A collaboration between best-selling author Di Smith and fine art photographer Ker Stanley, A Lighter Way of Being is a contemplative and poetic journey to the heart of mindfulness with South Africa as a backdrop

Where do we turn to find respite from the hyped up frenzy of life in South Africa? How do we let go of holding our breath?

Through a tapestry of prose, heartwarming memoirs and conceptual art, Di shares her personal stories of living through the trials and tribulations of a country she deeply loves, mindfully pointing out a clear path to guide us through the messy reality that is everyday human life.

The Marina Bay Sand, the Changi Jewel and the fast-paced, high-rise city are what immediately comes to one's mind about Singapore. This is 'The Weekender's' first flight into the Asia Pacific region and this issue will present Singapore in a different and more laid-back perspective than you might be used to. However, it will still showcase the iconic architecture and landmarks that juxtapose with a melting pot of diverse heritages/cultures and remnants of the city-state's colonial past. And at the same, this issue explores the blurred boundaries between the old and the new, the hardscapes and the softscapes. From starting the weekend with breakfast at a local enclave, rich in history and culture, to wandering the grounds of the UNESCO Heritage listed Botanical Gardens and then ending the day sipping a cocktail along Keong Siak Road, a trendy neighbourhood littered with eateries and bars, Matthew aspires for the book to bring about a more local and intimate experience of what the city-state has to offer for a weekend getaway or a pit-stop to explore the rest of region. Whilst the flow of the book will incorporate the weekend trajectory, the mixture of content will mean that a reader is both influenced by Matthew's imagery of the city, without explicitly having to follow a specific route but allow them to adventure at will.

Internationally known as a writer, Eudora Welty has as well been spotlighted as a talented photographer. The prevalent idea remains that Welty simply took snapshots before she found her true calling as a renowned fiction writer. But who was Welty as a photographer? What did she see? How and why did she photograph? And what did Welty know about modern photography? In Exposing Mississippi: Eudora Welty's Photographic Reflections, Annette Trefzer elucidates Welty's photographic vision and answers these questions by exploring her photographic archive and writings on photography. The photographs Welty took in the 1930s and '40s frame her visual response to the cultural landscapes of the segregated South during the Depression. The photobook One Time, One Place, which was selected, curated, and shaped into a visual narrative by Welty herself, serves as a starting point and guide for the following chapters on her spatial hermeneutic. The book is divided into sections by locations and offers how the framing of these areas reveals Welty's radical commentary of the spaces her camera captured. There are over eighty images in Exposing Mississippi, including some never-before-seen archival photographs, and sections of the book draw on over three hundred more. The chapters on institutional, leisure, and memorial landscapes address how Welty's photographs contribute to, reflect on, and intervene in customary visual constructions of the Depression-era South.