The Darlo Can Themba Merit Award Finalists 2025 were announced in Durban, South Africa, on May 7, 2025.
The Darlo Can Themba Merit Award for Short Story Writing was introduced to inspire and support new voices in South African literature in March 2025. The new initiative is driven by Darlo in partnership with Wits University Press and the Market Theatre and presented by the Centre for Creative Arts at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
Can Themba, for whom the award is named, was a South African journalist and short-story writer who died in 1967. Apart from two posthumous contributions, the two collections, The Will to Die (1972) and The World of Can Themba (1985), he is fondly remembered for his story The Suit.
DALRO is the Dramatic, Artistic & Literary Rights Organisation, a Collective Management Organisation dedicated to safeguarding intellectual property that focuses on literary works, artistic works, and published editions in South Africa.
The jury for the first edition is moderated by the Centre for Creative Arts director, Ismail Mahomed. It is comprised of authors Shafinaaz Hassim, Niq Mhlongo, and Lynn Joffe, festival producer and book reviewer Lorraine Sithole, playwright and academic Tiisetso Mashifane, Market Theatre artistic director Greg Homann, and playwright Neil Coppen. From the 250 entries, this panel selected the ten finalists in;
- Kahna Aires
- Megan Choritz
- Dyonzo Kwinika
- Sibatso Madibu
- Lerato Mahlangu
- Kamva Mayo
- Lethukukhanya Mzulwini
- Princess Rabada
- Rosieda Shabodien
- Dashalia Singaram
These finalists have been receiving online mentorship workshops by specialists from the writing and publishing fraternity on how to refine their manuscripts.
The final stories will be published by Wits University Press in an anthology edited by Neil Coppen to be launched on September 8, 2025, on the 58th anniversary of Can Themba’s passing, where the winner and runner up will be revealed. The winner will be awarded a R10,000 Cash Prize from the Time of the Writer Festival and represent them at the Bergen International Literature Festival in Norway in 2026. They will receive dramaturgical support to adapt their short story into a playscript that will be presented at the Market Theatre in 2026.
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