ADDED to the launch of the compilation Band of Troubadours, the other prominent legacy programme of the South African Literary Awards is the Miriam Tlali Reading and Book Club.

ADDED to the launch of the compilation Band of Troubadours, the other prominent legacy programme of the South African Literary Awards is the Miriam Tlali Reading and Book Club.

Launched at Xarra Books in Newtown, Johannesburg, on June 20 last year, and coinciding with the legendary author's 76th birthday, the club's main vehicles are poetry, music and dialogue.

She was one of 43 writers who were honoured between 2005 and 2007 and samples of whose work are carried in the commemorative compilation of poems, short stories and other prose called Band of Troubadours.

Tlali is a scholar, novelist and short-story writer. Among her novels are Muriel at the Metropolitan, Amandla and Footprints in the Quag, Mihloti and a play, Crimen Injuria. Tlali has received other awards locally and internationally, including the South African National Orders' Presidential Award, Ikhamanga: Silver in 2008. - Victor Mecoamere