Alert! Ceridwen Dovey and Mark Gevisser have won the 2008 Sunday Times Literary Awards. Dovey won the R75 000 Fiction Prize for her novel, Blood Kin and Gevisser the equally lucrative Alan Paton Award for his biography, Thabo Mbeki: The Dream Deferred.
Unlike in previous years, there were no runners-up.
Both Dovey and Gevisser have essentially “done the double” this year, with Blood Kin also taking the University of Johannesburg Prize, while Thabo Mbeki beat all comers to the Recht Malan Prize. The books are clearly this season’s thorougbreds.
Three other authors featured in the winners’ speeches: Dovey included JM Coetzee on her list of thank-yous, both for supplying her novel with a cover blurb and also for being so encouraging to the coming generations of SA writers – for helping to make them feel like “writers”; and she also thanked Stephen Watson, who had overseen her work in the UCT Creative Writing programme. (It’s worth bearing in mind that Coetzee was a fellow shortlistee.) Gevisser, meanwhile, made special mention of Isobel Dixon, who was intregral, he said, to the shaping of his book, and whom he called “the greatest promoter of South African literature we have”.
For those who placed bets – and won points – via the friendly competition we ran, the payouts are listed here for the Fiction Prize and here for the Alan Paton Award. (Note: we had to choose second-place finishers to generate the results – even though there were none – and did this randomly.) To PIEP HURRIKEN – we know who you are!
Three more photos to whet your palate for the deluge of images and video that BOOK SA will be bringing you over the next few days, to commemorate a splendid and successful awards evening:
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August 3rd, 2008 @11:39 #
Congratulations, Ceridwen! What an excellent achievement!
August 4th, 2008 @08:28 #
If I'd been able to work out the betting system, Ceridwen would have been my choice. Stunning debut. And I still remember how polite and apologetic she was when she turned down Oshun's offer for Penguin's :-)
August 4th, 2008 @09:43 #
Very well-deserved - both books are amazing. Congratulations!
August 4th, 2008 @09:57 #
Yay! Well done Ceridwen. I totally knew it and would have made a whole stack of play money as one of the first bettors, if only it weren't the case that everyone else seems to have anticipated the win as well. Curses.
August 4th, 2008 @12:25 #
Bloody Hell. A double. Congratulations to Ceridwen Dovey for that double. And congratulations to you too Richard for the UJ. How's it hanging in hashtown?
August 4th, 2008 @12:51 #
It's hanging upright! But, true to form, I've decided to mar my jubilation by giving up smoking. It's as if a friend has died and I have the power to resuscitate him, but I'm trying to ignore that power. The friend must die. Dear, sweet, smokey friend. I kiss your dying butt.
I know you despise me for killing my friend, Rustum. Your disapproval is already burning my eyes. Don't hate me, help me!