(from left) Cebisa Zono, Nandipha Tshabane and Ndibulele Sotondoshe holding copies of the new book.
Cover2Cover and FunDza Literacy Trust are delighted to welcome their latest book into the world! #LoveReading is a collection of blogs, articles, poems and stories by new and experienced writers all over South Africa. For most of these writers, this is the first time that their work has appeared in print.
FunDza is especially proud to have two of its staff members included – Nandipha Tshabane for her blog about being gay, and Ndibulelele Sotondoshe for two of his interviews with inspiring South Africans, a blog on ‘blessers’ and a poem about the Eastern Cape! Also included are winning entries from some of FunDza’s poetry and essay writing competitions.
Previously Cover2Cover has published collections of FunDza’s short stories in its Big Ups! anthologies – so called because readers comment on FunDza’s mobi site with compliments about these popular stories, often saying ‘big ups to da author’. FunDza distributes these anthologies to reading groups and under-resourced schools around the country.
Although these Big Ups! stories have proved hugely popular in print form as well, reading groups particularly have requested shorter pieces that can be finished in one session. Readers on FunDza’s mobi site have also enjoyed the different genres available, with non-fiction articles sparking a lot of virtual discussion, and poetry being popular too. And so this is how the concept of #LoveReading came about.
There are still four longer stories in the collection: two of these by young writers for whom this is their first print publication – Cebisa Zono, who writes in Xhosa, (he translated this story into English) and Anathi Nyadu, whose moving story describes various perspectives on the student protests.
We are sure that this collection will inspire young people all over the country to #LoveReading!