Over the past three decades and counting the Sunday Times Literary Awards has established itself as the most prestigious South African prize annually bestowed upon local works of nonfiction and fiction.
Founded in 1989 as the Alan Paton Award (named for the acclaimed author of Cry, The Beloved Country), the nonfiction accolade was given by the judges to books that present “the illumination of truthfulness, especially those forms of it that are new, delicate, unfashionable and fly in the face of power”, and that demonstrate “compassion, elegance of writing, and intellectual and moral integrity”.
In 2001 the Sunday Times fiction prize was introduced, with the stipulation that the winning novel should be one of “rare imagination and style ... a tale so compelling as to become an enduring landmark of contemporary fiction”.
Whereas the criteria for the winning titles in their respective categories remain unchanged, the designation of the awards has undergone a number of metamorphoses.
A restructuring in 2015 saw the nonfiction and fiction prizes being brought together and renamed The Sunday Times Literary Awards, with the fiction prize renamed the Barry Ronge Fiction Prize, commemorating the late author and critic.
While still carrying the overall title of Sunday Times Literary Awards, the categories are now known as the nonfiction award and fiction prize, and Exclusive Books has joined as a partner.
Bulelwa Mabasa won the 2023 nonfiction award for My Land Obsession: A Memoir, and CA Davids was the recipient of the 2023 fiction prize for her novel How to Be a Revolutionary.
The 2024 nonfiction judging panel is chaired by media consultant, author and journalist Kevin Ritchie, joined by Prof Hlonipha Mokoena of the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research and by Sewela Langeni, author and owner of Book Circle Capital, an independent bookstore focused on African literature in Melville, Johannesburg.
The 2024 fiction judging panel is chaired by author, playwright and academic Dr Siphiwo Mahala, joined by former Sunday Times books editor Michele Magwood, an award-winning literary journalist and writer, and Dr Alma Nalisha-Cele, medical doctor and co-founder of the literary podcast The Cheeky Natives, which focuses on archiving black literature.
