PEN SA strongly represented on 2019 Media24 Book Prizes Shortlist

PEN South Africa extends a warm congratulations to six of its members who have been shortlisted for 2019 Media24 Book Prizes.

These annual awards serve to recognise the best work published during the previous year by Media24 book publishers, including NB Publishers (through imprints such as Human & Rousseau, Tafelberg, Kwela Books and Queillerie), as well as Jonathan Ball Publishers.

Independent judging panels compiled the shortlists from 80 submissions in total. The shortlists consist of three titles each – apart from the Elisabeth Eybers Poetry Prize, for which two titles qualified.

This year, prizes to the value of R210,000 in total will be awarded in six categories.

The following PEN SA members have been shortlisted:

Herman Charles Bosman Prize for English Fiction (novels, short stories, drama)

• The Ones with Purpose by Nozizwe Cynthia Jele (Kwela Books)
• Soweto, Under the Apricot Tree by Niq Mhlongo (Kwela Books)
• The Hum of the Sun by Kirsten Miller (Kwela Books)

Recht Malan Prize for Nonfiction

• The Last Words of Rowan du Preez by Simone Haysom (Jonathan Ball Publishers)

WA Hofmeyr Prize for Afrikaans Fiction (novels, short stories, drama)

• Die Ongelooflike Onskuld van Dirkie Verwey by Charl-Pierre Naudé (Tafelberg)

Elisabeth Eybers Prize for Poetry

• The History of Intimacy by Gabeba Baderoon (Kwela Books)

MER Prize for Youth Novels

• Mine by Sally Partridge (Human & Rousseau)

Read more here.