The Noma Award for Publishing in Africa went to Zimbabwe’s Shimmer Chinodya for his novel Strife (Weaver Press), and two of the four honourable mentions went to South African authors: Kgebetli Moele for Room 207 (Kwela Books) and Nadia Davids for At Her Feet (Oshun Books).
The Noma jury’s citation for Strife reads: ‘The brilliance of this powerful and haunting story, in notably innovative form, brings a new dimension to African writing. The novelist reverses the traditional relationship between family and nation, concentrating on the social energies in an African family, rather than the individual or the nation. Powerful and haunting, with memorable portraits of individuals, the story is driven by a deep and distinctive sense of the tragic. The novelist’s psychological sensitivity illuminates the dominant themes of disease and death; and the constant tension between the pull of the past and the aspiration of modernity is expressed in a prose that makes everything original and new, recasting old themes.”
The citation for Room 207 reads: ‘Set in a dilapidated building in Hillbrow, the notorious suburb of Johannesburg, this novel is preoccupied with the theme of a new South Africa trying to cope with the burden of its past and its ambivalent presence in Africa. The tone is of celebration and mourning, and the writing is very strong, poetic, vivid, and often moving.”
The citation for At Her Feet reads: ‘Created for a one-woman performance, the play is an exceptional piece of work: probing, acutely perceptive, with a superb ear for individual characters’ speech patterns. Dealing with the relationship between women and Islam specifically in the South African context, the material is thought provoking and moving, and the writing distinctive and often poetic.”
In all, 107 titles were submitted from 66 African publishers in 12 countries, in five languages.
Cerdiwen Dovey’s debut novel Blood Kin (Penguin) is shortlisted for the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize 2006/07. Dovey grew up between South Africa and Australia, attended Harvard as an undergraduate studying social anthropology and now lives in New York, where she is doing a PhD at New York University.
Recognising and celebrating the best work of literature (fiction, non-fiction, poetry or drama) by a United Kingdom or Commonwealth writer aged 35 or younger at the time of publication, the prize is in its 65th year. Previous winners include Margaret Drabble, William Boyd and Jeanette Winterson. This year’s winner will be made known in London on November 29.
Meanwhile, John van de Ruit’s Spud empire continues to sprout. Spud has sold more than 105 000 copies in South Africa and is in its 14th reprint. Its follow-up, Spud: The Madness Continues … has sold 65 000 copies since its local release in April.
Overseas conquests beckon. Spud is published in the United States and Canada under the Young Adult imprint Razorbill and it will be published by Penguin UK under the children’s imprint Puffin in April next year. Foreign language rights have been sold to Italian and Brazilian publishers. — Mail & Guardian reporter.