| Academy Awards | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Academy recognises excellence in, and service by, a number of awards.
THOMAS PRINGLE AWARDS 2011The English Academy of Southern Africa is pleased to announce the winners of the Thomas Pringle Awards. The Thomas Pringle Awards recognise writers who have demonstrated extraordinary insights in their work. Two of the three categories run this year have been finalised.Category: Reviews The 2011 Thomas Pringle Award for Reviews is awarded to Mary Corrigall for a portfolio of reviews published in The Sunday Independent. The adjudicators of the award noted the following: In reading Corrigall’s
reviews, one is struck by one outstanding quality – her acuity. Whether
she is reading words on a page or looking at shapes and colours at an
art or photography exhibition, Corrigall has a particularly rare
capacity to see things sharply and keenly. Quite apart from Corrigall’s
sharpness of perception, however, there is also a pleasing lucidity in
the way she writes about the different media she focuses on. Her
reviews are commendable, therefore, not only for their insights, but
also for the crisp and energetic manner in which these insights are
expressed.
Mary Corrigall is an arts critic and senior feature writer at The Sunday Independent newspaper. She is also a research fellow at the Research Centre for Visual Identities in Art and Design, at the University of Johannesburg. Her articles have been widely published in magazines and newspapers, local and international art publications and peer-reviewed academic journals. In 2007 she won a coveted CNN African Journalism award and was awarded the Thomas Pringle Award for Reviews by the English Academy of Southern Africa in 2009. In the same year the European Commission awarded her a Lorenzo Natali award for Journalism. The two other candidates who were shortlisted for this award are Robyn Sassen and Gwen Podbrey. Robyn Sassen, a seasoned reviewer, is commended for the clarity and crispness of reviews that covered mainly theatre and art, encouraging audience attendance and offering terse insights. Gwen Podbrey demonstrated that she is a master of conciseness in reviews that expose the reader to the possibilities and pleasures in a range of literary works, from pure fiction to works with a biographical slant. Judges: Dr Lynda Gilfillan (Convener), Dr Glenda Cleaver and Ms Kate McCallum Category: Educational Article The 2011 Thomas Pringle Award for an article on English in education and the teaching of English published in a South African academic journal in 2009-2010 is awarded jointly to Aslam Fataar for his article “Youth self-formation and the ‘capacity to aspire’: The itinerant ‘schooled career’ of Fuzile Ali across post-apartheid space’, which was published in Perspectives in Education 28(3), and to Charles van Renen for his article “Dahl’s chickens: How do they roost in the 21st century?”, published in the Journal for Language Teaching 43(2). The judges were unanimous in making a joint award on the grounds that both articles make a highly valuable contribution to research in English teaching and learning in southern Africa: Fataar’s at a broad sociological level and van Renen’s at a more specific pedagogic level. Fataar demonstrates to us the complex contexts that lie behind our students’ schooling trajectories, while van Renen demonstrates the importance of literature in developing language competence in classrooms. In this sense, the two articles are complementary both in their foci and in their significance for English education in this country. Aslam Fataar is currently Professor and Head of the Education Policy Studies Department at Stellenbosch University. He is a former lecturer at the University of the Western Cape. His area of interest is Sociology of Education and his research focuses on policy reform and education in urban spaces. He has authored one book, Education Policy Development in South Africa’s Democratic Transition, 1994-1997 (2010), and is currently completing a book on educational subjectivities in an urban context. He is a NRF B-rated scientist, which is an acknowledgement of international academic standing. Professor Fataar has also published widely in national and international journals. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal, the Southern African Review of Education. He is a recently appointed member of the Western Cape Education Council and a member of the UNESCO country committee on Education. Charles van Reenen is a senior lecturer in the Education Faculty of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU). His field of specialisation is English methodology and children’s literature. Prior to his appointment at the NMMU he lectured at the Port Elizabeth campus of Vista University, was a senior research officer with the Molteno Project at Rhodes University, and a lecturer at the Graaff-Reinet Teachers’ College. Over the past few years he has published in journals such as Perspectives in Education, Journal for Language Teaching, Journal of Educational Studies and Journal of Literary Studies. Judges: Professor Denise Newfield (convener), Dr Yvonne Reed and Mr David Robinson ********************************************************** Each award consists of a cash prize and a prestigious certificate. The dates of the award ceremonies will be announced at a later stage.
FUGARD HONOURED BY THE ACADEMY At a function held at the Bloemendal Restaurant, Durbanville, Cape Town, on 8 September 2011, Athol Fugard was honoured with the English Academy’s highest award, the Gold Medal. The motivation that was compiled by Dr Barbara Basel, Past President of the Academy, for the making of the award to Fugard, followed by Fugard’s acceptance speech follows here:
The following awards and prizes were awarded in 2010:
The following awards and prizes were awarded in 2009:
For a list of past winners of these awards and prizes, read here The Academy Gold Medal is awarded to persons who have rendered distinguished service to English. The Olive Schreiner Prize is for new or emergent talent. The Thomas Pringle Awards are for work published in newspapers, periodicals and journals. They are awarded on a rotation basis for:
All the above awards are sponsored by the National Lotteries Distribution Trust Fund. The Percy FitzPatrick Award for Youth Literature, The Percy FitzPatrick Award for Youth literature, awarded in alternate years, is aimed at encouraging the publication of books directed towards children between the ages of 10 and 14. REGULATIONS GOVERNING THE ENGLISH ACADEMY SOL PLAATJE PRIZE FOR TRANSLATION1. The prize is called the English Academy Sol Plaatje Prize for Translation. 2. It is named after, and commemorates the life and work of, Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje (1875-1932), novelist, journalist, linguist, social activist, and a pioneering advocate of multilingualism in South Africa. Well known as a founding member of the African National Congress, Plaatje worked as a court interpreter before editing the English-Setswana weekly, Koranta ea Bechuana, from 1904-1912, and then establishing the newspaper, Tsala ea Batho. He wrote two works on the Setswana language and translated several Shakespearean plays into Setswana. He wrote numerous articles for newspapers and several important non-fictional works, including Native Life in South Africa (1916), a critique of the Land Act. He also wrote the first known novel by a black South African, Mhudi, a work which continues to occupy a seminal place in the South African literary canon. 3. The prize is administered by the English Academy of Southern Africa. 4. It is awarded for excellence in translation of a literary text of at least 1 000 words (except in the case of poetry which is, of necessity, exempt from the length criterion) in one of the other official South African languages into English. 5. The English text must represent a reasonably accurate translation of the original, while standing as a well expressed literary text in and of itself. 6. The translation must have been published in one of the two years preceding that in which entries for the award are invited. 7. The purpose of the prize is to encourage effective mutual understanding in our multilingual country. 8. The award will be adjudicated biennially in odd-numbered years. 9. The panel of adjudicators will be chosen by a coordinator in accordance with the language expertise required by the submissions in any two-year period. In deciding new appointments or reappointments, the desirability of preserving a measure of continuity should be borne in mind; the coordinator, for instance, should preferably have had some experience as a member of the panel and, if possible, should also be a member of the English Academy. New appointments should be made towards the end of the year preceding the term of appointment. The names of the coordinator and panel members will be made public when the results are announced. Names, posts and addresses of adjudicators must be advised to the Academy. 10. The Academy will issue an invitation to translators to submit to its offices texts by way of a Press release each odd-numbered year. One copy of each publication will be required. The South African Translators’ Institute (SATI) will be invited to circularize this release to its members and other contacts through its own channels, mentioning the English Academy appropriately. 11. Anyone who has twice received the award will not again be considered. 12. In making its recommendation, the panel submits a report, commenting on the number and quality of entries received and briefly validating its recommendation. The Academy has the right to use this citation as it pleases. 13. A recommendation that the prize be divided among two or more translators is permissible, but the adjudicators should make every effort to avoid such a division. If unanimity cannot be reached a minority report may be submitted, but every effort should be made to avoid such a contingency. The minority report will not be made public. No award need be made if the adjudicators find that none of the entries meets the required standard. The deliberations and recommendations of the adjudicators are strictly confidential, save and except for the provisions of 8 hereof. 14. Once the nomination has been approved by Council, the nominee is informed. As soon as the nominee has signified his/her acceptance of the award, the publisher of the work of the nominee will be advised of the decision. Arrangements are then made in consultation with the award winner for a suitable presentation function to which the publisher and sponsor (if any) will be invited. The Academy will arrange publicity. Revised July 2006 For a list of previous winners of these awards, please click here For the text of acceptance speeches of some of the winners, please click here All citations for English Academy awards are lodged with the National English Literary Museum in Grahamstown. To request copies, please go to http://www.ru.ac.za/nelm |
© 2002 - 2010. All
rights reserved.
Web site developed and created by
Compendia Communication.
Wits
2050
Tel & Fax: +27 11 717-9339
englishacademy@societies.wits.ac.za