The 4th Annual Book Behind Awards is set for another literature and authorship competitive showdown at this year’s installation to be held in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu Natal on 09 November 2024. The nominees for this year’s awards have officially been unveiled. This awards show celebrates authors, publishers and lovers of literature across South Africa and Africa at large. Voting lines officially opened on 29 May 2024 in line with election day. The awards Founder, Nelly Shozana, said opening voting lines on this day was significant because South Africa is going to the polls on the very same day, marking a historic election process that saw a massive voter turn-out in recent years.
Literature is something that is hardly celebrated especially amongst young people across Africa. Having an awards show of this nature gives authors, columnists and thinkers in general the momentum to keep writing and keep publishing. The idea behind these awards is to create an atmosphere of readership and the love of the written and spoken word and to encourage young people to harness their minds.
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This great initiative, which began in 2021, held in Southern Sun Hotel in the North Beach of Durban was hosted by the then Gagasi FM’s FlyMotion and was a huge success in its debut year, seeing many lucky authors and columnists alike walking away with the prestigious award which is recognized nationally and supported by the Department of Parks and Recreations alongside the eThekwini Municipality. It has since then grown exponentially in giving writers a platform and a larger audience in the literature space.
The founder intends to grow the awards continentally and has since partnered with a number of sponsors such as the Njabulo Training Centre, which is part of the award’s “Literature Bonding Bash” branch. The awards are also responsible for hosting events such as the “Mirrors in Women’s Literature”, the “Literature Teen Hike” which has been very popular amongst young people, and the upcoming “Benefactors Gala Dinner” which will be held on 28 June 2024.
The entire team at the Book Behind Awards is highly passionate about creating a reading society and nation and gives every aspiring author the opportunity to publish their work through networking sessions with various publishing companies. There are also events held to inform and teach aspiring authors on the challenges of writing books and actually getting them published. These events outline the main starting points for up and coming authors on what is the best route when one is seeking to have their work published.
The categories at this year’s event are “Best Sepedi Book, Best Inspirational Book, Best Political/ Historical Book, Best Female Author, and Best Male Author” amongst many, many others. For more information on these awards, visit their Instagram page @thebookbehindawards to secure your ticket at this year’s event and see how you can vote for your favourite author and category.