South Africa’s Sunday Times Literary Awards 2019 longlist announced.

The longlist for the South African Sunday Times Literary Awards 2019 were announced on April 21, 2019.

The Sunday Times Literary Prize was founded in 1989 by South African newspaper The Sunday Times. It is divided into two with the Barry Rouge Prize focusing on fiction and the Alan Paton Award focusing on nonfiction. It has been won by some of the best writers in the Southern African country including Bongani Ngqulunga and Harry Kalmer (2018), Zakes Mda and Greg Marinovich (2017), Pumla Dineo Gqola and Nkosinathi Sithole (2016), Jacob Dlamini and Damon Galgut (2015) and a host of others.

The longlist for the Sunday Times Literary Awards were announced yesterday for the two categories and they are;

Alan Paton Award 2019

Judges: Sylvia Vollenhoven alongside Paddi Clay, and Fortiscue Helepi.

• Heist! South Africa’s Cash-in-Transit Epidemic Uncovered, Anneliese Burgess (Penguin Random House)
• My Father Died for This, Lukhanyo and Abigail Calata (Tafelberg)
• Born in Chains: The Diary of an Angry “Born-Free”, Clinton Chauke (Jonathan Ball Publishers).
• These Bones Will Rise Again, Panashe Chigumadzi (Jacana Media).
• Breaking a Rainbow, Building a Nation: The Politics Behind the #mustfall Movements, Rekgotsofetse Chikane (Picador Africa).
• Sorry, Not Sorry: Experiences of a Brown Woman in a White South Africa, Haji Mohamed Dawjee (Penguin Random House).
• Poacher: Confessions from the Abalone Underworld, Kimon de Greef and Shuhood Abader (Tafelberg).
• Confronting Apartheid: A Personal History of South Africa, Namibia and Palestine, John Dugard (Jacana Media).
• Brutal Legacy: A Memoir, Tracy Going (MF Books / Joburg).
• Beaten But Not Broken, Vanessa Govender (Jacana Media).
• Your People Will Be My People: The Ruth Khama, Story Sue Grant-Marshall (Protea Boekhuis).
• The Café de Move-on Blues: In Search of the New South Africa, Christopher Hope (Penguin Random House).
• Rainbow Nation My Zulu Arse: A Voyage Around Mzansi – Rants and Raves Included, Sihle Khumalo (Umuzi).
• You Have to be Gay to Know God, Siya Khumalo (Kwela Books).
• Everyone is Present, Terry Kurgan (Fourthwall Books).
• Becoming Him: A Trans Memoir of Triumph Landa Mabenge (MF Books / Joburg).
• The Lost Boys of Bird Island: A Shocking Exposé from within the Heart of the NP Government, Mark Minnie and Chris Steyn (Tafelberg).
• And Then Mama Said… Words that Set My Life Alight, Tumi Morake (Penguin Random House).
• Born to Kwaito: Reflections on the Kwaito Generation, Esinako Ndabeni and Sihle Mthembu (Blackbird Books).
• Imprisoned: The Experience of a Prisoner Under Apartheid, Sylvia Neame (Jacana Media).
• The Land is Ours: South Africa’s First Black Lawyers and the Birth of Constitutionalism, Tembeka Ngcukaitobi (Penguin Random House),
• Louis Botha: A Man Apart, Richard Steyn (Jonathan Ball Publishers).
• I Beg to Differ: Ministry Amid the Teargas, Peter Storey (Tafelberg).
• The Echo of a Noise: A Memoir of Then and Now, Pieter-Dirk Uys (Tafelberg).
• Ministry of Crime: An Underworld Explored, Mandy Wiener (Pan Macmillan).

The Barry Rouge Fiction Prize

Judges: Ken Barris as chair alongside Nancy Richards, and Wamuwi Mbao.

• Babatunde’s Heroic Journey: from Nigeria to Ukraine via Russia, Nape à Motana (Sulis International Press).
• Red Dog, Willem Anker (Kwela Books).
• Knucklebone, NR Brodie (Pan Macmillan).
• A Spy in Time, Imraan Coovadia (Umuzi).
• Talion, Beyers de Vos (Penguin Random House).
• The Enumerations, Maire Fisher (Umuzi).
• Patagonia, Maya Fowler (Umuzi).
• All Things Bright and Broken, Carol Gibbs (Jacana Media).
• The List, Barry Gilder (Jacana Media).
• A Tree for the Birds, Vernon Head (Jacana Media).
• The White Room, Craig Higginson (Picador Africa).
• An Unquiet Place, Clare Houston (Penguin Random House).
• The Boy Who Could Keep a Swan in His Head, John Hunt (Umuzi).
• The Ones with Purpose, Nozizwe Cynthia Jele (Kwela Books).
• The Hum of the Sun, Kirsten Miller (Kwela Books).
• Called to Song, Kharnita Mohamed (Kwela Books).
• Michael K, Nthikeng Mohlele (Picador Africa).
• The Theory of Flight, Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu (Penguin Random House).
• The Broken River Tent, Mphuthumi Ntabeni (Blackbird Books).
• The Gold-Diggers, Sue Nyathi (Pan Macmillan).
• Too Many Tsunamis, Vincent Pienaar (Penguin Random House).
• Under Glass. Claire Robertson (Umuzi).
• Parts Unknown, Zirk van den Berg (Kwela Books).
• Theo & Flora, Mark Winkler (Umuzi),
• The Season of Glass, Rahla Xenopoulos (Umuzi).

The shortlist and winners will be announced in due course.