Prufrock was a literary journal founded in 2013 by James King, Anneke Rautenbach, Nick Mulgrew and Helen Sullivan, with a collective, albeit murky, vision complimented by an equally gung-ho mission. Named after the title character from the T.S. Eliot poem ‘Prufock’, an ode to postulation and a reflection on the act of writing. In print for five years, with fifteen issues published, Prufrock followed a legacy set by other literary magazines such as Ophir, Izwi, Wurm, Kol and Bolt to name a few, becoming South Africa’s foremost magazine to showcase contemporary writing. Prufrock published fiction, non-fiction and poetry in all official languages of South Africa, but from time-to-time also included recipes, photography, and illustration.
Meant to be a local equivalent of The New Yorker, South Africa’s own cornerstone literary magazine, with the intention to bring pieces of writing that needed to be read and make great South African writing accessible to the broader public. Prufrock was a space for young and emerging African writers to be published, focussing on both short-form and long-form fiction and non-fiction. Being a labour of love, both the editorial team and the magazine’s contributors did not get paid for their efforts, and any funding that was received went towards printing costs, distribution and website development.
