POLOKWANE – Polokwane poet Moses Seletisha recently won the overall JdL Award for Poetry in the Sepedi category at the Avbob Poetry Project held on Friday in Pretoria.

Seletisha is an accomplished novelist, playwright, poet, translator and editor whose literary journey began at just 15 in Ga-Matlala ‘a Rakgoadi. He claimed first place in the Avbob Poetry Prize last year after twice placing second and has served as a poetry teacher in Avbob’s online workshop.

His accolades include the Sol Plaatje European Union Poetry Award, the Sala First-time Published Author Award, the UJ Main Prize for Creative Writing in Sesotho sa Leboa, the NIHSS Non-Fiction Award, and recognition as a Mail & Guardian Young South African in 2021.

Building on this recognition, Seletisha told BONUS that he compiled his poems into a collection, Di a Galaka, which was published by Bona Pono in 2024.

According to Johan Myburg, Avbob’s public relations manager, a new award was introduced to complement the single-poem Avbob Poetry Project: a prize recognising full poetry collections published within three years prior to the award year.

“With the online competition for individual poems, which has been running since 2017, each official language now receives its own R10 000 prize for a winning collection,” Myburg said.

The award has been named in honour of Johann de Lange, renowned Afrikaans poet and one of the project’s editors-in-chief, who passed away in March.

“In recognition of his immense contribution to the Poetry Project, the annual prize for collections now bears his name – the JdL Award for Poetry,” Myburg added.

This year, 25 collections were entered in English, 21 in isiZulu, and 11 in Sepedi. Myburg said: “With the addition of the new prize, the Avbob Poetry Project goes from strength to strength, fostering poetry in all 11 official written languages and extending the nation’s ability to capture and express its rich and diverse identity.”

Winners:

• Sepedi poem overall winner: Moses Seletisha – ‘Di A Galaka’.

• English poem: Ingrid de Kok – ‘Unleaving’.

• isiZulu poem: S’fiso Oscar Zwelihle Mkhize – ‘Odengezini LukaBhambatha KaMakhwatha’.