PROGRESSIVE publishers, book sellers, independent authors and avid readers will get together on Saturday and Sunday at the first Johannesburg book fair - the Jozi Book Fair - at MuseumAfrika in Newtown.

PROGRESSIVE publishers, book sellers, independent authors and avid readers will get together on Saturday and Sunday at the first Johannesburg book fair - the Jozi Book Fair - at MuseumAfrika in Newtown.

Organised by Khanya College and Botsotso Publishers, the event promises to attract not only leading authors but bookworms of every stripe and speakers of note.

The country has only two other book fairs - the Cape Town Book Fair and Franschhoek Book Fair - also based in Cape Town, leaving out a potentially lucrative market like Johannesburg.

The debut of another book fair in Jozi, the Soweto Book Fair, has been pencilled in for next year.

So it is the first time that Johannesburg will have a book fair of its own.

The Jozi Book Fair is open to publishing houses that are committed to a social justice agenda and that feature contemporary and cutting-edge writing internationally and regionally.

Andile Mnxitama, a Sowetan columnist and a publisher of the hard hitting journal New Frank Talk, is looking forward to the event.

Khanya College and Botsotso Publishing are to offer small and progressive publishers a forum to showcase their publications and activities.

A select panel of speakers, including Patrick Bond, Lebogang Pheko, Jackie Cock, Salim Vally, Priscilla Everson, Zethu Matabane, Makhosazana Xaba and Angelina Sithebe, will have something to say at the fair.