Franschhoek Literary Festival 2022, A celebration of books and writers

The #FLF Bring together a cross-section of South African and international authors from 13th - 15th May 2022.



The FLF is a non-profit organisation originally established in 2007 by a group of literary enthusiasts and volunteers. After 13 years the Festival had to be cancelled in 2020 due to Covid and lack of funding. In 2021 a new Board was formed by donors and volunteers to revive the beloved FLF, with the key objectives of:

  • Raising funds for local community and school libraries and training and placing assistant school librarians through the FLF Library Fund;
  • Starting a membership programme to raise a further R100 000 for literacy programmes in South Africa.

You can contribute by becoming an #FLF member by purchasing your annual membership for R50 per month or R500 for the year and you will get exclusive access, discounts & automatic entry to prizes!

Meet your favourite Pan Macmillan authors at Franschhoek!

Friday, 13th May sessions: 

  • Time: 10:00am - 11:00am 
  • Venue: New School Hall

Fred Khumalo joins Sindiwe Magona of When the Village Sleeps and Mandla Langa writer of The Lost Language of the Soul  to explore the crisis that binds their new novels – children searching for missing parents.

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Time: 11:30 - 12:3

Venue: New School Hall 

Shaun de Waal asks Andrew Harding Sunday Times/CNA Non-fiction Award winner for These Are Not Gentle People about his foreign correspondent’s experience of South Africa. What can outsiders see in our social fabric?

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Time: 16:00 - 17:00

Venue: Old School Hall

Andrew Harding and acclaimed writer-reporter Michela Wrong reflect on Do Not Disturb, her devastating portrait of Paul Kagame’s Rwandan regime – and the risks and rewards of investigating autocrats.

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Saturday, 14th May sessions: 

Time: 10:00 - 11:00

Venue: Old School Hall 

Yewande Omotoso talks about women’s voices and the art of generational fiction with Tsitsi Dangarembga of This Mournable Body Sindiwe Magona writer of When The Village Sleeps.

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Time: 11:30 - 12:30 

Venue: Church Hall 

Dr Greg Mills talks to Michela Wrong about his latest broadside to conventional wisdom, Expensive Poverty: Why Aid Fails and How it Can Work. After a trillion dollars of aid, why have ordinary Africans gotten so little benefit?

  • This event is sold out 

Time: 11:30 - 12:30 

Venue: Hospice Hall 

Jen Thorpe speaks to Shana Fife writer of Ougat and Sue Nyathi, When Secrets Become Stories – Women Speak Out, about memoir and storytelling as a feminist act.

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Time: 13:00 - 14:00

Venue: Old School Hall 

Bruce Whitfield picks the brain of award-winning financial planner Warren Ingram on his offshore investment handbook, Global Investing Made Easy. Chris Holdsworth (Chief Investment Strategist, Investec Wealth & Investment SA) will join Ingram in the discussion.

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Time: 13:00 - 14:00

Venue: Hospice Hall

Sue Nyathi talks to Fred Khumalo about Two Tons O’Fun, his new coming-of-age novel set in Alexandra, switching genres and the shortage of laughs in South African fiction …

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Time: 14:30 - 15:30 

Venue: New School Hall 

Refilwe Moloto and Bruce Whitfield tackle his new book Genius – How to take smart ideas global, which explores the creative sorcery of world-beating South African entrepreneurs.

*This event is sold out 

Time: 14:30 - 15:30

Venue: Congregational Church

Shaun De Waal invites Imraan Coovadia (The Poisoners) and Andrew Harding (These Are Not Gentle People) to sample the art of political poisoning – from Salisbury to Nkandla.

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Time: 14:30 - 15:30 

Venue: Hospice Hall 

Dr Wamuwi Mbao speaks to Mandla Langa about his new novel The Lost Language of the Soul and South Africa’s literature of exile and return.

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Time: 16:00 - 17:00

Venue: Congregational Church

Mohale Mashigo discusses Cape Town as a setting & a character with three young novelists: Mia Arderne of Mermaid FilletQarnita Loxton author of Being DianneAlistair Mackay on his book It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way.

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Sunday, 15th May sessions: 

Time: 10:00 - 11:00

Venue: Old School Hall

Sue Nyathi speaks to Sally Cranswick (Women out of Water), Dudu Busani-Dube (Hlomu series) and Qarnita Loxton (Being Dianne) about the art of writing potent heroines – and the power of fiction to interrogate women’s social realities. 

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Time: 11:30 - 12:30

Venue: Old School Hall

Bruce Whitfield talks to Magda Wierzycka, SA’s richest woman, about her biography Magda, her childhood as a Polish refugee, her business triumphs, and her role in the war on state capture.

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Time: 13:00 - 14:00 

Venue: Old School Hall 

Reg Lascaris talks to Sorbet founder Ian Fuhr about his new book, Cultureneering  and how a culture of respect and belonging made his beauty-salon empire the biggest in the land. Fuhr will be joined by Lesley-Anne Gatter (Group Head of People and Organisation, Investec SA).

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To view the full Franschhoek Literary Festival 2022 schedule, head over to the Franschhoek Literary Festival website