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You are Invited to the South African Book Awards – 2023 to be hosted online on Tuesday, 3 October @ 12pm (South African Time). These annual Book Awards recognize books that are popular with Booksellers and the public, and celebrate the creativity and skills of Authors, Publishers, and their support teams, who came together in the past year to entertain, educate, and inform us. South Africa has a rich literary history, including 2 Nobel prizes for Literature. We encourage everyone  to read more, support our Authors and Publishers, and buy these and and books from their local Bookstores. After a process of selection and voting the following have been shortlisted in the 4 categories below: Fiction > Doolhof by Rudie […]

Celebrating its 20th Anniversary, the winners of this year’s SA Book Awards were announced on 1 October as part of a special virtual Ceremony hosted by SABA, sponsored by Nielsen Book and supported by PASA. Over the last 20 years the awards have recognised books written and published in South Africa, as voted for by South African booksellers, and recent winners have included Sam Beckbessinger, Jacques Pauw and Sally Andrew.

This year a record number of booksellers voted for their favourite titles, in three categories, from a shortlist of bestselling titles published in South Africa and written by South African authors, as measured by Nielsen BookScan South Africa in 2019.

Shortlist for SA Book Awards 2020 – Adult Fiction Title: Death on the Limpopo by Sally Andrew  Sex, lies & Stellenbosch by Eva Mazza Zulus of New York by Zakes Mda Bare by Jackie Phamotse The Adult Fiction prize was won by Jackie Phamotse, a self-published author, for her book Bare: The Cradle of the Hockey Club. Jackie described winning the award as an honour, thanking everyone who has supported her over the years.

Shortlist for SA Book Awards 2020 – Adult Non-Fiction Title:Dit proe soos huis by Herman LensingGangster State: Unravelling Ace Magashule’s web of capture by Pieter-Louis MyburghBetting on a Darkie by Mteto NyatiStellenbosch Mafia by Pieter Du Toit The Adult Non-Fiction prize was won by Pieter du Toit for Stellenbosch Mafia. Pieter thanked the booksellers and book dealers for all their hard work ensuring that books are available to the South African public, also praising them for continuing to encourage reading and the pursuit of writing.

Shortlist for SA Book Awards 2020 – Children’s Title (Fiction and Non-Fiction): Die Groot Jaco Jacobs Storieboek by Jaco Jacobs Zackie Mostert by Jaco Jacobs Yes Yanga! by Refiloe Moahloli Born a Crime by Trevor Noah The Children’s prize was won by previous winner Trevor Noah for the child adaptation of Born a Crime. On accepting his award Trevor said: “Writing a book was a very scary experience but turning the book into a book specifically for kids was even more scary because children have a very short attention span if your book is boring!” He went on to thank all the kids who read the book, the parents who read the book with their children and the teachers who […]

Please join the 2020 SABA virtual conference and AGM – follow the link to the programme here and the link to register here.

The winners of the University of Johannesburg’s Prize for South African Writing in English were announced in November. The UJ Prize, now in its 13th year, is judged by four faculty members from the university’s Department of English, along with two academics from other universities and one member of the media industry. There are two prizes: the Main Prize, which this year came to R70 000, and the Debut Prize, which totalled R35 000. The winners in 2019 were Gabeba Baderoon for her exquisite poetry collection The History of Intimacyand Mphuthumi Ntabeni for his magical novel The Broken River Tent. Read more here.

The 14th instalment of the South African Literary Awards took place on 7November at the Ditsong National Museum of Cultural History in Tshwane. The ceremony formed part of the 8th Africa Century International African Writers Conference, hosted by the wRite associates. There were 18 winners over 12 categories, including prizes for translation and journalism. All the winners can be viewed here: www.sala.org.za

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