Bessie Head writing competition back

GASEBALWE SERETSE
Staff Writer | Thursday February 14, 2008 00:00

 

According to Dr Leloba Molema, who is a voting trustee of the Bessie Head Heritage Trust, the deadline for submissions is May 1. To entice more entries, the organisers and main sponsor Pentagon Publishers have increased the monetary prizes.

'This year, the winner in the novel category will get P 2,500, the short story winner, P 1,000, while the poetry winner will get P 1,000,' says Molema.

All the prizes have been increased by P 500 but most importantly all the winning manuscripts will be published by Pentagon Publishers in due course.

Last year's winners were Khonani Ontebetse in the novel categories. His first runners-up were Kelebogile Itshekeng and Meekaeel Siphambili and the second runner-up was Galeboe Mareledi Kefalotse. Bontekanye Botumile won the short story category with Grace Soko and Arnold Letsholo as first and second runners-up respectively.

Monty Fanakiso Moswela won the poetry section. Well-known performance Tjawanga Dema came second followed by Nicholas Keitshokile.

Molema pointed out that there was confusion in the last awards when some first runners-up thought that they were winners.

'Entrants should know that if there are pronounced as first runners-up, this means that they came second,' explains Molema. The Bessie Head Heritage Trust was established last June to promote the life and the works of Bessie Head both here in Botswana and elsewhere.

The trust believes that the writing competition is important for two reasons, that it preserves the Bessie Head legacy in Botswana since she is the country's most famous writer and that it encourages the development of local literature in various genre. It started last year during the celebration of Bessie Head's 70th anniversary in Serowe.

The Bessie Head Heritage trust hopes to source funds and assistance from international Bessie Head scholars and sympathizers so as to be able to sustain itself.

In another development, Pearson has bought the publishing rights of Heinemann Publishers' African Writers Series. The international publishing house intends to publish new editions of Bessie Head's A Woman Alone and Serowe: The Village of the Rain Wind.  In yet another development, a Setswana version of Head's When The Rain Clouds Gather (Fa Maru A Pula A Kokoana) has been prescribed for use in secondary schools. The Bessie Head Heritage Trust and Pentagon Publishers are also working together to translate more of the famous writer's works into Setswana.

'After we have translated them, we are going to push to have them prescribed in schools,' says Molema.