The first major PEN South Africa event of 2018 was held on Wednesday, 25 July, when PEN SA – along with partner organisations, The Mandela Rhodes Foundation, The Fugard Theatre, and Penguin Random House – hosted the Cape Town launch of The Prison Letters of Nelson Mandela, edited by Sahm Venter. This event was a partner event to those held by PEN Centres in England and the United States and was open to the public on a free-ticketed basis.
With an illustrious panel of discussants and readings of letters from two of Cape Town’s most talented young writer-actors, it was an evening befitting of celebrating the world’s most famous writer in prison. After a generous reception held by The Mandela Rhodes Foundation and an address by its Executive Director (and PEN SA member) Shaun Johnson, attendees filed into The Fugard Theatre for the main program.