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Categories

First-time Published Author Award

  • The Award is open to all genres.
  • The author must not have been published before in any genre.
  • Only works published in 2024 and 2025 are accepted.
  • No age restrictions.
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K. Sello Duiker Memorial Literary Award

  • The award is open to novels and novellas only
  • Only writers aged 40 and below are eligible to enter
  • Only works published in 2024 and 2025 will be accepted
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Poetry Award

  • Only collections by an individual author will be considered. Anthologies are not accepted
  • Only works published in 2024 and 2025 will be accepted
  • No age restriction
  • All the work must be in one official language: multiple languages in one book are not accepted.
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Nadine Gordimer Short Story Award

  • Only short story collections by one author will be considered.
  • Only works published in 2024 and 2025 will be accepted
  • No age restriction
  • A book by multiple authors will not be accepted.
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Creative Non-Fiction Award

  • The award is open to creative non-fiction works, i.e. Biographies/Autobiographies, Letters, Speeches and Memoirs
  • In the case of Letters and Speeches, only a collection of work published by one author will be accepted
  • Only works published in 2024 and 2025 will be accepted
  • No age restriction
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Literary Translators Award

  • Only literary works translated by a South African on South African works of art will be considered
  • All literary genres are considered.
  • Both the original and translated copies must be submitted and packaged together.
  • Only works published in 2024 and 2025 will be accepted
  • No age restriction
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Literary Journalism Award

  • The entrant must have made a significant contribution to the promotion and development of South African literature through writing, presenting, commentating, advocating, reviewing and critiquing.
  • The Award includes print, electronic, social and new media
  • A sample of the author’s work must be submitted. This may include videos, articles, podcasts and any other evidence of work and these must be x 5 copies.
  • No age restrictions.
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Posthumous Literary Award

  • The author will be judged on his/her overall literary achievement
  • The profile of the author and at least three (3) books (different titles by the author) must be submitted with the entry (please note 5 of each title should be submitted)
  • No age restrictions

       

        Please note that profile alone will not be considered.

  • No age restrictions.
  • No restrictions on the books’ year of publication
  • The contact details of the family member must be included in the nomination form.

NB: The Posthumous Literary Award category does not carry any cash prize.

Novel Award

  • Only literary fictional book-length work is accepted.
  • Only works published in 2024 and 2025 will be accepted
  • No age restriction
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Children’s Literature Award

  • Only fiction work is accepted, excluding works such as comic books, joke books, cartoon books, and non-fiction works that are not intended to be read from front to back, such as dictionaries, encyclopaedias and other reference materials.
  • No age restrictions
  • Only works published in 2024 and 2025 are accepted.
Fill in Nomination Form

Youth Literature Award

  • Fiction written for readers from 12 to 18 years of age
  • Only fiction work will be accepted
  • No age restriction
  • Only works published in 2024 and 2025 will be accepted
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The Regional/Provincial Poet Laureate Prize

  • The author will be judged on his/her overall literary achievement, i.e. body of work.
  • The profile of the author and at least three (3) books (different titles by the author) must be submitted (please note 5 of each title should be submitted). Please note that profile alone (without books) will not be considered.
  • No age restrictions
  • No restrictions on the books’ year of publication.

The name of the province where the nominee lives must be clearly stated.

Fill in Nomination Form

The Local Poet Laureate Prize

  • The author will be judged on his/her overall literary achievement, i.e. body of work.
  • The profile of the author and at least three (3) books (different titles by the author) must be submitted (please note 5 of each title should be submitted). Please note that profile alone (without books) will not be considered.
  • No age restrictions.
  • No restrictions on the book’s year of publication.

The name of the Municipality where the nominee lives must be clearly stated.

Fill in Nomination Form

Without discriminating against any official language, the devolution of the SALA Call for Submissions in this instance will give priority to works in the given area’s prominent, if preferred, language/s, especially African language/s.

Submission’s Guidelines

Submissions must follow the criteria as set out herein. Please ensure that you have read, understood and adhered to ALL the rules.

  1. The work must demonstrate good linguistic presentation, the nation’s identity, societal values, universal truths, and cultural aesthetics. It must also contribute to social cohesion, nation building and transcendence of time.
  2. All SALA categories accept work in all South African official languages
  3. The work must be the author’s original work unless in Literary Translators Award where it can be another’s author’s work translated by another author into another language.
  4. Each entry must be written in one official language. SALA doesn’t accept multiple language entries; except under Literary Translators Award, whereby the entered work will be in the benefiting language while the original in another language.
  5. Ten (10) copies of each entry must be submitted. Each copy must be accompanied by a nomination form.
  6. An entry can only be made for one category. Should an entry be submitted for more than one category it will be disqualified.
  7. Work that previously won a SALA award should not be re-entered for another category.
  8. Work which was previously unsuccessful cannot be re-entered in future.
  9. Set books are not accepted
  10. SALA does not accept entries by email or fax
  11. Nominations must be endorsed by the Author or Publisher.
  12. Authors’ and Nominator’s full details must all be included in the Nomination Form.
  13.  Late submissions will not be accepted.
  14. Should the submitting party not receive a response within 10 working days of submission to SALA, s/he/they must know her/his/their submission/s was/were unsuccessful.
  15. The judges’ decision is final, and no correspondence will be entered into.
  16. All submitted entries, whether successful or not, will not be returned to the submitting party.
Past Recipients