BY PHUMZILE NDLOVU
MANZINI- All is set for Friday for the Swazi Fest Writers Awards, which will be held at Southern Africa Nazarene University (SANU).
The awards ceremony was originally supposed to be held last weekend at Bethel Court, but due to venue capacity, it was moved to SANU. It is expected to kick off at 11 am a.m. until 3 pm.
The President of the Awards, Clement Dlamini, shared with this publication that they have added a global speaker, Tshepo Tselayakgosi, from Lesotho, who will be a keynote speaker at the awards ceremony. She is an author, career leadership strategist, business development consultant, and training facilitator.
Swazi Fest Writer’s Awards celebrate authors and writers in the Kingdom of Eswatini. The initial concept started in November 2021, when the first edition was hosted at the SibaneSami Hotel. When reached for comment, Dlamini said, “The organisation founded the awards after identifying the necessity of appreciating, acknowledging, and honouring published authors and writers in the kingdom of Eswatini, trying to bridge the gap in the industry of writing and publishing books. Ever since our first edition, we have recorded over 100 published authors in the kingdom of Eswatini, and our statistics from research analysis state that we have a lot of writers in the country as they lack exposure and motivation shared the president.
It is worth mentioning that the Writer’s Awards are hosted annually in mid-December, and with the two editions, they have seen a target audience of authors, corporate executives, celebrities, social media influencers, and aspiring writers attend the event in great numbers.
“The Swazi Fest Writer’s Awards create a conducive and better environment for published and upcoming writers to get recognition through networking and socialising with like-minded personalities. Through this initiative, the non-profit organisation seeks to appreciate and motivate authors who are doing a great job soliciting ethical morals and advocating for phenomena based on specific subjects,” shared Dlamini.
He further said the mission is to celebrate and motivate authors, identify aspiring writers, develop, mentor, and groom word custodians to effectively become the best authors with the requisite knowledge and skills by creating platforms for socialising and sharing ideas on how to cope with the jotting of opinions, facts, and impactful thoughts in the writing process, as well as the publication of books.
“Our vision is to establish a society of authors and writers who are going to write Swazi stories for the upcoming generations, enhance the reading and writing culture, and also build a convenient industry of authors.”
The 16 categories which will receive awards on Friday after being voted for by the public are;
- SCRIPTWRITER OF THE YEAR – In this category people who have written films, dramas, soapies, and movies can eligibly register and participate.
- LITERARY BLOGGER OF THE YEAR – In this category people who own or write blogs on Google, website, Facebook or any social media platform can officially participate. (If it’s Facebook, Instagram or Twitter (X) – we look for a page, not a personal account.)
- NOVELIST OF THE YEAR – In this category fictional authors who have published novels in both Siswati and English can eligibly register and participate.
- AUTHOR OF THE YEAR – In this category published authors who have published books (Both fictional and informative, and in both languages) with the potential for great sales or national outreach can eligibly participate.
- JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR – In this category newspaper and magazine journalists (even for online publications) can eligibly register.
- SISWATI AUTHOR OF THE YEAR – In this category authors who have published Siswati books (Both informative and fictional) can eligibly participate
- ACADEMIC AUTHOR OF THE YEAR – In this category people who have written academic books, published scholarly booklets (even co-authored academic projects) can eligibly participate.
- INFORMATIVE AUTHOR OF THE YEAR – In this category published authors who have written inspirational, spiritual, and motivational books can eligibly participate.
- POETIC WRITER OF THE YEAR – In this category spoken word poets, and also writers who have published poems compilation books are eligible to participate.
- SHORT STORY WRITER OF THE YEAR – In this category, we openly encourage the registration of any aspiring published authors who have written unpublished short stories, and also authors who co-authored a compilation of short-story books to participate.
- GOSPEL SONGWRITER OF THE YEAR – In this category people or musicians who have written Gospel songs are eligible to participate.
- LIFETIME INFLUENTIAL AUTHOR – In this category published authors who have been writing books for years can register.
- BEST YOUNG WRITER OF THE YEAR – In this category young writers (between the age range of 15 years to 25 years) who have written or published any kind of writing e.g., screenplays, novelists, motivational or faith-based books, bloggers, newspaper journalists or columnists, songwriters etc. can participate.
- COLUMNIST OF THE YEAR – In this category newspaper and magazine columnists can eligibly participate.
- HIP-HOP SONGWRITER OF THE YEAR – In this category people or musicians who have written Hip Hop, Trap, Afro-Hip Hop songs are eligible to register.
- MEDIA HOUSE OF THE YEAR – In this category newspapers and magazines (even those publishing online) can participate.
