AUTHOR Diale Tlholwe will rub shoulders and share ideas with readers during the Miriam Tlali Reading and Book Club session at the African Literary Bookshop in Johannesburg on Saturday.

"I am okay with the opportunity because one will be meeting and talking face to face with people who love literature and hopefully receiving much-needed feedback," Tlholwe said in a phone chat this week.

"The club is a great platform for authors and readers, as well as people who love literature in general. It is always important to rub shoulders and share ideas and views with other people.

"Sadly, few people read, and even fewer people appreciate literature. Previously such people's excuse was that not many local authors were producing and coming out with stuff that touches and represents their lives positively."

Tlholwe, who will be discussing his debut novel Ancient Rites at the African Literature Bookshop at 191 Louis Botha Avenue, corner 8th Street, Orange Grove, Johannesburg, said this about his new product: "I think I am trying to tackle the situation a person could find themselves in; where one is straddling two cultures, trying to harmonise these . a kind of schizophrenia, really."

Tlholwe, who also writes in Setswana, also made a debut with the crime fiction and thriller anthology Bad Company, which includes fellow South African crime authors like Deon Meyer, Margie Orford and Zulu writer Meshack Masondo.

Admission is free. wRite Associates, who are the organisers of this South African Literary Awards legacy project, are encouraging parents to bring children to the club for a kiddies' session for children aged between two and five.

"The book title for the two to eight year olds this month is Sawubona Zoleka, by one of Africa's greatest children's books authors, Gcina Mhlophe.

In the kiddies' programme, older children read poetry and do some impromptu writing exercises.