Openly Positive Short Story Collection
Telling stories of positive lives
The Openly Positive Trust (Openly Positive) is in the final stages of developing a short story collection, the third book in our non-profit series, due for publication in April 2011. It will be formally launched in Cape Town on May 4th 2011.
The story-telling series aims to promote the visibility of people living with and affected by HIV, and to celebrate the positive lives of a diversity of people. Our books promote a less stigmatised environment for HIV disclosure, acceptance and living positively.
New, diverse authors and translations
To date, we have selected 15 stories from new writers from South Africa, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Malawi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. All 15 stories will be published in the short story collection in English, while we have translated three of the stories into isiXhosa, Chichewa and French and are publishing them in those languages in separate booklets to reach a wider readership. Extracts from the stories will appear on this website.
Diverse issues
The short stories reflect a central thread of living positively with HIV, or being significantly affected by HIV, for example through losing a partner or family member. Parallel to the HIV theme, authors share how their lives have been affected by a wide range of other challenges, such as violence against women, being lesbian or gay, being orphaned, being a refugee, and faith issues.
