The shortlist for the Ingrid Jonker Prize 2026 has been announced and we are thrilled that Shari Daya’s Land | Lines and Lucienne Argent’s Self-Portrait of a Guava have been nominated. Congratulations to the two of them and all other shortlisted poets!
The shortlist for 2026:
Lucienne Argent, Self-Portrait of a Guava (Karavan Press)
Shari Daya, Land | Lines (Karavan Press)
Zeenit Saban-Jacobs, Inside an Eyeball (Botsotso Publishing)
Siphokazi Jonas, Weeping Becomes a River (Penguin)
Frank Meintjies, A Place to Night In (Botsotso Publishing)
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 themLand | 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.
Megan Hall and Shari Daya will be reading to us at The Commons on Wednesday, 4 June at 19:30 SAST.
Megan Hall won the Ingrid Jonker Prize for her poetry collection Fourth Child (Modjaji Books, 2007). Published in various journals since 1995, her work has been anthologised for schools (Worldscapes, 2005) and for university students (TheNew Century of South African Poetry, 2018), amongst others. She also writes short stories. She lives and works in Cape Town.
Shari Daya is a geographer and poet from Cape Town. Her poetry and essays explore the entangled geographies of lineage, memory, place and the body, and her work has appeared in the literary journals Obsidian, Stanzas, New Contrast and the anthologies Africa! My Africa! and I Wish I’d Said… Vol. 5, from the AVBOB Poetry Project. Shari completed an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Cape Town in 2023 and her debut collection of poetry and prose Land | Lines was published by Karavan Press in 2024.
As always, the reading by the featured poet will be followed by an open mic session for poets from the audience. Poets are welcome to read from their own work as well as from the work of a favourite poet.
For more info, including the link to the Red Wheelbarrow complete poetry archive, visit their website. Recordings of the weekly Zoom readings are on their YouTube channel.
The National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences hosted its annual HSS Awards gala last night and we are thrilled to announce that four Karavan Press titles were recognised at the Awards. Congratulations to Anna Stroud, Alex Latimer, Shari Daya and Nick Clelland on your wonderful achievements!
SHORTLISTED TITLES
Land | Lines, Shari Daya in the Best Poetry sub-category.
Good Hope, Nick Clelland in the Best Fiction Novel sub-category.
WINNING TITLES
Who Looks Inside, Anna Stroud in the Best Fiction Emerging Author sub-category.
Love Stories for Ghosts, Alex Latimer in the Best Fiction Short Stories sub-category.
Congratulations to all nominated and winning authors!
Thank you to all who make the HSS Awards possible!
Please join us for an unforgettable evening of poetry and conversation at the beautiful Oude Leeskamer in Stellenbosch on Thursday, 20 February 2025, at 6PM.
We launched Land | Lines by Shari Daya at Exclusive Books Cavendish last night. Shari was in conversation with Nadia Kamies and spoke about inspiration, craft, place, belonging and freedom. She read her poetic prose and poetry and her words filled a stormy Cape evening with warmth and wonder.
Thank you to Shari and Nadia for the beautiful conversation. Thank you to Linda and the Exclusive Books Cavendish team for hosting the event. And thank you to all who attended, especially Shari’s and Karavan Press’s family and friends.
To all who couldn’t make it: EB Cavendish has a few signed copies of Land | Lines …
Megan Hall and Shari Daya will be reading to us at 6 Spin Street on Wednesday, 28th August at 7 p.m.
Megan Hall won the Ingrid Jonker Prize for her poetry collection Fourth Child (Modjaji Books, 2007). Published in various journals since 1995, her work has been anthologised for schools (Worldscapes, 2005) and for university students (TheNew Century of South African Poetry, 2018), amongst others. She also writes short stories. She lives and works in Cape Town.
Shari Daya is a geographer and poet from Cape Town. Her poetry and essays explore the entangled geographies of lineage, memory, place and the body, and her work has appeared in the literary journals Obsidian, Stanzas, New Contrast and the anthologies Africa! My Africa! and I Wish I’d Said… Vol. 5, from the AVBOB Poetry Project. Shari completed an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Cape Town in 2023 and her debut collection of poetry and prose, Land | Lines, has been recently published by Karavan Press this year.
As always, the reading by the featured poet(s) will be followed by an open mic session for poets from the audience. Poets are welcome to read from their own work as well as from the work of a favourite poet.
Please note that 6 Spin Street offers a cash bar. We look forward to seeing you there!
Date: Wednesday, 28th August 2024 Time: 19:00 Venue: 6 Spin Street Restaurant Gallery, 6 Spin Street, Church Square, Cape Town
karavanpress.com 