Sean O’Toole asks Bronwyn Law-Viljoen and Idra Novey about their novels Notes on Falling and Take What You Need. They discuss the emotional repertoires of their characters, the political context of their work, art-making as well as writing about mothers and daughters.

Sean O’Toole is a writer, editor and curator based in Cape Town. His two books are Irma Stern: African in Europe - European in Africa (2021), and The Marquis of Mooikloof and Other Stories (2006). He is the editor of three volumes of cultural essays, most recently The Journey: New Positions on African Photography (2020).

Bronwyn Law-Viljoen is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Adelaide and the former Head of Creative Writing at Wits University. She has doctorates from New York University and the University of the Witwatersrand. Her first novel, The Printmaker, (Umuzi, 2016) won the 2018 Olive Schreiner Prize. Her second novel, Notes on Falling was published by Umuzi/Penguin-Random House in 2022.

Idra Novey's most recent novel is Take What You Need (Viking, 2023). She is the author of Those Who Knew (2019) and Ways to Disappear (2016). Her poetry collections include Exit, Civilian, The Next Country and Clarice: The Visitor. Her works as a translator include Clarice Lispector’s novel The Passion According to G.H. and a co-translation with Ahmad Nadalizadeh of Iranian poet Garous Abdolmalekian, Lean Against This Late Hour. She teaches fiction at Princeton University.

In this episode we are in solidarity with Cuban artist and activist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara. We call for his freedom. You can read more about his case here: https://www.pen-international.org/news/pen-international-and-pen-america-condemn-cruel-and-inhumane-prison-sentences-imposed-without-legal-merit-on-cuban-artist-activists-luis-manuel-otero-alcntara-and-maykel-osorbo-castillo-prez and his art here: https://artistsatriskconnection.org/story/luis-manuel-otero-alcantara.

As tributes to him, Idra reads from Aimé Césaire’s “Notebook of a Return to the Native Land” (translated by A. James Arnold and Clayton Eshleman), Bronwyn reads two poems by Francisco Márquez, and Sean reads from “The Artist as Hostage: Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara” by Coco Fusco.

This podcast series is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Embassy in South Africa to promote open conversation and highlight shared histories.

Home, Identity and Belonging

The Empty Chair by PEN SABy PEN South AfricaFeb 24, 2022