The shortlists for the Sunday Times Literary Awards 2024 were announced in Johannesburg, South Africa on Sunday, September 8, 2024.
The Sunday Times Literary Awards are awarded annually in fiction (since 1989) and nonfiction (since 2001). Organised by South African newspaper The Sunday Times, it has been won in recent times by Siphiwe Ndlovu and Terry Kurgan (2019), 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. Tshidiso Moletsane and Mignonne Breierwin won in 2022 while Bulelwa Mabasa and CA Davids won it last year.
The longlists for the 2024 edition, brought to you in partnership with Exclusive Books were announced on Sunday, June 16. The shortlists were announced on Sunday with the following making the cut;
Fiction
Jury: Siphiwo Mahala (Chair), Michele Magwood, Dr Alma-Nalisha Cele
Siphiwo Mahala said, “The judging panel approached the books entered for this year’s Fiction Prize with a keen interest to delve into a world of the unknown. In turn, we were introduced to a kaleidoscopic array of writing from both the seasoned and emerging writers alike. The result was a pleasantly edifying and exhilarating experience, as reading these novels was embarking on a journey punctuated with diverse themes, surprising and experimental narrative styles and boundless imagery. The wide range of settings, encompassing familiar and unfamiliar locations, bears testament to the universality of our stories and illustrate that our narratives transcend the realist preoccupations with the present moment. These five shortlisted novels, each in its own unique way, represent masterful works of rare, unfettered and powerful imagination.”
Here are the shortlistees;
- Buried Treasure, Axelrad, Sven (Umuzi)
- The Bitterness of Olives, Brown Andrew (Karavan Press)
- Three Egg Dilemma, Morojele, Morabo (Jacana Media)
- The Institute for Creative Dying, Thompson, Jarred (Picador Africa)
- Mirage, Viviers, David Ralph (Umuzi)
Nonfiction
Jury: Kevin Ritchie (Chair), Hlonipha Mokoena, and Sewela Langeni.
Kevin Ritchie said, “Every book on the longlist this year was a winner; by sheer virtue of making it onto a longlist as strong and as diverse as this year’s one. The judges will often say it’s a pity that the shortlist can’t be expanded, but there can only ever be five – and so it is this year as well. What makes the selection that much easier as the number of books gets whittled down is the guiding mantra of the Sunday Times non-fiction award (above). All of the books on the longlist showed elements of these characteristics; we had vulnerable memoirs and exhaustively researched biographies, the re-imagining of history, the vivid retelling of forgotten stories that made them feel as compelling as if they had happened yesterday; and, clarion calls for global action too. But the five that made it to the shortlist, unanimously so, showed all of these elements and rightly deserve this accolade in the country’s pre-eminent award for non-fiction.”
The shortlisted books are;
- The Inheritors: An Intimate Portrait of South Africa’s Racial Reckoning, Fairbanks, Eve (Jonathan Ball Publishers)
- Place: South African Literary Journeys, Fox, Justin (Umuzi)
- The Plot to Save South Africa: The Week Mandela Averted Civil War and Forged a New Nation, Malala, Justice (Jonathan Ball Publishers)
- The Race To Be Myself, Semenya, Caster (Jonathan Ball Publishers)
- Winnie and Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage, Steinberg, Jonny (Jonathan Ball Publishers)
The winners will be announced later in the year.
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