Press Release
(Released by the wRite associates)
2019 South African Literary Awards winners announced
As the 2019 Africa Century International Writers Conference officially comes to an end, this year’s South African Literary Awards winners have been announced, with several newcomers as well as established artists sharing in the accolades.
The winners of the 2019 South African Literary Awards (SALA) were announced at a ceremony held at Ditsong National Museum of Cultural History.
The South African Literary Awards (SALA) had shortlisted twenty six (26) authors for its 13 awards categories for this year’s awards.
For the Children’s Literature Category, the winner is Lebohang Masango a PhD student for the book title Mpumi’s Magic Beads.
The Youth Literature Category went to novelist and short story writer Sally Partridge for the book entitled MINE.
Dr Bongani Ngqulunga received the First-Time Published Author Award for his book The Man Who Founded The ANC: A Biography of Pixley ka Isaka Seme
The SALA’s Poetry Award had three winners which are Mr Tony Ullyatt for the book AN UNOBTRUSIVE VICE, Nathan Trantraal for the book ALLES HET NIET KOM WOD and Ayanda Billie for the Xhosa book Umhlaba Umanzi.
The K. SELLO DUIKER MEMORIAL LITERARY AWARD was awarded to Chase Rhys a thirty-year-old novelist, scriptwriter and playwright from Ocean View for his book KINNES.
Mr Sabata-mpho Mokae, an academic, novelist and translator Charl-Pierre Naudé bagged the Novel Award for their books MOLETLO WA MANONG and Die Ongelooflike Onskuld van DIRKIE VERWEY respectively.
Mr Niq Mhlongo received the 2019 Herman Charles Bosman Prize for Soweto, Under the Apricot Tree, and the same book received the SALA’s Nadine Gordimer Short story Award.
Prof Jonathan Jansen is a leading South African educationist, commentator and the author of several books, including the best-selling Letters to my Children and award-winning Knowledge in the Blood, and this year he was awarded the Creative Non-Fiction Literary Award for the blockbuster AS BY FIRE.
The Literary Translators Award was received by Michiel Heyns who has published eight novels and his book is entitled RED DOG
The Literary Jornalism Award was jointly received by a writer and essayist Wamuwi Mbao and Ms Jennifer Malec, the founding editor of The Johannesburg Review of Books.
Cyril Lincoln Sibusiso Nyembezi, born 1919 and passed away in 2000, was a South African writer known as a Zulu novelist, poet, scholar, teacher and editor. His novel, Inkinsela yase Mgungundlovu was made into a television series because of the popularity of the novel. Nyembezi received the Posthumous Literary Award.
The Chairperson’s award went to Ms Lindiwe Mabuza, South African politician, diplomat, poet, academic, journalist and cultural activist.
Finally the Lifetime Achievement Literary Award was awarded to Louis Smit a celebrated playwright for many children’s productions to tour the country, and Cornelius Tennyson Daniel (CTD) Marivate.
The main aim of the South African Literary Awards is to pay tribute to South African writers who have distinguished themselves as groundbreaking producers and creators of literature, while it celebrates literary excellence in the depiction and sharing of South Africa’s histories, value systems and philosophies and art as inscribed and preserved in all the languages of South Africa, particularly the official languages.
Now in their fourteenth year, the SALAs are awarded annually by the wRite Associates and the Department of Arts and Culture to celebrate literary excellence in all the languages of South Africa.
The SALAs continue continues to remain prestigious and respected literary accolades in the South African literary landscape.
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For media inquiries, contact Ashley Santos on 0749192911/ 0717733079, email ashley@azalecomms.co.za