The winners of the Humanities and Social Sciences Awards 2022 were announced in a ceremony in Pretoria, South Africa on Thursday, March 14, 2024.
The Humanities and Social Sciences Awards are open to South African publishers, scholars based in South African universities, and independent artists linked to universities. The awards honour ‘outstanding, innovative and socially responsive scholarship, creative as well as digital contributions that enhance and advance fields in the humanities and social sciences’ and ‘recognise and celebrate those members of the Humanities and Social Sciences community undertaking the necessary work of creating post-apartheid and postcolonial forms of scholarship, creative production, and digital humanities outputs.’ They are coordinated by South Africa’s National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences; check out the winners in 2021, 2022, and 2023.
For 2024, the longlists for the awards, now in their ninth year, were revealed on the eve of the awards on March 13. On Thursday, there was a colourful ceremony conducted by Natalia Molebatsi where those who were shortlisted and won were revealed on the same night at the Javett Art Centre, University of Pretoria.
The shortlistees and winners (in bold) were;
Best nonfiction Edited volume
- Revisiting Sol Plaatje’s Mafikeng Diary: Reconsideration and Restoration, Sabata-Mpho Mokae and Brian Willian, Jacana Media
- South African Review Policy Volume 4: Edited by Lesley Masters, Jo Ansie van Wyk, and Philani Mthembu, AISA Press
- State Capture in South Africa: How and Why It Happened, Mbongiseni Buthelezi and Peter Vale, Wits Press
Best Nonfiction Monograph
- Durban’s Casbah: Bunny Chows, Bolsheviks, and Bioscopes, Ashwin Desai and Goolam Vehad, UKZN Press
- Covid and Custom in Rural South Africa: Culture, Healthcare, and the State, Leslie Bank and Nelly Sharpley, UKZN Press
- Apartheid’s Black Soldiers: Un-national Wars and Militaries in Southern Africa, Lennart Bollinger, Jacana Media
- Guerrillas and Combative Mothers: Women and the Armed Struggle in South Africa, Siphokazi Magadla, UKZN Press
Best Nonfiction: Biography (Joint winners)
- Eto La Mofaladi, Moses Seletisha, Matete Publishing
- Written Out: The Silencing of Regina Gelana Twala, Joel Cabrita, Wits Press
Best Fiction: Emerging Author
- Peaches and Smeets, Ashti Juggath, Modjaji Books
- The Institute for Creative Dying, Jarred Thompson, Picador Africa
- The Weight of Shade, Michael Boyd, Karavan Press
- Every Dies, Frankie Murrey, Karavan Press
Best Fiction: Edited Volume
- Fluid: The Freedom to be, Joanne Hichens and Karina M Szczurek, Tattoo Press
Best Fiction: Short Stories
- What Remains, Dawn Garisch, Karavan Press
- Tears of the Weaver, Zaheera Jina Asvat, Modjaji Books
Best Fiction Poetry
- Ontaard, Pieter Odendaal, Tafelberg (NB Publishers)
- Dark Horse, Michele Betty, Dryad Press
- Night Transit, P.R. Anderson, Dryad Press
- Slaughter House, Melissa Sussens, Karavan Press
- The Book of Unrest, Nick Mulgrew, uHlanga Press
Best Fiction: Novel
- The Ghost of Sam Webster, Craig Higginson, Picador Africa
- At Fire Hour, Barry Gilder, Jacana Media
- Breasts etc, Nthikeng Mohlele, Blank Page Books
- Decima, Eben Venter, Penguin (Penguin Random House SA imprint)
- Langabi: Season of Beasts, Christopher Mlalazi, Mother (Jacana Media imprint)
- My Side of the Ocean, Ron Irwin, Pan Macmillan South Africa
For a full list of winners, please click here.
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