Paperight's most recent offering is rich and surprising, filled with short stories, essays, poetry and art from some of the country's most promising young creatives.
Paperight's most recent offering is rich and surprising, filled with short stories, essays, poetry and art from some of the country's most promising young creatives.
The Paperight Young Writers' Anthology, released in June, features 60 pieces of writing from high school pupils in English, Zulu, Xhosa, Sotho and Afrikaans.
It is also peppered with beautiful artworks. The selected works made it through a highly competitive shortlisting process that lasted three months and involved thousands of entries in four categories – poetry, short stories, essays and illustrations.
Together, the pieces represent a broad spectrum of South African experiences and concerns. From the intimate account of life with two mothers to critical musings from budding young politicians, the anthology offers a kaleidoscopic view of South African life that inspired these reviewers with confidence in a new generation of writers.
“[It] was conceived as a way for us to help spark a culture of writing in our country, in the places where it must be allowed to grow – our schools,” said editor Sibabalwe Oscar Masinyana.
“We need more writers in South Africa, in order to chronicle the tumultuous emotions and extraordinary changes that our country is going through,” said Nick Mulgrew, Paperight’s Head of Communications in a statement. “In order to get those writers, however, you need to encourage writing while learners are young, and show them that it is a realistic career pursuit."
While being selected for the anthology was a great honour in itself, Paperight also selected a winner from each of the four categories and rewarded them with a R1 000 cash prize.
James Sulter from St John’s College, in Johannesburg, came out first in the poetry category with his poem Holiday, conjuring up a beautiful, disconcerting landscape full of strange imagery.
Triston Liebenberg from Bergvliet High School in Cape Town won R1 000 for his essay Reflections, a short, fast-paced meditation on the passing of time.
From the German International School in Cape Town, Jenna Solomon's The Harbour Child claimed first place in the fiction category.
She paints a sensitive, observant portrait of a day in the life of a homeless child, set at the Cape Town harbour.
Solomon caught the attention of fiction judge Professor Russell Kaschula from Rhodes University’s School of Languages with her perceptive descriptions and dialogue to address issues of poverty, identity, culture and belonging with maturity and keen understanding.
Chad van Heerden from Eden College in Durban's dark, moody etching won the prize for best illustration.
Grahamstown was also well-represented by Carmen Nangolo and Samantha van Heerden (from The Diocesan School for Girls) and Amanda Kepe and Ekhona Ntloko (from Ntsika Secondary School).
Ntloko’s isiXhosa poem Saphel’isizwe is about drug abuse amongst the youth, exploring its effects parents, whom Ntloko feels young people should respect.
Kepe’s Intliziyo ('The heart') is about the light and dark elements sheltered in the heart. Both poems are well-structured and use language cleverly – early marks of good poetry.
Van Heerden showed an unusual level of insight into the human condition in two essays, both published in the anthology. Masinyana expressed his disappointment at the low number of African language submissions, and these reviewers agree.
“Most literature published in South Africa is in English and Afrikaans, but those aren’t the two most-spoken languages in our country,” said Mulgrew. “Youngsters should be able to write and be read in whichever language they choose.”
The low visibility of indigenous South African languages plays a big role in perpetuating the idea that they are appropriate only for discussing old-fashioned issues, but this anthology has made progress in changing this.
Compiled by a collective of literary editors and designers and distributed in print, online and on mobile social networks, the anthology speaks to a new era in access to the literary arts.
The anthology serves as an important introduction to the Paperight network for those who currently need it most: our country’s youth.
Paperight allows photocopy shops to print books quickly, cheaply and legally, making their wide range of titles available to more people than ever before.
The Paperight Young Writers' Anthology 2013, published by Paperight, can be printed at Aloe X in High Street for R65-R100, depending on the page layout.
