Alan Paton Award for Nonfiction 2018 longlist announced

The Alan Paton Award for Nonfiction 2018 longlist, part of the Sunday Times Literary Awards 2018 has been announced.

Alan Paton was a South African author and anti-apartheid activist whose most famous work includes the novels Cry, the Beloved Country, and Too Late the Phalarope. In 1989, the Sunday Times newspaper in his country of birth inaugurated the Alan Paton Award for Non-fiction in his honour. The would-be gave to a book that presents ‘the illumination of truthfulness, especially those forms of it that are new, delicate, unfashionable and fly in the face of power’, and that demonstrates ‘compassion, the elegance of writing, and intellectual and moral integrity’.

The longlist for those in the running for this year’s edition has been announced by judges Sylvia Vollenhoven (chair), Edwin Cameron, and Paddi Clay. They include favourites like Pumla Dineo Gqola, who won in 2015, Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh who starred at the Time of the Writer recently, and Sisonke Msimang who also wowed Nairobians. The full list of those in the running is;

• Spy: Uncovering Craig Williamson, Jonathan Ancer (Jacana Media)
• Almost Human: The Astonishing Tale of Homo Naledi, Lee Berger (Jonathan Ball Publishers)
• 65 Years of Friendship, George Bizos (Umuzi)
• Rule of Law, Glynnis Breytenbach with Nechama Brodie (Pan Macmillan)
• Reflecting Rogue: Inside the Mind of a Feminist, Pumla Dineo Gqola (MF Books Joburg)
• Kingdom, Power, Glory: Mugabe, Zanu and the Quest for Supremacy (1960–87), Stuart Doran (Bookstorm)
• Skollie: One Man’s Struggle to Survive by Telling Stories, John W Fredericks (Zebra Press)
• No Longer Whispering to Power: The Story of Thuli Madonsela, Thandeka Gqubule (Jonathan Ball Publishers)
• Being Chris Hani’s Daughter, Lindiwe Hani and Melinda Ferguson (MF Books Joburg)
• Get Up! Stand Up! Personal Journeys Toward Social Justice, Mark Heywood (Tafelberg)
• A Simple Man: Kasrils And The Zuma Enigma, Ronnie Kasrils (Jacana Media)
• Dare Not Linger: The Presidential Years, Nelson Mandela and Mandla Langa (Pan Macmillan)
• Unmasked: Why the ANC Failed to Govern, Khulu Mbatha (KMM Review Publishing)
• Being a Black Springbok: The Thando Manana Story, Sibusiso Mjikeliso (Pan Macmillan)
• Democracy and Delusion: 10 Myths in South African Politics, Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh (Tafelberg)
• Always Another Country: A Memoir of Exile and Home, Sisonke Msimang (Jonathan Ball Publishers)
• The Republic of Gupta: A Story of State Capture, Pieter-Louis Myburgh (Penguin Books)
• The Man Who Founded the ANC: A Biography of Pixley ka Isaka Seme, Bongani Ngqulunga (Penguin Books)
• Colour Me Yellow: Searching for My Family Truth, Thuli Nhlapo (Kwela Books)
• How to Steal a City: The Battle for Nelson Mandela Bay, Crispian Olver (Jonathan Ball Publishers)
• The President’s Keepers: Those Keeping Zuma in Power and Out of Prison, Jacques Pauw (Tafelberg)
• Miss Behave, Malebo Sephodi (BlackBird Books)
• Hitmen for Hire: Exposing South Africa’s Underworld, Mark Shaw (Jonathan Ball Publishers)
• Khwezi: The Remarkable Story of Fezekile Ntsukela Kuzwayo, Redi Tlhabi (Jonathan Ball Publishers)
• Apartheid Guns and Money: A Tale of Profit, Hennie van Vuuren (Jacana Media)

The shortlists will be announced in May and winners announced in June.