The healing power of life writing, one shared story at a time

This Is How It Is a “refreshing, poignant and wide-ranging” (Helen Moffett) collection of real life experiences: 52 stories, prose and poetry, that tell of a man who is anxious about an HIV test; a child with an alarming nose for gossip and a girl who is saved by the enemy in a war zone. Some of the writers are grieving the loss of a child or struggling with addiction, abuse, bullying or betrayal. Most of these writers have never been published before. They wrote these stories primarily to bear witness to their lives and the troubled times in which we live. Putting traumatic experiences down on paper can help people work through shame, guilt and fear, releasing them from the traps they lay. Writing is sometimes able to turn a painful incident into something more manageable, even beautiful.

Sharing stories can also heal both the writer and the reader. When we first meet a stranger, we make assumptions about them. When we hear of their life in their own words, we find that many of our negative assumptions are wrong. Often we discover that we are more alike than we are different. Our magnificent world is in trouble, much of it because we are not paying attention to what is right in front of us. When the facts don’t stir us to reconsider, story can. This anthology invites us to become curious and reflective rather than fearful and defensive. It encourages us to climb down from the ladder of hierarchy and competition and to join the circle of relationship and humanity by becoming vulnerable enough to share and listen to our own and each other’s half-hidden stories.

But equally importantly, Bongani Kona, 2016 Caine Prize finalist, reminds us: “We forget that the most daring thing we can do is to allow ourselves to be seen. To stand before the world and to say this is who I am. This is how it is.”

About THE LIFE RIGHTING COLLECTIVE: The Life Righting Collective (LRC) runs courses for anyone who wants to learn to write about their experiences. The approach promotes self-discovery, self-recovery and more effective communication. It raises funds to make courses available to those in need of sponsorship and to provide platforms for these life stories to be published. Sharing experiences with a wide readership can help reduce discrimination and promote mutual understanding. Visit the website: www.liferighting.com

Belly Of Fire is a metaphor for the anxiety and fear that we hold within ourselves; the voices of those who are disempowered by racism, poverty, war and gendered abuse, voices that remain silenced, are housed as fire in our bellies.

Themes of abuse, xenophobia, female genital mutilation, reawakening, are unpacked here in a collection of seven reflective, compelling stories intertwined with no more than thirteen contemporary poems that bring out the essence of the themes developed in the narratives.

Here is a collection of blogs, stories, poems, and articles to get you thinking, talking, laughing - and crying.

Read about being in love with the wrong person, about growing up gay, about living without a father, about being in student protests... and much, much more. These popular pieces have been selected from FunDza's mobi site and they have been compiled here for your reading pleasure!

Each piece also has discussion and writing activities for reading clubs and classes.

Nelson Mandela: By Himself is the definitive book of quotations from one of the great leaders of our time. This collection - gathered from privileged authorised access to Mandela's vast personal archive of private papers, speeches, correspondence and audio recordings - features nearly 2000 quotations spanning over 60 years, many previously unpublished.

WHAT IS YOUR FIRST MEMORY? Or, rather, what do you imagine to be your earliest memory? Perhaps, alternatively, there was a moment during childhood when the world's axis shifted? A transformative realisation, epiphany or experience that changed the course of your life: your very own `sense of a beginning'... In My First Memory, bestselling anthologist Ben Holden explores these touchstones via the watershed experiences of some of the greatest figures of our age. Along the way, he lightly explores how memory and childhood merge to form identity. How, in the process, we not only create individual origin-stories but also, on a broader level, fashion human history. The first memories of iconic figures - from Machiavelli to Freud, Einstein to Hawking, Churchill to Luther King, Pankhurst to Angelou, Pavarotti to Springsteen, and Pele to Bolt - combine with exclusive, personal pieces by some of today's greatest writers, scientists and thinkers: the likes of Sebastian Barry, Melvyn Bragg, David Eagleman, Susan Greenfield, Tessa Hadley, Javier Marias, Michael Morpurgo and the late Ursula K Le Guin. The trip down memory lane is heightened by the remembrances of refugees: from heroic figures such as Madeleine Albright, Isabel Allende, Alf Dubs, Yusra Mardini, Elie Wiesel and Stefan Zweig to lesser-known but no less courageous voices. Many of these moving accounts tell of children being forced to leave home and family behind forever. They may have grown up to lead inspirational lives - but none ever forgot from whence they came. After all, each of us must start somewhere and - as this timeless collection unforgettably proves - there is always a first time for everything. Praise for Poems That Make Grown Men Cry: 'Everyone who reads this collection will be roused: disturbed by the pain, exalted in the zest for joy given by poets' Observer 'That's the great thing about a good anthology of poems: you are reminded of old friends and introduced to new ones... This is a welcome addition to my shelves' Sunday Telegraph 'A fascinating anthology. Finding out what makes particular men emotional is intriguing' Irish Independent 'The title is pure genius... what I love most is the proud grasp of emotion as mature and manly. Two words that become magnificent in their juxtaposition: "men" and "cry"' Daily Mail 'This is a really thought-provoking book...The range of contributors leads to a wonderful range of verse. And the overall result is a wonderfully powerful and moving experience' The Times

Working-class stories are not always tales of the underprivileged and dispossessed. Common People is a collection of essays, poems and memoir written in celebration, not apology: these are narratives rich in barbed humour, reflecting the depth and texture of working-class life, the joy and sorrow, the solidarity and the differences, the everyday wisdom and poetry of the woman at the bus stop, the waiter, the hairdresser. Here, Kit de Waal brings together thirty-three established and emerging writers who invite you to experience the world through their eyes, their voices loud and clear as they reclaim and redefine what it means to be working class. Features original pieces from Damian Barr, Malorie Blackman, Lisa Blower, Jill Dawson, Louise Doughty, Stuart Maconie, Chris McCrudden, Lisa McInerney, Paul McVeigh, Daljit Nagra, Dave O'Brien, Cathy Rentzenbrink, Anita Sethi, Tony Walsh, Alex Wheatle and more.

Die geliefde en gevierde kortverhaalskrywer Hennie Aucamp is op 21 Maart 2014, slegs twee maande na sy 80ste verjaardag oorlede. In hierdie herinneringsboek word verskillende fasette van sy lewe deur familie, vriende en medeskrywers belig. Onder die familielede wat bydraes tot die boek gelewer het, is sy suster Rina wat herinneringe aan hulle kinderjare op die familieplaas Rus-mijn-ziel opdiep en sy neef Inus Aucamp wat meer vertel van die vestiging van die Aucamp-familie in die Stormberge. Die skryfster Margaret Bakkes, wat ook sy kleinniggie is en op 'n buurplaas grootgeword het, vertel hoe sy en Hennie reeds as kinders teenoor mekaar bely het dat hulle wil skryf. Daar is ook bydraes deur Marius en Christiaan Bakkes, wat oor Hennie se belangstelling in die natuur. Daar is besondere opstelle deur medeskrywers Lina Spies, Aletta Lubbe (gebore Aucamp), Danie Botha en Abraham de Vries, terwyl Daniel Hugo en Joan Hambidge gedigte opgedra aan Hennie gelewer het. Die radiopersoonlikhede Monica Breed en Margot Luyt skryf oor Hennie se ruimhartigheid en sy vriend Nico Loubser oor Hennie se laaste dae. Foto’s van Philip de Vos en Marius Bakkes skep 'n visuele beeld van die woordman Aucamp.

Credited with inventing the modern horror tradition, H. P. Lovecraft remade the genre in the early twentieth century, discarding ghosts and witches and instead envisaging mankind at the mercy of a chaotic and malevolent universe.

This selection of stories ranges from early tales of nightmares and insanity such as ‘The Outsider’ and ‘Rats in the Walls’, through the grotesquely comic ‘Herbert West – Reanimator’ and ‘The Hound’, to the extra-terrestrial terror of ‘The Call of Cthulhu’, which fuses traditional supernaturalism with science fiction. Including the definitive corrected texts, this collection reveals the development of Lovecraft’s mesmerizing narrative style and establishes him as a hugely influential – and visionary – American writer.

Edited with an Introduction by S. T. Joshi.

With Kate Atkinson, Sebastian Barry, Anne Enright, Alexander McCall Smith, Andrew O'Hagan, Kate Mosse, Andrew Motion, Colm Toibin, Joanna Trollope, Ali Smith, Jeanette Winterson & more In this stunning collection, the best and brightest writers working today reimagine familiar stories from the greatest operas. Don Giovanni's ghost haunts a young boy, Fidelio meets Porgy and Bess and two hapless men stage a Mozartian love test. Long-lost loves enter the dating game and undying witches finally get grey hairs. Funny, macabre or irreverent, these stories are charming for any opera lover and a beguiling collection in their own right.

Gedigte met ongewone benaderings wat op mekaar inspeel.

Insigte in ‘n wye reeks onderwerpe. Verskeie terreine vir die eerste keer in Afrikaans ontgin.

Dit sal ‘n leser verryk en genot verskaf.

If you like true stories about real people, are intrigued by serendipity, curious about curiosities, or maybe you are a collector yourself, then this book is for you.

The collecting and researching of any collectable is an intense and pleasurable pastime. The author’s passion for more than half a century has been for collecting handwritten, original letters, antique documents, manuscripts, old share certificates, fire insurance policies, photographs and maps.

The writers of these words on paper include kings and queens, presidents and prime ministers, admirals and generals, actors and authors, judges and prisoners, philosophers, statesmen, scientists, and sportsmen. Some were famous, some infamous, some important, others less so. Many you will know about; with others, only their names may be familiar. There’s Admiral Nelson, and the Duke of Wellington; there are queens Elizabeth I and II and kings George III, IV and VI; presidents Eisenhower, Kruger, and Mandela are here; prime ministers Botha, Hertzog and Smuts; explorers Scott and Shackleton. There’s Faraday and De la Rey, and many more, including two controversial giants of history – Napoleon and Rhodes.

The chapters need not be read in any set order, although there is an underlying thread linking them to the life of the author that enabled this eclectic collection to evolve in the way it did.

It doesn't take much familiarity with the news to see that the world has become a more hate-filled place. In Others, a group of writers explore the power of words to help us to see the world as others see it, and to reveal some of the strangeness of our own selves. Through stories, poems, memoirs and essays, we look at otherness in a variety of its forms, from the dividing lines of politics and the anonymising forces of city life, through the disputed identities of disability, gender and neurodiversity, to the catastrophic imbalances of power that stands in the way of social equality. Whether the theme is a casual act of racism or an everyday interaction with someone whose experience seems impossible to imagine, the collection challenges us to recognise our own otherness to those we would set apart as different. Contributors include: Leila Aboulela, Gillian Allnutt, Damian Barr, Noam Chomsky, Rishi Dastidar, Peter Ho Davies, Louise Doughty, Salena Godden, Colin Grant, Sam Guglani, Matt Haig, Aamer Hussein, Anjali Joseph, A. L. Kennedy, Joanne Limburg, Rachel Mann, Tiffany Murray, Sara Novic, Edward Platt, Alex Preston, Tom Shakespeare, Kamila Shamsie, Will Storr, Preti Taneja and Marina Warner.

London today is embattled as rarely before. In a city of enormous wealth, poverty is rampant. The burnt-out hulk of Grenfell Tower stands as an appalling reminder that inequality can be so acute as to be murderous. Here, Claire Armitstead has drawn together fiction, reportage and poetry to capture the schisms defining the contemporary city. With nearly 40% of the capital's population born outside the country, Tales of Two Londons eschews what Armitstead labels a "tyranny of tone," emphasising voices rarely heard. Featuring writers such as Ali Smith, Jon Snow, Arifa Akbar and Ruth Padel alongside stories from previously unpublished immigrants and refugees, this is a compelling collection which captures the fabric of the city: its housing, its food, its pubs, its buses, even its graveyards.

Die Laughing is the fourth of the Short.Sharp.Stories Awards annual anthologies, produced in conjunction with the National Arts Festival. Following 2013’s successful Bloody Satisfied, 2014’s Adults Only which won the coveted NIHSS Award (National Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences), and 2015’s Incredible Journey from which two stories were nominated for the Caine Prize, we bring you Die Laughing, an anthology of stories of wit, satire and humour. Here, writers have poked a little fun at our crazy country, at our politics, our idiosyncrasies, our down-right ridiculous habits. A number of stories look on the lighter, brighter side of life, and, of course, dark humour is included too - irony, satire and tragi-comedy, all with a strong sense of the South African setting. The aim of the Short.Sharp.Stories awards is to showcase South African fiction-writing talent. The prize money offered, totalling R35,000, is sponsored by the National Arts Festival and ensures entries of an excellent standard. With a foreword by Evita Bezuidenhout, introduction by Darrel Bristow-Bovey, and stories by prize-winning authors as well as new voices, DIE LAUGHING promises to be another stand-out anthology.

With over 3,500 entries, arranged by topic, fully indexed and up-to-date for the twenty-first century, here is a bumper new collection of witticisms and wisecracks. If you're looking for a quick quip to get the crowd on your side, struggling to put the finishing touches to a wedding speech or just want to cheer yourself and your mates up, this marvellous mammoth book provides all you'll ever need. Entries range from insults, put-downs, gags and one-liners to homespun philosophy, witty proverbs, movie quotes and graffiti. Among the contributors featured are Ricky Gervais, Sir Terry Pratchett, Tina Fey, Milton Jones, Russell Brand, Bill Bryson, Armando Iannucci, Stephen Fry, Jeremy Clarkson, Larry David, Grayson Perry, Germaine Greer, Will Ferrell and many more. Never be stuck for a good line again! 'Al Gore met with Donald Trump to discuss climate change. To try to explain it in terms Trump would understand, Gore said, "The planet is getting hotter than your daughter Ivanka."' Conan O'Brien 'The only time it's cool to yell, "I have diarrhoea!" is when you're playing Scrabble.' Zach Galifianakis

Daisy Dunn offers a deeply researched collection of stories reflecting the eclectic richness and depth of the classical literary canon. Striking a balance between the 'classic classic' (such as Dryden's translation of the Aeneid) and the less familiar or expected, Of Gods and Men ranges from the epic poetry of Homer to the histories of Arrian and Diodorus Siculus and the sprawling Theogony of Hesiod; from the tragedies of Aeschylus and Euripides to the biographies of Suetonius and Plutarch and the pen portraits of Theophrastus; and from the comedies of Plautus to the the fictions of Petronius and Apuleius. Of Gods and Men is embellished by translations from writers as diverse as Queen Elizabeth I (Boethius), Percy Bysshe Shelley (Plato), Walter Pater (Apuleius's Golden Ass), Lawrence of Arabia (Homer's Odyssey), Louis MacNeice (Aeschylus's Agamemnon) and Ted Hughes (Ovid's Pygmalion), as well as a number of accomplished translations by Daisy herself.

Wat is dit dan met my dat ek alewig op soek is na 'n huis? So vra Riana Scheepers ook in een van die sketse van hierdie bundel. Oral waar sy reis - en dis beslis vele reise wat hierdie skrywer met passie onderneem, is sy ook alewig op soek na 'n huis wat sy kan koop, al is dit net met die oe. En dan stel sy voor hoe so 'n huis bewoon kan word, of dit nou 'n herehuis in Ierland is of 'n Karoohuisie in Loxton, 'n trappiesgewelhuis of 'n skuur naby Malmesbury. Of les bes, die liefste huis van almal - haar eenvoudige vissershuisie aan die Weskus, soos die mooi voorblad aandui. Vir Scheepers is huise die hulsels waarin en waaruit gelewe word, waar mense mekaar ontmoet, waar kosbaarhede versamel word, waar gul maaltye berei word, maar ook vanwaar paaie na ver plekke aangedurf kan word, vanwaar jy beweeg om ander te ontmoet.

From Aristophanes to Zeffirelli, from Gerard Depardieu to Mae West, in Break a Leg! Michele Brown has assembled a world-beating cast, including actors, dramatists, directors and even critics (`A man who knows the way but cannot drive the car.' Kenneth Tynan). She draws on plays, books, newspapers and table-talk and her collection of wise and witty lines includes the familiar and the completely unexpected. This is a work where Sarah Bernhardt is playing opposite Kenneth Branagh. Orson Welles is sharing the limelight with Samuel Beckett, Aphra Behn and Noel Coward, and the themes range from stage fright to star quality.

A major anthology of great Japanese short stories introduced by Haruki Murakami This is a celebration of the Japanese short story from its modern origins in the nineteenth century to remarkable contemporary works. It includes the most well-known Japanese writers - Akutagawa, Murakami, Mishima, Kawabata - but also many surprising new pieces, from Yuko Tsushima's 'Flames' to Banana Yoshimoto's 'Bee Honey'. Ranging over myth, horror, love, nature, modern life, a diabolical painting, a cow with a human face and a woman who turns into sugar, The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories is filled with fear, charm, beauty and comedy. Edited by Jay Rubin with an introduction by Haruki Murakami