355pp., b/w & colour illus., paperback, Wits University Press, Johannesburg, 2024

ISBN: 9781776149247

Essays on the history, sociology and politics of the oldest South African university press.

Contributions include:

"Introduction: Experiments in Writing the History of a University Press" by Sarah Nuttall and Isabel Hofmeyr

"B. W. Vilakazi, Ithongo Lokwazi: The muse of knowledge" by Hlonipha Mokoena

"‘The Hidden Matters of the Black People’: John Henderson Soga and The South-Eastern Bantu" by Natasha Erlank

"Clement M. Doke and the Bantu Treasury: Laying aesthetic foundations for modern African literature" by Innocentia Mhlambi

"Writing While Female: Merit, market and gatekeeping in academic publishing in South Africa" by Shireen Hassim

"Book Paradise: Publishing Regarding Muslims and Surfacing with Wits University Press" by Gabeba Baderoon

"Translated Authorship and Language Futures" by Achille Mbembe

"The Psychologist Who had a Lingering Hope of Becoming a Fiction Writer: Noel Chabani Manganyi" by Kopano Ratele

"Afterword: Time-Travelling in the Archive" by Ivan Vladislavić.

"An engaging volume that explores the evolution of the oldest scholarly press in southern Arica from its anglophone colonial origins to a highly respected global South publishing house. It delves into its achievements in publishing both scholarly and creative writing, much of which would not have had an outlet elsewhere, thus giving a platform to generations of writers, particularly black authors." Zakes Mda, Professor Emeritus of English, Ohio University

"This book is more than the story of Wits University Press. It impacts our understanding of African knowledge production in the twentieth century and beyond. In capturing the complex evolution of Wits Press, the collection is both informative and sobering, while offering valuable lessons on how to build and sustain institutions that matter." Ainehi Edoro, Assistant Professor of Global Black Literature, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Sarah Nuttall is Professor of Literary and Cultural Studies at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WISER) at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. She is editor of Your History with Me, the films of Penny Siopis and co-editor of Johannesburg, the elusive metropolis.

Isabel Hofmeyr is Professor Emeritus of African Literature at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. She is the author of Dockside Reading.

PUBLISHING FROM THE SOUTH, a century of Wits University Press

: Nuttall (S.) & Hofmeyr (I.) eds.

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