WHEN WATER WANTS TO, the DALRO Can Themba Merit Award short story anthology

 201pp., paperback, Wits University Press, Johannesburg, 2025

ISBN: 9781776149797

A collection of ten short stories by the winners of the literary competition, the DALRO Can Themba Short Story Award.

In the competition call, no single theme or topic was specified and submissions ranged from the deeply personal to experiments with horror and science fiction. For the majority of the top ten, their submission was their first attempt at short story writing.

"The stories in this anthology illustrate why the short story is one of the mot resilient genres in the history of South African literature. When Water Wants To deftly weaves a tapestry of contemporary voices, pulsating with rhythms of both thematically and stylistically diverse narratives. Lyrical yet cerebral, affective yet dramatic, these stories are both haunting and illuminating." Siphiwo Mahala, Associate Professor, Department of English, University of Johannesburg

Featured stories: "No Good Deed" (KJ Aires); "Murmur Becomes a Wave" (Megan Choritz); "Mr Duiker Sang the Blues" (Dyondzo Kwinika); "Letters of Remembrance" (Sebabatso Madibu); "Zombie" (Lerato Mahlangu); "A Mortician’s Instinct" (Kamva Majo), "African Death, Western Medicine" ( Lethukukhanya Mzulwini); "The Woman Who Buried Rain" (Rabada Unarine Princess); "The Watermelon Caretaker" (Rosieda Shabodien); and "Man of the House" (Dashalia Singaram). 

Neil Coppen is a playwright and theatre-maker from KwaZulu-Natal. He won the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Drama in 2011, and was awarded the 2019 Olive Schreiner Award for Drama for The Bucket Drum and the 2012 Naledi Award for Best South African Script for Abnormal Loads. Other works include Tree Boy, Sugar Daddies and Animal Farm.