The inaugural AVBOB competition for collections of poetry, now known as The JDL Award for Poetry in memory of the contribution to the Poetry Project by the late Johann de Lange, took place earlier this year. The inaugural prizes (2025) were awarded for collections in Sepedi, isiZulu and English.
All of the 2024 single poem and 2025 collection winners are listed here: Avbob Poetry
The winner of the English collections category was Unleaving by Ingrid de Kok. Three collections were given ‘honourable mention’, among them Land | Lines by Shari Daya, published by Karavan Press. The other two were Night Transit by PR Anderson and The Book of Unrest by Nick Mulgrew.
Congratulations to all!
You can watch a short video of the prize-giving event that shows the prizes being awarded for individual poems (the 2024 annual online competition) and collection of poems competition here: The 2025 JDL Award for Poetry
The JDL Award for Poetry in 2026 will go to collections in Afrikaans, isiNdebele, isiXhosa and Sesotho, and in 2027 to collections in Setswana, Siswati, Tshivenda and Xitsonga.
The next competition in Sepedi, isiZulu and English will be run in 2028.
karavanpress.com 