# Sunday Times CNA Literary Awards

The Sunday Times CNA Literary Awards are awarded annually to South African writers by the South African weekly newspaper the Sunday Times. 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. 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." The award was named for Alan Paton, the famous South African author of Cry, The Beloved Country (1948).
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 pandemic. 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. This sponsorship arrangement followed the acquisition of CNA from "embattled" parent company Edcon in February 2020. In 2021, books published between 1 December 2018 and 1 December 2020 were eligible.

## Fiction winners

Works shortlisted for the fiction prize, 2008–2024 :
| Year | Nominee | Work | Result |
| 2024 | Andrew Brown | The Bitterness of Olives | Won |
| 2024 | Sven Axelrad | Buried Treasure | |
| 2024 | Morabo Morojele | Three Egg Dilemma | |
| 2024 | David Ralph Viviers | Mirage | |
| 2024 | Jarred Thompson | The Institute for Creative Dying | |
| 2023 | C. A. Davids | How to Be a Revolutionary | Won| |
| 2023 | Andrew Brown | The Heist Men | |
| 2023 | Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu | The Quality of Mercy | |
| 2023 | Yewande Omotoso | An Unusual Grief | |
| 2023 | Mark Winkler | The Errors of Dr Browne | |
| 2022 | Tshidiso Moletsane | Junx | Won |
| 2022 | Karen Jennings | An Island | |
| 2022 | Joanne Joseph | Children of Sugarcane | |
| 2022 | Thenjiwe Mswane | All Gomorrahs Are The Same | |
| 2022 | Damon Galgut | The Promise | |
| 2021 | Marguerite Poland | A Sin of Omission | Won |
| 2021 | Dawn Garisch | Breaking Milk | |
| 2021 | Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu | The History of Man | |
| 2021 | Rešoketšwe Manenzhe | Scatterlings | |
| 2021 | Mark Winkler | Due South of Copenhagen | |
| 2020 | No award due to the COVID-19 pandemic | No award due to the COVID-19 pandemic | No award due to the COVID-19 pandemic |
| 2019 | Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu | The Theory of Flight | Won |
| 2019 | John Hunt | The Boy Who Could Keep a Swan in His Head | |
| 2019 | Nozizwe Cynthia Jele | The Ones with Purpose | |
| 2019 | Claire Robertson | Under Glass | |
| 2019 | Mark Winkler | Theo & Flora | |
| 2018 | Harry Kalmer | A Thousand Tales of Johannesburg | Won |
| 2018 | Maxine Case | Softness of the Lime | |
| 2018 | S. J. Naudé | The Third Reel | |
| 2018 | Lesego Rampolokeng | Bird-Monk Seding | |
| 2018 | Francois Smith | The Camp Whore | |
| 2017 | Zakes Mda | Little Suns | Won |
| 2017 | Bronwyn Law-Viljoen | The Printmaker | |
| 2017 | Kopano Matlwa | Period Pain | |
| 2017 | Yewande Omotoso | The Woman Next Door | |
| 2017 | Mark Winkler | The Safest Place You Know | |
| 2016 | Nkosinathi Sithole | Hunger Eats a Man | Won |
| 2016 | Alastair Bruce | Boy on the Wire | |
| 2016 | Craig Higginson | The Dream House | |
| 2016 | Claire Robertson | The Magistrate of Gower | |
| 2016 | Henrietta Rose-Innes | Green Lion | |
| 2015 | Damon Galgut | Arctic Summer | Won |
| 2015 | Imraan Coovadia | Tales of the Metric System | |
| 2015 | Masande Ntshanga | The Reactive | |
| 2015 | Elaine Proctor | The Savage Hour | |
| 2015 | Zoë Wicomb | October | |
| 2014 | Claire Robertson | The Spiral House | Won |
| 2014 | Lauren Beukes | The Shining Girls | |
| 2014 | Dominic Botha | False River | |
| 2014 | Songeziwe Mahlangu | Penumbra | |
| 2014 | Eben Venter | Wolf Wolf | |
| 2013 | Karen Jayes | For the Mercy of Water | Won |
| 2013 | Imraan Coovadia | The Institute for Taxi Poetry | |
| 2013 | Steven Boykey Sidley | Entanglement | |
| 2013 | Chris Wadman | The Unlikely Genius of Dr Cuthbert Kamazuma | |
| 2013 | James Whyle | The Book of War | |
| 2012 | Michiel Heyns | Lost Ground | Won |
| 2012 | H.J. Golakai | The Lazarus Effect | |
| 2012 | Henrietta Rose-Innes | Nineveh | |
| 2012 | Yewande Omotoso | Bom Boy | |
| 2012 | Adam Schwartzmann | Eddie Signwriter | |
| 2011 | Sifiso Mzobe | Young Blood | Won |
| 2011 | Shaida Kazie Ali | Not a Fairy Tale | |
| 2011 | James Clelland | Deeper than Colour | |
| 2011 | Deon Meyer | Thirteen Hours | |
| 2011 | Ivan Vladislavic | Double Negative | |
| 2010 | Imraan Coovadia | High Low In-between | Won |
| 2010 | J. M. Coetzee | Summertime | |
| 2010 | Zinaid Meeran | Saracen at the Gates | |
| 2010 | Kgebetli Moele | The Book of the Dead | |
| 2010 | Sally-Ann Murray | Small Moving Parts | |
| 2009 | Anne Landsman | The Rowing Lesson | Won |
| 2009 | Tracey Farren | Whiplash | |
| 2009 | Damon Galgut | The Impostor | |
| 2009 | Michiel Heyns | Bodies Politic | |
| 2009 | Mandla Langa | The Lost Colours of the Chameleon | |
| 2008 | Ceridwen Dovey | Blood Kin | Won |
| 2008 | Justin Cartwright | The Song Before it is Sung | |
| 2008 | J. M. Coetzee | Diary of a Bad Year | |
| 2008 | Andrew Gray | The Fence | |
| 2008 | Niq Mhlongo | After Tears | |
| 2007 | Marlene van Niekerk | Agaat (trans. Michiel Heyns) | Won |
| 2007 | Imraan Coovadia | Green-Eyed Thieves | |
| 2007 | Morabo Morojele | How We Buried Puso | |
| 2007 | David Medalie | The Shadow Follows | |
| 2006 | Andrew Brown | Coldsleep Lullaby | Won |
| 2006 | J. M. Coetzee | Slow Man | |
| 2006 | André Brink | Praying Mantis | |
| 2006 | Russel Brownlee | Garden of the Plagues | |
| 2006 | Consuelo Roland | The Good Cemetery Guide | |
| 2005 | Justin Cartwright | The Promise of Happiness | Won |
| 2004 | Rayda Jacobs | Confessions of a Gambler | Won |
| 2003 | André Brink | The Other Side of Silence | Won |
| 2002 | Ivan Vladislavic | The Restless Supermarket | Won |
| 2001 | Zakes Mda | The Heart of Redness | Won |

## Non-fiction winners

Works shortlisted for the non-fiction prize, 2006-2024 :
| Year | Nominee | Work | Result |
| 2024 | Jonny Steinberg | Winnie and Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage | Won |
| 2024 | Eve Fairbanks | The Inheritors: An Intimate Portrait of South Africa’s Racial Reckoning | |
| 2024 | Justin Fox | Place: South African Literary Journeys | |
| 2024 | Justice Malala | The Plot to Save South Africa: The Week Mandela Averted Civil War and Forged a New Nation | |
| 2024 | Caster Semenya | The Race To Be Myself | |
| 2023 | Bulelwa Mabasa | My Land Obsession: A Memoir | Won |
| 2023 | Liz McGregor | Unforgiven: Face to Face with My Father’s Killer | |
| 2023 | André Odendaal, with editorial contributions by Albie Sachs | Dear Comrade President: Oliver Tambo and the Foundations of South Africa’s Constitution | |
| 2023 | Matthew Wilhelm-Solomon | The Blinded City: Ten Years in Inner-City Johannesburg | |
| 2023 | Songezo Zibi | Manifesto: A New Vision for South Africa | |
| 2022 | Mignonne Breier | Bloody Sunday: The Nun, The Defiance Campaign and South Africa's Secret Massacre | Won |
| 2022 | Tembeka Ngcukaitobi | Land Matters: South Africa's Failed Land Reforms and the Road Ahead | |
| 2022 | Imraan Coovadia | The Poisoners: On South Africa's Toxic Past | |
| 2022 | Thula Simpson | History of South Africa: From 1902 to the Present | |
| 2022 | Johnny Clegg | Scatterling of Africa: My Early Years | |
| 2021 | Andrew Harding | These Are Not Gentle People | Won |
| 2021 | Jacob Dlamini | Safari Nation: A Social History of the Kruger National Park | |
| 2021 | Mark Gevisser | The Pink Line: Journeys Across the World’s Queer Frontiers | |
| 2021 | Pieter-Louis Myburgh | Gangster State: Unravelling Ace Magashule’s Web of Capture | |
| 2021 | Telita Snyckers | Dirty Tobacco: Spies, Lies and Mega-Profits | |
| 2020 | No award due to the COVID-19 pandemic | No award due to the COVID-19 pandemic | No award due to the COVID-19 pandemic |
| 2019 | Terry Kurgan | Everyone is Present: Essays on Photography, Family and Memory | Won |
| 2019 | Anneliese Burgess | Heist! South Africa’s Cash-in-Transit Epidemic Uncovered | |
| 2019 | Panashe Chigumadzi | These Bones Will Rise Again | |
| 2019 | Rekgotsofetse Chikane | Breaking a Rainbow, Building a Nation: The Politics Behind the #MustFall Movements | |
| 2019 | Sylvia Neame | Imprisoned: The Experience of a Prisoner Under Apartheid | |
| 2018 | Bongani Ngqulunga | The Man Who Founded the ANC: A Biography of Pixley ka Isaka Seme | Won |
| 2018 | Stuart Doran | Kingdom, Power, Glory: Mugabe, Zanu and the Quest for Supremacy (1960–87), | |
| 2018 | Thandeka Gqubule | No Longer Whispering to Power: The Story of Thuli Madonsela | |
| 2018 | Sisonke Msimang | Always Another Country: A Memoir of Exile and Home | |
| 2018 | Thuli Nhlapo | Colour Me Yellow: Searching for My Family Truth | |
| 2017 | Greg Marinovich | Murder at Small Koppie: The Real Story of the Marikana Massacre | Won |
| 2017 | Sean Christie | Under Nelson Mandela Boulevard: Life Among the Stowaways | |
| 2017 | Christa Kulijan | Darwin's Hunch: Science, Race, and the Search for Human Origins | |
| 2017 | Dikgang Moseneke | My Own Liberator: A Memoir | |
| 2017 | Steven Robins | Letters of Stone: From Nazi Germany to South Africa | |
| 2016 | Pumla Dineo Gqola | Rape: A South African Nightmare | Won |
| 2016 | David Attwell | J.M. Coetzee and the Life of Writing | |
| 2016 | Maxine Case | Papwa: Golf's Lost Legend | |
| 2016 | Khaya Dlanga | To Quote Myself: A Memoir | |
| 2016 | Charles van Onselen | Showdown at the Red Lion | |
| 2015 | Jacob Dlamini | Askari: A Story of Collaboration and Betrayal in the Anti-Apartheid Struggle | Won |
| 2015 | Mark Gevisser | Lost and Found in Johannesburg | |
| 2015 | Lindie Koorts | DF Malan and the Rise of Afrikaner Nationalism | |
| 2015 | Maria Phalime | Postmortem: The Doctor Who Walked Away | |
| 2015 | Jonny Steinberg | A Man of Good Hope | |
| 2014 | Max du Preez | A Rumour of Spring: South Africa after 20 Years of Democracy | Won |
| 2014 | Vusi Pikoli and Mandy Wiener | My Second Initiation: The Memoir of Vusi Pikoli | |
| 2014 | Karen Schoeman | Portrait of a Slave Society: The Cape of Good Hope 1717 – 1795 | |
| 2014 | Elizabeth van Heyningen | The Concentration Camps of the Anglo-Boer War: A Social History | |
| 2014 | Shaun Viljoen | Richard Rive: a Partial Biography | |
| 2013 | Redi Tlhabi | Endings and Beginnings: A Story of Healing | Won |
| 2013 | Julian Rademayer | Killing for Profit | |
| 2013 | Jacques Pauw | Rat Roads: One Man’s Incredible Journey | |
| 2013 | Xolela Mangcu | Biko: A Biography | |
| 2013 | Hermann Giliomee | The Last Afrikaner Leaders | |
| 2012 | Hugh Lewin | Stones Against the Mirror: Friendship in the Time of the South African Struggle | Won |
| 2012 | Jonny Steinberg | Little Liberia: An African Odyssey in New York | |
| 2012 | Anton Harber | Diepsloot | |
| 2012 | Mandy Wiener | Killing Kebble | |
| 2012 | Andrew Feinstein | The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade | |
| 2012 | McIntosh Polela | My Father, My Monster | |
| 2011 | Ronnie Kasrils | The Unlikely Secret Agent | Won |
| 2011 | Adriaan Basson | Finish and Klaar: Selebi’s Fall from Interpol to the Underworld | |
| 2011 | David Klatzow and Sylvia Walker | Steeped in Blood: The Life and Times of a Forensic Scientist | |
| 2011 | Jay Naidoo | Fighting for Justice | |
| 2011 | Bill Nasson | The War for South Africa: The Anglo-Boer War: 1899-1902 | |
| 2010 | Albie Sachs | The Strange Alchemy of Life and Law | Won |
| 2010 | Kevin Bloom | Ways of Staying | |
| 2010 | André Brink | A Fork in the Road | |
| 2010 | Antjie Krog | Begging to be Black | |
| 2010 | James Ngculu | The Honour to Serve: Recollections of an Umkhonto Soldier | |
| 2009 | Peter Harris | In a Different Time | Won |
| 2009 | Andrew Brown | Street Blues: The Experiences of a Reluctant Policeman | |
| 2009 | Pippa Green | Choice, Not Fate: The Life and Times of Trevor Manuel | |
| 2009 | Ahmed Kathrada with Tim Couzens | A Simple Freedom | |
| 2009 | Peter Harris | In a Different Time: The Inside Story of the Delmas Four | |
| 2008 | Mark Gevisser | Thabo Mbeki – The Dream Deferred | Won |
| 2008 | George Bizos | Odyssey to Freedom | |
| 2008 | Charles van Onselen | The Fox and the Flies | |
| 2007 | Ivan Vladislavic | Portrait with Keys | Won |
| 2007 | Glynis Clacherty | The Suitcase Stories | |
| 2007 | John Allen | Rabble-Rouser for Peace | |
| 2007 | Fred Khumalo | Touch My Blood | |
| 2007 | Denis Hirson | White Scars | |
| 2006 | Edwin Cameron | Witness to AIDS | Won |
| 2006 | Adam Levin | AidSafari | Won |
| 2006 | Antony Altbeker | The Dirty Work of Democracy: A Year on the Streets with the Saps | |
| 2006 | Ronald Suresh Roberts | No Cold Kitchen: A Biography of Nadine Gordimer | |
| 2006 | William N. Zulu | Spring Will Come | |
| 2005 | Jonny Steinberg | The Number: One Man's Search for Identity in the Cape Underworld and Prison Gangs | Won |
| 2004 | Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela | A Human Being Died That Night | Won |
| 2003 | Jonny Steinberg | Midlands | Won |
| 2002 | Jonathan Kaplan | The Dressing Station: A Surgeon's Chronicle of War and Medicine | Won |
| 2001 | Henk van Woerden | A Mouthful of Glass | Won |
| 2000 | Anthony Sampson | Mandela: The Authorised Biography | Won |
| 1999 | Antjie Krog | Country of My Skull | Won |
| 1999 | Stephen Clingman | Bram Fischer: Afrikaner Revolutionary | Won |
| 1998 | John Reader | Africa: A Biography of a Continent | Won |
| 1997 | Charles van Onselen | The Seed is Mine | Won |
| 1996 | Margaret McCord | The Calling of Katie Makanya | Won |
| 1995 | Nelson Mandela | Long Walk to Freedom | Won |
| 1994 | Breyten Breytenbach | Return to Paradise | Won |
| 1993 | Tim Couzens | Tramp Royal | Won |
| 1992 | Thomas Pakenham | Scramble for Africa | Won |
| 1991 | Albie Sachs | Soft Vengeance of a Freedom Fighter | Won |
| 1990 | Jeff Peires | The Dead Will Arise | Won |
| 1989 | Marq de Villiers | White Tribe Dreaming | Won |