Mzanzitravel Magazine
Local Travel inspiration in and around South Africa
Local Travel inspiration in and around South Africa
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Culture<br />
Book Fairs & Festivals<br />
Finally, South Africa is also known for a large number of superb book fairs and<br />
festivals. Literary events and discussions, as well as books for sale, regularly form<br />
part of the Klein Karoo National Arts Festival in Oudtshoorn, and Grahamstown<br />
Some of the better-known book fairs include the Time of the Writer International<br />
Festival held annually in Durban at the University of KwaZulu Natal’s Centre for<br />
Creative Arts. The project is among the largest and longest-running literature<br />
festivals in the continent. Another is the South African Book Fair (previously the<br />
Cape Town Book Fair) held as a collaboration between the Publishers Association<br />
of South Africa (PASA) and the Frankfurt Book Fair.<br />
In the Cape Winelands the Franschhoek Literary Festival takes place each year in<br />
May and has gained recognition for celebrating South African books and authors<br />
while fostering a culture of reading and writing among children. In Johannesburg<br />
you can attend the annual Jozi Book Fair, co-hosted by Khanya College and Wits<br />
University. The festival, held in August/September, encourages publishers, nongovernmental<br />
organisations, readers, writers, artists and the public to take part as<br />
exhibitors, in discussions and as hosts.<br />
In Cape Town the annual Open Book Festival focusses on South African literature<br />
in an international context. The diamond city of Kimberley also hosts the annual<br />
Kimberley Book Fair. The Abantu Book Festival was launched in Soweto in 2016<br />
to emphasise the importance of black South Africans telling their own stories,<br />
and hosts novelists, playwrights, screenwriters, performing artists and children’s<br />
writers from Africa and its diaspora.<br />
So, whether you are an armchair traveller or a real traveller, toss away that<br />
e-reader, start a fascinating tour of independent bookshops around the country,<br />
and make sure you leave space in your rucksack for the many books you will<br />
collect along the way.<br />
92 |ISSUE 8|www.mzanzitravel.co.za | MZANZITRAVEL<br />
MD_Photogrphay/ Shutterstock
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