6 days ago
The 2025 Sunday Times Literary Awards longlist
NON FICTION
The award will be bestowed on a book that presents 'the illumination of truthfulness, especially those forms of it that are new, delicate, unfashionable and fly in the face of power', and that demonstrates 'compassion, elegance of writing, and intellectual and moral integrity'.
Judges
Kevin Ritchie - Chair
Ritchie is a former journalist. During his 27 year career on newspapers he edited the Diamond Fields Advertiser in Kimberley and The Star in Johannesburg. He also wrote the two volume Reporting the Courts – A Handbook for South African Journalists and co-authored T he A–Z of South African Politics: People, Parties and Players (Jacana 2019). After leaving journalism in 2018, Ritchie founded a media consultancy. He continues to contribute to the craft as a session lecturer for career entry students at the Wits Centre for Journalism and writing a weekly opinion column in the Citizen.
Hlonipha Mokoena
Mokoena received her PhD from the University of Cape Town in 2005. She is currently an associate professor and researcher at WiSER (Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research) at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Her articles have been published in: Journal of Natal and Zulu History; Journal of Religion in Africa; Journal of Southern African Studies; Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies; Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, Text and Critical Arts.
Sewela Langeni
Langeni is an author and the owner of Book Circle Capital, an independent bookshop focusing on African Literature based in Melville, Johannesburg. She is passionate about literacy, especially in children. She is a Marketing Manager at one of South Africa's leading insurance companies. Her academic background spans from Journalism, Communication Sciences and Marketing. She holds a Master's degree in Strategic Marketing and Consulting (Cum Laude) from the University of Birmingham, UK. Sewela is a reviewer of local books for adults and kids. She facilitates book conversations with authors at the bookshop, book fairs and has a weekly book feature on various media platforms.
Here is the non-fiction longlist in order of the author's surname
Lucky Bastard by Anthony Akerman, Praxis Publishing
Great Johannesburg: What Happened? How to Save an African Economic Giant by Nickolaus Bauer, Tafelberg
Orthogonal Thinking: My Own Search for Meaning in Mathematics, Literature and Life by David Buckham, Mercury
Dayspring: A Memoir by CJ Driver, Karavan Press
Exit Wounds: A Story of Love, Loss, and Occasional Wars by Peter Godwin, Picador Africa
Through a Dragonfly Eye: A Memoir by Jenny Hobbs, Hands-On Books
Breaking Bread: A Memoir by Jonathan Jansen, Jonathan Ball Publishers
The Times Do Not Permit: The Musical Life of Michael Mosoeu Moerane by Christine Lucia, Wits University Press
Soul of a Nation: A Quest for the Rebirth of South Africa's True Values by Oyama Mabandla, Tafelberg
I Will Not Be Silenced by Karyn Maughan, Tafelberg
P ositively Me: Daring To Live And Love Beyond HIV by Nozibele Mayaba with Sue Nyathi, Jonathan Ball Publishers
Prescription: Ice Cream - A Doctor's Journey to Discover What Matters by Alastair McAlpine, Pan Macmillan
The Truth About Cape Slavery: The Foundations of Colonial South Africa by Patric Tariq Mellet, Tafelberg
Morafe: Person, Family and Nation in Colonial Bechuanaland 1880s-1950s by Khumisho Moguerane, Jacana Media
Patient 12A: A Memoir by Lesedi Molefi, Picador Africa
Love and Fury: A Memoir by Margie Orford, Jonathan Ball Publishers
Keorapetse Kgositsile and the Black Arts Movement: Poetics of Possibility by Uhuru Portia Phalafala, Wits University Press
Witness to Power: A Political Memoir by Mathews Phosa, Penguin Non-fiction
Hunting the Seven: How The Gugulethu Seven Assassins Were Exposed by Beverly Roos-Muller, Jonathan Ball Publishers
The Syndicate of Twenty-Two Natives: The Stan Sangweni Story by Lindiwe Sangweni-Siddo, Pan Macmillan
One Hundred Years of Dispossession: My Family's Quest to Reclaim Our Land by Lebogang Seale, Jacana Media
Lucas Mangope: A Life by Oupa Segalwe, Tafelberg
Chris van Wyk - Irascible Genius: A Son's Memoir by Kevin van Wyk, Pan Macmillan
The Near North by Ivan Vladislavić, Picador Africa
In Silence My Heart Speaks by Thobeka Yose, Karavan Press
FICTION PRIZE
This is the 24th year of the Sunday Times fiction prize. The criteria stipulate 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'.
JUDGES
Siphiwo Mahala - Chair
Mahala is a writer and academic, plying his trade in English and isiXhosa. He is a graduate of the University of Fort Hare, holds a Masters degree in African Literature from Wits University and a PhD in English Literature from the University of South Africa. He is the author of the novel, When a Man Cries (2007), which he later translated into isiXhosa as Yakhal' Indoda (2010). His short story collections include African Delights (2011), Red Apple Dreams and Other Stories (2019), and The Missing Pages (2025). He wrote two critically acclaimed plays, The House of Truth (2016) and Bloke and His American Bantu (2021). In 2022, he received the PanSALB Multilingualism Award for Literature in English. His monograph Can Themba: The Making and Breaking of the Intellectual Tsotsi (2022), won the Creative Non-Fiction Award at the SA Literary Awards in 2023 and the 2024 Book of the Year at the Vice-Chancellor's Distinguished Awards. He serves as the Chairperson of the National Arts Festival board. He is an Associate Professor in the English Department at the University of Johannesburg.
Michele Magwood
In her long career Magwood has worked in radio, magazines and television and for 20 years was the Books Editor of the Sunday Times. She is the winner of two Mondi awards and the SALA award for literary journalism. A sought-after interviewer at book festivals, she currently works as a writer and editor and assesses manuscripts for publishers. She writes a books column for Business Day Wanted magazine. Michele has a BA Honours degree from UKZN.
Dr Alma-Nalisha Cele
Cele is a pharmaceutical physician based in Johannesburg. She holds a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBCH) from the University of the Witwatersrand and a postgraduate diploma (cum laude) in medicine development from the University of Stellenbosch. She is also the co-founder of The Cheeky Natives, a literary podcast primarily focused on the review, curatorship and archiving of black literature. Cele credits a strong relationship with reading and literature to her feminist, intersectional approach not only to her work but also to her lived politics. In 2019, she was selected as one of the Mandela Washington Fellows, attending a prestigious fellowship in the US. In the same year, she was also named as one of the Mail and Guardian's top 200 Young South Africans in the health category. In 2024, she was selected as a finalist in the TransUnion Rising Star Awards.
Here is the fiction longlist in order of the author's surname
God's Pocket by Sven Axelrad, Umuzi
Home Scar by SE Bhamjee, Modjaji Books
The Comrade's Wife: A Novel by Barbara Boswell
Good Hope by Nick Clelland, Karavan Press
In the Shadows by Olivia M Coetzee, Modjaji Books
Now You Suffer: A Ruben Ellis Thriller by Gareth Crocker, Penguin
Deadly Benefits by Kurt Ellis, Penguin
A Short Life: A Novel by Nicky Greenwall, Penguin
Crooked Seeds by Karen Jennings, Karavan Press
The Lost Love of Akbar Manzil by Shubnum Khan, Pan Macmillan
The Queer Book of Revelation by Siya Khumalo, Kwela
The Child by Alistair Mackay, Kwela
The City is Mine: A Novel by Niq Mhlongo, Kwela
Revolutionaries House by Nthikeng Mohlele, Jacana Media
The Equality of Shadows by Charl-Pierre Naudé, Picador Africa
The Creation of Half-Broken People by Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu, Picador Africa
The Tea Merchant by Jackie Phamotse, Penguin
Who Looks Inside by Anna Stroud, Karavan Press
