Gabeba Baderoon wins 2019 UJ Prize!
27 November 2019
Gabeba Baderoon wins 2019 UJ Prize! The winners of the University of Johannesburg Prizes for South African Writing in English have been announced, with Gabeba Baderoon winning the main prize for The History of Intimacy (Kwela, 2018).
Earlier this year Baderoon also received the Elisabeth Eybers Prize for Afrikaans and English poetry for this same title.
Unlike most literary awards, the UJ Prizes are not linked to a specific genre, as, according to the organisers, the idea is to ‘open the prize to as many forms of creative writing as possible’.
The UJ Main Prize winner will receive R70,000, while the UJ Debut Prize comes with R35,000.
UJ Main Prize shortlist:
- The Ones With Purpose – Nozizwe Cynthia Jele (Kwela)
- The History of Intimacy – Gabeba Baderoon (Kwela)
- A Spy in Time – Imraan Coovadia (Penguin Random House South Africa)
UJ Debut Prize shortlist:
- An Image in a Mirror – Ijangolet S Ogwang (Jacana Media)
- The Broken River Tent – Mphuthumi Ntabeni (Jacana Media)
- The Theory of Flight – Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu (Penguin Random House South Africa)
- You Have to be Gay to Know God – Siya Khumalo (Kwela)