Kwela Books is a well-known small publisher in South Africa. We specialise in African writing -fiction and non-fiction. Authors that have published with us include the Booker-nominated Achmat Dangor (for Bitter Fruit, published by Kwela in 2001), well-known South African poet and writer Antjie Krog, Somali novelist Nuruddin Farah, Sello Duiker, Rayda Jacobs (of Confessions of a Gambler) and many more.
Kwela's main focus is African writing. About 70% of the work we publish is in English, and the rest is in Afrikaans. Our aim is to broaden the scope of Southern African literature, and to document stories that have not yet been told. Several of our authors have since been published internationally, such as Achmat Dangor, AHM Scholtz, Rayda Jacobs, Antjie Krog, Mary Watson, Niq Mhlongo and Elbie Lötter. We also aim to start publishing a range of classic out-of-print Xhosa and Zulu novels in the near future.
Kwela Books was formed in 1994, the same year in which South Africa was declared a democratic government. It forms part of the large publishing house, NB Publishers (which includes other imprints such as Tafelberg, Human & Rousseau, Pharos and Best Books), which is owned by Naspers, the largest media group in Africa.
Recent awards/nominations for Kwela titles include:
Maxine Case's novel, All We Have Left Unsaid, was selected as the Commonwealth Writer's Prize for the Best First Book in Africa in 2007.
Kgebetli Moele's novel, Room 207, was nominated for the Commonwealth Writer's Prize for the Best First Book in Africa in 2007.
Ken Barris's novel, What Kind of Child, was nominated for the Commonwealth Writer's Prize for Best Book in Africa in 2007.
Mary Watson received the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2006 for the short story "Jungfrau" in her debut short story collection titled Moss, published in 2004.
Niq Mhlongo received the Cervantes Award for the Spanish edition of his debut novel, Dog Eat Dog, published in 2004.
Simao Kikamba received the Herman Charles Bosman Prize in 2006 for his debut novel, Going Home.