Looking at his first novel, The Reactive, and using Dambudzo Marechera’s assertion that “the lives of small men are like spider’s webs…studded with minute skeletons of greatness”, Ntshanga will discuss fiction’s ability to not only free South Africa’s marginalized spaces from being defined within the perimeters of pathology, but also how, through working together with the imagination as a social force, it can transform these spaces into sites of education and transcendence.
Masande Ntshanga is the Caine Prize nominated winner of the 2013 PEN International New Voices Award. He was born in East London in 1986 and graduated with a degree in Film and Media and an Honours degree in English Studies from UCT, where he became a creative writing fellow, completing his Masters in Creative Writing under the Mellon Mays Foundation. He received a Fulbright Award and an NRF Freestanding Masters scholarship. His stories have appeared in Laugh It Off, itch, Imago and Habitat. He has also written for Rolling Stone magazine. The Reactive, his first novel, was nominated for the Etisalat Prize for Fiction and shortlised for The Sunday Times Fiction Prize. It is forthcoming in the US with Two Dollar Radio.
The presentation, followed by an open question and answer session, will take place from 17:30 – 19:00 on Tuesday 15 March 2016 at Hiddingh Hall, UCT Hiddingh Campus, 31 – 37 Orange Street, Cape Town. Refreshments will be served from 17:00. No booking is necessary and all are welcome.
For more information, contact the GIPCA office: +27 21 650 7156 or sam.saevitzon@uct.ac.za. For media enquiries, contact Sascha Polkey at Rabbit in a Hat Communications: +27 21 300 0052 or sascha@rabbitinahat.co.za.
Start: 15 Mar ’16 5:00 pm
End: 15 Mar ’16 7:00 pm
Email: fin-gipca@uct.ac.za
Venue: Hiddingh Hall
Phone: +27 21 650 7156
Address: Google Map UCT Hiddingh Campus, 31 Orange Street, Cape Town, 8001, South Africa