We are very proud to announce that Jacques Coetzee has been shortlisted for the 2022 Ingrid Jonker Prize for his debut collection An Illuminated Darkness.

(Edit, 18 July 2022: Jacques Coetzee has won the 2022 Ingrid Jonker Prize.)

The Ingrid Jonker Prize is one of South Africa’s most prestigious literary awards, awarded in alternate years to a first collection of poetry published in English or Afrikaans, the two languages in which Jonker herself wrote. It has been previously awarded twice to uHlanga authors Thabo Jijana in 2016 (for Failing Maths and My Other Crimes), and Saaleha Idrees Bamjee in 2020 (for Zikr).

An Illuminated Darkness was published during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and its associated lockdowns; a somewhat cruel irony for Coetzee, who is one of the stalwarts of Cape Town’s poetry reading scene as well as a performing musician.

We therefore endeavored to make the book as accessible as possible. Coetzee, who is blind, recorded a free audiobook version of the collection, while uHlanga collaborated with Blind SA to make An Illuminated Darkness available in Braille, with one copy in Braille distributed to every library for the print-disabled in South Africa.

The other shortlisted writers for the prize this year are Dimakatso Sedite for Yellow Shade and Sue Woodward for between the apple and the bite, two other very fine collections. The winner will be announced on 18 July 2022. Good luck to all!