This volume contains interviews with fourteen contemporary South African authors: Mariam Akabor, Sifiso Mzobe, Fred Khumalo, Futhi Ntshingila, Niq Mhlongo, Zukiswa Wanner, Nthikeng Mohlele, Mohale Mashigo, Lauren Beukes, Charlie Human, Yewande Omotoso, Andrew Salomon, Imraan Coovadia and Fred Strydom. The conversations with the writers are accompanied by vignettes of the authors' lives and summaries of their works.
In curating this book, Danyela Dimakatso Demir and Olivier Moreillon step beyond pure literary theory and analysis by allowing the authors to speak to and assess the literary landscape, of which they form a part and which they co-create. However, Demir and Moreillon also trace concepts and terms that describe the current moment of South African literature, such as post-transitional literature and literature beyond 2000. By adopting a world-literary approach to (post)apartheid literature, this book makes an important contribution to debates on contemporary South African writing.
In addition, Tracing the (Post)Apartheid Novel Beyond 2000 seeks to raise awareness of the imbalance in both critical and public attention between literary 'big names', such as Andre P. Brink, J.M. Coetzee, Nadine Gordimer and Zakes Mda, who are nationally and internationally celebrated, and the younger and newer generation of South African writers, who go largely unnoticed.
