2018 Sunday Times Literary Awards Shortlists Announced
14 May 2018
The Sunday Times Literary Awards shortlists, for the Alan Paton Award and Barry Ronge Fiction Prize, have been announced. This follows the naming of the longlists earlier this year.
Jennifer Platt, Sunday Times’ Books editor says: “These 10 books are sounding one loud gong for South Africa. These stories and histories, tales of yesteryear and today, reflections of our own individual past and present are adding to the much-needed conversation that we have to start to get things right.”
The shortlist finalists for the 2018 Alan Paton Award are:
- Kingdom, Power, Glory: Mugabe, Zanu and the Quest for Supremacy, 1960-1987 by Stuart Doran
- No Longer Whispering to Power: The Story of Thuli Madonsela by Thandeka Gqubule
- Always Another Country: A Memoir of Exile and Home by PEN SA Board Member Sisonke Msimang
- The Man Who Founded the ANC: A Biography of Pixley ka Isaka Seme by Bongani Ngqulunga
- Colour Me Yellow: Searching for My Family Truth by Thuli Nhlapo
The Alan Paton adjudication panel consists of Constitutional Court judge and PEN SA member Edwin Cameron; journalist Paddi Clay; and is chaired by award-winning writer, journalist and filmmaker, Sylvia Vollenhoven.
Vollenhoven says of the shortlist finalists: “The collective power and style of the five authors (three of them women) on this year’s shortlist represent the finest artistic vision for the future. Literary flair is coupled with excellent research that takes us into places we need to visit.”
The shortlist finalists for the 2018 Barry Ronge Fiction Prize are:
- Softness of the Lime by Maxine Case
- A Thousand Tales of Johannesburg by Harry Kalmer
- The Third Reel by SJ Naudé
- Bird-Monk Seding by Lesego Rampolokeng
- The Camp Whore by Francois Smith, translated by Dominique Botha
The Fiction Prize panel is chaired by popular radio personality, Africa Melane, alongside Love Books owner Kate Rogan and award-winning writer and PEN SA member Ken Barris.
“The authors on this list help us search for truth, which is often unsettling and uncomfortable. There are stories of love and loss, of lives not yet lived and those long forgotten. The works are thought-provoking, unflinching and disturbing at times, but very compelling,” says Melane.
The winners at the Sunday Times Literary Awards will be announced at an event in Johannesburg on 23 June 2018. Recipients of the 2018 Alan Paton Award and Barry Ronge Fiction Prize will each receive R100 000.
(Image courtesy of the Sunday Times)