat Prize for Literature, she sat on the Writivism Board of Trustees and is a founding member of the ReadSA initiative, a campaign encouraging South Africans to read South African works. This year, she co-founded La Shamba, a publication platform for creative dialogue between Africa and South America.

Nthikeng Mohlele.

Also selected for the Africa39 list in 2014, Nthikeng Mohlele is the author of The Scent of Bliss (2008), Small Things (2013), Rusty Bell (2014), and Pleasure (2016), which received the University of Johannesburg Main Prize.

Founded in 2016 by Thando Mgqolozana, the Abantu Book Festival is a platform for black writers in the white-dominated literary landscape of South Africa. Its mission is “to create a platform that amplifies the voices of black writers, as well as be a home for black readers.” It “envisions itself as an annual pilgrimage and sanctuary for its participants and visitors.”