This section collects selected pieces of writing that I’ve published over the years. There is a lot missing from this list, including poems and my series of beer columns for the Sunday Times. Regrettably, I’ve lost track of many pieces.

Direct links to each piece are given where possible, and are marked with [FA], for “Full Access”. Where it is not possible – due to rights, usually – the links divert to publication pages or similar (Keywords are in italics and parenthesis.)

Books I have edited are also listed here at the bottom of this page.

UNCOLLECTED FICTION

SCHOLARSHIP

  • “A negotiated authority: webs of facticity in Jacob Dlamini’s Askari”, Research in African Literatures, 50.1, 2019. (Narrative non-fiction, authority)

  • “The Subject as Writer: Substituting Discourse and Story in Jonny Steinberg’s A Man of Good Hope ”, Journal of Southern African Studies, 44.6, 2018. (Narrative non-fiction, authority, discourse analysis)

  • “A Taste for Strife: Spur in the South African imaginary”, Safundi: The Journal of South African and American Studies, 16.3, 2015. (#RhodesMustFall, Spur, Native Americans, cultural appropriation, decolonisation, Rowan Smith, Marlene van Niekerk)

  • “Tracing the seam: non-fiction and imaginings in South African literature”, Literary Journalism Studies, 6.1, 2014. (Narrative non-fiction, Jonny Steinberg) [FA]

ESSAYS

  • “The Mystery of Death”, in Our Ghosts Were Once People, ed. Bongani Kona, Cape Town: Jonathan Ball, 2021.

  • “Dynamite!”, Prufrock, 8, April 2015. (Sharks rugby, family, Super Rugby, Tera Mtembu, John Smit, the Currie Cup finals of 1990, 2012 and 2013)

  • “Vida Loves You”, Prufrock 3, December 2013. (Drag culture in Cape Town, drag history in South Africa, drag kings and queens, gender performance) [FA]

  • “The Ballad of Bob Perfect”, Prufrock 1, June 2013. (Stand-up comedy, Splashy Fen)

JOURNALISM

  • “Curation or Censorship? A Timeline of Events and Articles Relating to Art at UCT”, PEN South Africa, 11 April 2018. (Freedom of expression, #RhodesMustFall) [FA]

  • “Kalekuzi is a champion in waiting”, Mail & Guardian, 13 October 2017. (Men’s boxing, immigration, Commando Kalekuzi) [FA]

  • “‘I Fight With Love’: Ten rounds with Bukiwe Nonina”, Sunday Times Lifestyle Magazine (cover story), 16 April 2017. (Women’s boxing, queer lives) [FA]

  • “Bury my heart at Salad Valley”, Sunday Times Lifestyle Magazine, 22 February 2015. (Spur, Native Americans, food & drink) [FA]

  • “Infant care leaps forward with a lesson from kangaroos”, with Mia Malan, Mail & Guardian, 24 May 2013. (Infant mortality, Free State, premature birth, kangaroo care) [FA]

  • “Once upon a time, parents taught their children to read”, Mail & Guardian, 19 October 2012. (Childhood literacy, Sindiwe Magona) [FA]

  • “‘No textbooks? I’ll print them for you…’”, Mail & Guardian, 5 July 2012. (2012 textbook crisis, Eastern Cape, Paperight, rural technology) [FA]

INTERVIEWS

  • With Gail Schimmel, “Somebody has to be able to say, ‘Prove what you’ve said'”: Gail Schimmel and the Need for Regulation in Advertising”, PEN South Africa, 24 October 2018. (Advertising regulation in South Africa, freedom of speech) [FA]

  • With Jane Duncan, “‘Eerie Reminders of a Past We Thought We’d Put Behind Us’: Jane Duncan on (Her New Book on) State Surveillance in South Africa”, PEN South Africa, 12 September 2018. (State surveillance in South Africa, apartheid intelligence, digital spying) [FA]

  • With Robin Malan, “‘Young People Want to Write, They Want to Have Their Say”: An interview with Robin Malan on a half-century at English Alive”, PEN South Africa, 29 August 2018. (The magazine English Alive, schools writing, children’s expression, multiracial writing during apartheid) [FA]

  • With Rosa Lyster, “‘Chaotic and Messy and Frequently Incredibly Stupid’: an Interview on Apartheid Censorship with Rosa Lyster”, PEN South Africa, 4 July 2018. (Apartheid censorship, archives of censorship, freedom of speech) [FA]

  • With Lizzy Attree, “Caine Prize gets ‘The Sack’”, Mail & Guardian, 10 July 2015. (Caine Prize for African Writing, competition fiction, fiction from Africa) [FA]

  • With Dylan Moran, “Anxiety and Arriving”, Cue, 5 July 2015. (Performance anxiety, his South African tour) [FA]

  • With Larry Siems, “On Guantánamo Diary”, Aerodrome, 20 May 2015. (Editing the diary of Mohamedou Slahi, corroborating stories, U.S. imperialism) [FA]

  • With Yann Horowitz, “Oh my god, it’s Yann fucking Horowitz”, FRIENDS, 1, January 2015. (Skateboarding, childhood, getting ahead as a South African, queer lives) [FA]

  • With Masande Ntshanga, “Under the skin of the New SA”, Mail & Guardian, 21 November 2014. (Early career, his story “Space”, his novel The Reactive) [FA]

  • With Yann Horowitz, “Yann-Xavier Horowitz is tired of being a spokesman for gay skateboarders”, HUCK, 13 November 2014. (Skateboarding, queer lives) [FA]

  • With Okwiri Oduor, “Okwiri Oduor unapologetic about being herself”, Mail & Guardian, 22 August 2014. (Caine Prize for African Writing, early career) [FA]

  • With Efemia Chela, “Words exchanged on short story writing”, Mail & Guardian, 31 July 2014. (Early career, short fiction, Caine Prize for African Writing, fiction from Africa) [FA]

  • With Jonny Steinberg, “Rummaging in private worlds”, Rhodes Journalism Review, 32, 2012, 64-66. (Narrative non-fiction, ethics of journalism, genesis of A Man of Good Hope, earlier works) [FA]

  • With Mandy Wiener, “How did we get here?”, Rhodes Journalism Review, 32, 2012, 72. (Narrative non-fiction, her book Killing Kebble, writing a book as a “hard” journalist) [FA]

FOOD & DRINK

REVIEWS

  • On Anthony Anaxagorou’s After the Formalities, DURA, November 2019. [FA]

  • On “Competition Fiction”, Chimurenga Chronic, April 2016.

  • On Julian Redpath’s Maiden Light, Mail & Guardian, 18 March 2015. [FA]

  • On Jacob Dlamini’s Askari, Sunday Times, 25 November 2014. [FA]

CHILDREN’S BOOKS

EDITED VOLUMES

These are most of the books I have edited or co-edited. If available, links below will redirect to the info page for each book, hosted on the respective publisher’s website.

POETRY

  • Nondwe Mpuma, Peach Country, 2022, uHlanga (Durban) – Shortlisted for the 2022 NIHSS Award for Best Poetry

  • Kopano Maroga, Jesus Thesis and Other Critical Fabulations, 2020, uHlanga (Durban) – Shortlisted for the 2021 NIHSS Award for Best Poetry

  • Jacques Coetzee, An Illuminated Darkness, 2020, uHlanga (Durban) – Winner of the 2022 Ingrid Jonker Prize

  • Sihle Ntuli, Rumblin’, 2020, uHlanga (Durban)

  • Musawenkosi Khanyile, All the Places, 2019, uHlanga (Cape Town) – Winner of the 2020 South African Literary Award for Poetry; Finalist for the 2020 Ingrid Jonker Prize

  • Saaleha Idrees Bamjee, Zikr, 2018, uHlanga (Cape Town) – Winner of the 2020 Ingrid Jonker Prize

  • Megan Ross, Milk Fever, 2018, uHlanga (Cape Town)

  • Douglas Reid Skinner, Liminal, 2017, uHlanga (Cape Town)

  • Francine Simon, Thungachi, 2017, uHlanga (Cape Town)

  • Rosa Lyster, Modern Rasputin, 2016, uHlanga (Cape Town)

  • Helen Moffett, Prunings, 2016, uHlanga (Cape Town) – Winner of the 2016 South African Literary Award for Poetry

  • Stephen Symons, Questions for the Sea, 2016, uHlanga (Cape Town) – Honourable mention for the 2017 Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry

  • Genna Gardini, Matric Rage, 2015, uHlanga (Cape Town) – Finalist for the 2016 Ingrid Jonker Prize

  • Thabo Jijana, Failing Maths and My Other Crimes, 2015, uHlanga (Cape Town) – Winner of the 2016 Ingrid Jonker Prize

SHORT FICTION