The Simon’s Town literary festival, Books on the Bay, was launched at a sold-out event featuring Nobel Laureate J. M. Coetzee, writer Antjie Krog, and Angolan novelist José Eduardo Agualusa.
Addressing a packed audience in St Francis of Assisi Anglican Church on Friday, Coetzee read from an as-yet-unpublished short memoir about his Standard 5 teacher, Mr Gouws.
The piece was a clear-eyed and moving contemplation on the ethnic, economic, and grammatical complexities of an Afrikaans-speaking man having been tasked with teaching English to English-speaking boys in early-1950s Worcester.
Coetzee’s most recent novel, The Pole and Other Stories, will be published in English later this year. The Spanish edition, El Polaco, was published last year in Argentina by El Hilo de Ariadna.
Renowned South African poet Krog read six poems from her latest collection, Pillage (Plunder in Afrikaans; English translation by Karen Press), which was published in October 2022 by Human & Rousseau.
Ranging in theme from the political to the intensely personal, the poems found Krog as unflinching in her meditation on Fees Must Fall as on ageing.
Writer and journalist Agualusa, a leading literary voice in Angola and the Portuguese-speaking world, read from his International Dublin Literary Award-winning novel Teoria Geral do Esquecimento (2012).
He began briefly in Portuguese before his wife, Mozambican journalist and director Yara Costa, continued with the English-language translation, A General Theory of Oblivion.
Coetzee and Krog were also presented with the inaugural Books on the
Bay ‘O Captain, My Captain’ lifetime achievement awards by co-organisers David Attwell, Karin Cronje, and Darryl David.
The readings were followed by book signings while music was provided by the Simon’s Town High School Band. The main festival programme will follow on 10–11 March.
The Books on the Bay line-up features more than 30 authors and winners of all major literary prizes in South Africa, including Damon Galgut, Sindiwe Magona, and Gabeba Baderoon.
They will participate in nineteen events across six venues in Simon’s Town.
Several sessions are free; tickets for others are R60 and may be bought via Webtickets and Pick ’n Pay.
The festival is sponsored by Standard Bank, the University of the Western Cape, the Simon’s Town Civic Association, Simonstown.com, and Mooiplaas Wine Estate and Private Nature Reserve.
