Henrietta Rose-Innes wins the University of Johannesburg Prize for Translation

Credit: Martin Figura

Congratulations to novelist, short story writer and translator Henrietta Rose-Innes, who has been awarded this year’s University of Johannesburg Prize for Translation for her work on the English language edition of Etienne van Heerden’s acclaimed A LIBRARY TO FLEE (Tafelberg, 2022).

The prize recognises the outstanding translation of a text from any language into any one of the official South African languages, with Henrietta working from Etienne’s original Afrikaans text DIE BIBLIOTEEK AAN DIE EINDE VAN DE WÊRELD to produce this book: a feat made all the more remarkable by the text’s expansive length, running to nearly 800 pages in its original edition.

‘Henrietta’s exemplary work in bridging linguistic and cultural gaps through translation has earned her this esteemed accolade,’ writes the University in a press release. ‘UJ sends its warmest congratulations to Henrietta Rose-Innes for her exceptional contribution to the world of translation and for her dedication to fostering greater cultural understanding through the art of language. Her remarkable work will undoubtedly leave a lasting impact on the world of literature and multilingual communication.’

Etienne van Heerden’s A LIBRARY TO FLEE book was called ‘huge, inventive, fascinating, funny, troubling, and highly courageous’ by Professor David Atwell (co-editor of The Cambridge History of South African Literature) and longlisted for the 2023 Sunday Times Literary Awards in South Africa.

About Henrietta Rose-Innes

Henrietta is a prize-winning author and literary translator with degrees in archaeology and biology, and an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Cape Town. She has worked in publishing, scriptwriting and as a creative writing teacher. She is the author of four novels: SHARK'S EGG (SA: Kwela 2000), THE ROCK ALPHABET (SA: Kwela 2004), NINEVEH (SA: Umuzi imprint, 2011; UK: Gallic Books, 2016), and her latest novel GREEN LION, published by Umuzi in 2015 and by Gallic Books in 2017. She is also an acclaimed writer of short fiction, and her 2010 collection of short stories, HOMING, features the 2008 Caine Prize winning story 'Poison' and the 2010 Willesden Prize runner-up, 'Falling'.

Praise for Henrietta Rose-Innes

‘Henrietta Rose-Innes writes an admirably taut clean prose.’ — J M Coetzee.

‘Rose-Innes’ writing is as entertaining as it is subtle – a rare combination.’ — Steven Amsterdam, author of WHAT THE FAMILY NEEDED.

‘I love Henrietta Rose-Innes’s work. With plotlines that are wittily subversive and language that is whippet-lean, it is long overdue for discovery by a wider readership.’ — Patrick Gale, author of NOTES FROM AN EXHIBITION

‘Rose-Innes writes with a dreamlike, lyrical beauty, but she has the ability to keep a tight hold on her plot. Each of her works is a finely wrought delight.’ – Jennifer Crocker, Cape Times

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THE MAN WHO LOVED CROCODILE TAMERS, A LIBRARY TO FLEE and MY THIRTY-MINUTE BAR MITZVAH longlisted for the South African Sunday Times Literary Awards

We are delighted that THE MAN WHO LOVED CROCODILE TAMERS by Finuala Dowling and A LIBRARY TO FLEE by Etienne van Heerden (translated by Henrietta Rose-Innes), have been longlisted for the 2023 Sunday Times Literary Awards in South Africa, in the fiction category, while MY THIRTY-MINUTE BAR MITZVAH by Denis Hirson has been longlisted in the non-fiction category.

The Sunday Times Literary Awards are awarded annually to writers who are either South African citizens or residents, and the fiction prize goes to a novel of ‘rare imagination and style’ which is ‘so compelling as to become an enduring landmark of contemporary fiction’. Finuala Dowling’s last novel, OKAY OKAY OKAY, was also longlisted in 2021, and past winners include Blake Friedmann authors Marlene van Niekerk, Ivan Vladislavić and Zakes Mda. The non-fiction prize is awarded to a book that demonstrates ‘compassion, elegance of writing, and intellectual and moral integrity’, and has also been won by Blake Friedmann authors Ivan Vladislavić and the late Hugh Lewin.

Published by Kwela in March 2022, THE MAN WHO LOVED CROCODILE TAMERS is a daughter’s unforgettable portrait of a complex man. Gina knows hardly anything about her father apart from the fact that he was once engaged to Koringa, a crocodile tamer, and that he is buried in an unmarked grave. In between shifts at call centre, she works on a novel about him, in a narrative that is by turns enchanting, funny, and heartbreaking.

A LIBRARY TO FLEE, published by Tafelberg in September 2022, focuses on our dangerous, turbulent times: several stories are woven together while Cape Town’s mysterious crossbow killer prepares to strike again.

In MY THIRTY-MINUTE BAR MITZVAH, Denis Hirson looks back to his childhood in Johannesburg in the 1960s, to his relationship with his father, who was imprisoned for anti-Apartheid activism, and to his thirteenth birthday, when he visited his father in the car park of the prison. It was published by Jacana in South Africa in 2022, and will be published by Pushkin Press in the UK and US in 2024, with an audio edition from Tantor.

About Finuala Dowling

Photo: Simone Scholtz

Finuala Dowling is a prize-winning poet and novelist and an acclaimed poetry teacher. She lives in Kalk Bay, Cape Town.

Her first novel was WHAT POETS NEED, followed by FLYLEAF. HOME-MAKING FOR THE DOWN-AT-HEART won the M-Net Prize 2012 and was shortlisted for the University of Johannesburg Prize in the same year. Her novel THE FETCH won the 2016 Herman Charles Bosman prize for English fiction. Her novel OKAY OKAY OKAY was published in South Africa by Kwela in 2019, with her latest novel, THE MAN WHO LOVED CROCODILE TAMERS, following in 2022.

Finuala Dowling on Poetry International

Finuala Dowling on Facebook

About Etienne van Heerden

Photo: Roger Sedres

Etienne van Heerden is the author of 28 published books, published in 12 languages and the winner of many major South African prizes. Van Heerden is an alumnus of the University of Iowa’s prestigious International Writing Program and regularly teaches at universities in Europe. He has been writer-in-residence at the Leiden University in the Netherlands and the University of Antwerp in Belgium. His classic novel TOORBERG (ANCESTRAL VOICES) has recently been re-issued in Dutch by Aldo Manuzio.

Etienne van Heerden’s website

About Denis Hirson

Photo: Adine Sagalyn

Denis Hirson is a South African writer and lecturer now living in Paris. He is the author of seven books, almost all of them at the frontier between prose and poetry and concerned with the memory of South Africa at the time of apartheid. These include THE HOUSE NEXT DOOR TO AFRICA (David Philip), as well as, from Jacana: WE WALK STRAIGHT SO YOU BETTER GET OUT THE WAY, the best-selling I REMEMBER KING KONG (THE BOXER), the poetry collection GARDENING IN THE DARK; the novel THE DANCING AND THE DEATH ON LEMON STREET (shortlisted for the Commonwealth Book Prize, 2012) and WHITE SCARS, a lyrical meditation on reading and its significance in our lives, runner-up for the South African Sunday Times Alan Paton Non-Fiction Prize in 2007. His latest book, MY THIRTY-MINUTE BAR MITZVAH, was published by Jacana in South African in 2022, with Pushkin Press to publish in the UK and US in 2024.

About Henrietta Rose-Innes

Photo: Christine Fourie

Henrietta Rose-Innes is the author of the novels SHARK'S EGG (SA: Kwela 2000) and THE ROCK ALPHABET (SA: Kwela 2004) and a collection of short stories, HOMING, which features the 2008 Caine Prize winning story ‘Poison’ and the 2010 Willesden Prize runner-up, ‘Falling’. Her novel NINEVEH was published by Random House SA’s Umuzi imprint in 2011 and by Gallic Books in 2016, and her latest novel, GREEN LION, was published by Umuzi in 2015 and by Gallic Books in 2017.

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Etienne van Heerden at the Time of the Writer Festival

Etienne van Heerden, whose latest novel 30 NIGHTS IN AMSTERDAM was launched in English by Penguin South Africa this month, is attending the 14th Time of the Writer International Writer's Festival in Durban, along with writers like Caryl Phillips, Njabulo Ndebele, Marie Darrieussecq, Sahar El Mougy, Lauren Beukes and Petina Gappah.

Twenty-one prominent writers from a dozen different countries, will converge on Durban for a thought-provoking week of literary dialogue and exchange of ideas at the Time of the Writer international writers festival from 14 to 19 March. Hosted by the Centre for Creative Arts (University of Kwa-Zulu Natal) and with principal funding from the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund, this 14th edition of the festival, presents a packed programme of both day and evening activities. 'Freedom of Expression' will feature as an underlying thread within the festival and audiences can expect to hear the opinions of leading writers on creative processes which inform their writing as well as on the enabling or constraining forces of political, social and environmental contexts within which they write.

The festival's Opening Night Keynote Address will be delivered by the recently retired Constitutional Court judge, esteemed writer and cultural activist, Justice Albie Sachs. The award-winning author of a number of books, including Soft Vengeance of a Freedom Fighter and Justice in South Africa, Sachs was instrumental in the process of writing the constitution of South Africa and is therefore eminently qualified to speak on the festival theme of Freedom of Expression.

Etienne van Heerden's 30 NIGHTS IN AMSTERDAM, which won the University of Johannesburg Award, 2008, the WA Hofmeyr Award for Afrikaans literature 2009 and the M-Net Literary Awards 2009, was first published in Afrikaans by Tafelberg in 2008. Translation rights have been sold to Podium in Holland and to Jumava in Latvia.

Dutch publisher Joost Nijsen of Podium says:
'30 NIGHTS IN AMSTERDAM combines all qualities one might demand of contemporary literature of international importance. The writing is amazing and Zan is a classic character, one to fall in love with. It's a wonderful, moving, poignant story and thanks to the ingenious plot, gradually revealing many striking family secrets, it's also a real page-turner. Finally, this novel succeeds in showing the big picture through a specific human story. 30 NIGHTS IN AMSTERDAM is not only a story about family disintegration, but also a mirror of the cultural and political developments in recent South African history, interwoven with the scenes set in Amsterdam.'

Fiona Snyckers has featured the book and discussed the process of translation with Etienne van Heerden in The Times in South Africa, calling it already 'a modern classic.'

PRAISE for Etienne van Heerden

'As writers like Marquez gave a rich artistic depth to South America - and Alasdair Gray defined the imaginative landscape of Scotland in Lanark - so van Heerden has created an 'artistic map' of South Africa.' -- Mark Stanton, The Scotsman

'His exploration of personal relations and private lives under the pressure of historical and political forces makes him an eloquent witness of profound social change.' -- Andre Brink

'He combines popular readability with literary excellence and profound issues in a manner accomplished by few writers of any nationality.' -- Shaun de Waal, Mail and Guardian

30 NIGHTS IN AMSTERDAM launched in South Africa and sold in Holland & Latvia

In tandem with a re-issue of his earlier novels LEAP YEAR and ANCESTRAL VOICES, Penguin South Africa have just published Etienne van Heerden's new novel 30 NIGHTS IN AMSTERDAM. The book was launched on 17 February with an event at Kalk Bay Books in Cape Town, attended by many prominent literary figures, including award-winning translators Leon de Kock (who is the translator of van Heerden's forthcoming IN LOVE'S PLACE) and Michiel Heyns (translator of 30 NIGHTS IN AMSTERDAM).

Etienne van Heerden's 30 NIGHTS IN AMSTERDAM, which won the University of Johannesburg Award, 2008, the WA Hofmeyr Award for Afrikaans literature 2009 and the M-Net Literary Awards 2009, was first published in Afrikaans by Tafelberg in 2008. Translation rights have been sold to Podium in Holland and to Jumava in Latvia.

 Dutch publisher Joost Nijsen of Podium says:

‘30 NIGHTS IN AMSTERDAM combines all qualities one might demand of contemporary literature of international importance. The writing is amazing and Zan is a classic character, one to fall in love with. It's a wonderful, moving, poignant story and thanks to the ingenious plot, gradually revealing many striking family secrets, it's also a real page-turner. Finally, this novel succeeds in showing the big picture through a specific human story. 30 NIGHTS IN AMSTERDAM is not only a story about family disintegration, but also a mirror of the cultural and political developments in recent South African history, interwoven with the scenes set in Amsterdam.’

Fiona Snyckers has featured the book and discussed the process of translation with Etienne van Heerden in The Times in South Africa, calling it already 'a modern classic.'

PRAISE for Etienne van Heerden

'As writers like Marquez gave a rich artistic depth to South America - and Alasdair Gray defined the imaginative landscape of Scotland in Lanark - so van Heerden has created an 'artistic map' of South Africa.' -- Mark Stanton, The Scotsman

'His exploration of personal relations and private lives under the pressure of historical and political forces makes him an eloquent witness of profound social change.' -- Andre Brink

'He combines popular readability with literary excellence and profound issues in a manner accomplished by few writers of any nationality.' -- Shaun de Waal, Mail and Guardian

'30 NIGHTS IN AMSTERDAM is one of van Heerden's most satisfying novels yet. In literary terms it is a skilful novel, and moreover an enticing and compelling story…here van Heerden shines as a storyteller…van Heerden effectively deploys details of the Dutch anti-apartheid movement. I am also impressed by the perspective on Europe developed here. He examines Europe, and specifically Amsterdam, from the perspective of the post-colonial subjects, the mass of buskers, beggars, pickpockets and immigrants who grasp their chance at survival there, and give a new energy to European cities…Henk and Tante Zan, as Afrikaners in Europe, are also postcolonial subjects, and with this perspective van Heerden adds something new to the depiction of the relationship between being Afrikaans and Europe in Afrikaans literature, and to his continuing musing on place and identity…Tante Zan's exuberant, mocking, often vulgar narratives, written in the first person, are the highlight of the novel, and one of the highlights of van Heerden's oeuvre…One of van Heerden's most satisfying novels yet…an intense, energetic novel by an important South African writer. It will fuel reflection his work, but will also please the reader in search of a good story for the summer holidays. Buy it, read it: you won't be sorry.' -- Desmond Painter, Die Burger