It's very, very disappointing to hear that, as Carolyn reports at the Books Live weblog, M-Net Literary Awards Suspended Indefinitely.
With English-language awards dominating the African scene, the M-Net Literary Awards admirably looked beyond that:
It really is beyond too bad: writers in these language are in far greater need of encouragement and support than the fairly well-served English- (and, to varyingly lesser extents, the French-, Portuguese, and Arabic-) writing communities in Africa. I hope somebody gets on this and finally endows (or expands) a pan-African literary prize that truly embraces and encourages local-language-writing -- it is now even more sorely and obviously needed.
(One of last year's M-Net winners is under review at the complete review: Imraan Coovadia's The Institute for Taxi Poetry.)
With English-language awards dominating the African scene, the M-Net Literary Awards admirably looked beyond that:
By acknowledging local authors who practice the art of novel writing in any of South Africa's 11 official languages, the M-Net Literary Awards take pride in encouraging authors to write in their home language, thus contributing to the longevity of even the smallest indigenous languages.That pride and encouragement apparently only went so far .....
It really is beyond too bad: writers in these language are in far greater need of encouragement and support than the fairly well-served English- (and, to varyingly lesser extents, the French-, Portuguese, and Arabic-) writing communities in Africa. I hope somebody gets on this and finally endows (or expands) a pan-African literary prize that truly embraces and encourages local-language-writing -- it is now even more sorely and obviously needed.
(One of last year's M-Net winners is under review at the complete review: Imraan Coovadia's The Institute for Taxi Poetry.)