The ''Sunday Times'' CNA Literary Awards are awarded annually to South African writers by the

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

n weekly newspaper the ''

Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...

''. They comprise the ''Sunday Times'' CNA Literary Award for Non-fiction and the ''Sunday Times'' CNA Literary Award for Fiction, and are awarded for full-length non-fiction works and novels, respectively. Both winners receive R100 000.Marguerite Poland and Andrew Harding win the 2021 Sunday Times/CNA Literary Awards"
/ref> Ivan Vladislavic is the only person to have won both the fiction and the non-fiction award.

History of the Awards

Originally established in 1989, the Alan Paton Award was conferred annually for meritorious works of non-fiction. It aimed to reward books presenting "the illumination of truthfulness, especially those forms of it that are new, delicate, unfashionable and fly in the face of power," and demonstrating "compassion, elegance of writing, and intellectual and moral integrity."2019 Sunday Times Literary Awards longlists announced
/ref> The award was named for

Alan Paton Alan Stewart Paton (11 January 1903 – 12 April 1988) was a South African writer and anti-apartheid activist. His works include the novels ''Cry, the Beloved Country'' and '' Too Late the Phalarope''. Family Paton was born in Pietermaritzbu ...

, the famous South African author of ''

Cry, The Beloved Country ''Cry, the Beloved Country'' is a 1948 novel by South African writer Alan Paton. Set in the prelude to apartheid in South Africa, it follows a black village priest and a white farmer who must deal with news of a murder. American publisher Benne ...

''. In 2001, a companion award for fiction was established, 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." The prize was restructured in 2015 when fiction and non-fiction awards were brought together as the ''Sunday Times'' Literary Awards; the money for each prize was increased, from R75 000 to R100 000, and the Fiction Prize was renamed the Barry Ronge Fiction Prize in honour of Barry Ronge, a renowned South African journalist who was one of the founders of the awards. In 2020, there was a one-year hiatus due to the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

pandemic.‘How good it is for the species that we still care about books’"
/ref> However, the awards recommenced in 2021 with a new sponsor, CNA, a South African retail chain of stationery shops, and are now known as the ''Sunday Times'' CNA Literary Awards.Submissions for 2021 Sunday Times CNA Literary Awards now open"
/ref> This sponsorship arrangement followed the acquisition of CNA from "embattled" parent company

Edcon Edcon Limited was a retail company based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Its subsidiaries included Edgars, a department store with 203 branches. In 2020, the Competition Tribunal approved the sale of the Edgars division to Retailability (pty) ...

in February 2020. In 2021, books published between 1 December 2018 and 1 December 2020 were eligible.

Fiction winners

Non-fiction winners

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sunday Times CNA Literary Awards South African literary awards Fiction awards Non-fiction literary awards Awards established in 2001 Awards established in 1989 2001 establishments in South Africa 1989 establishments in South Africa