The judges: Kgauhelo Dube, Bwesigye Bwa Mwesigire, and Sabata-mpho Mokae.

Black Letter Media has released the three-person list of judges for the 2017 edition of its short story competition. The judges are Kgauhelo Dube, Bwesigye Bwa Mwesigire, and Sabata-mpho Mokae.

The entries for the contest will be assessed blindly by the judges. The first, second, and third place winners will receive R5,000, R1,500 and R500 respectively.

Kgauhelo Dube, founder of Kajen Media, is an accomplished figure in the arts sector which she forayed into after quitting her career in the advertising/communications agency. She promotes African literature through a number of multimedia platforms.

Altruistic in her attempts to put African literature on the map, Dube has also been recognised for her efforts. She was a nominee in the Department of Arts And Culture’s 2015 Mbokodo Women In Arts Award for the category of “Promoting Arts, Culture and Heritage in the Media”.

Unarguably one of the most influential figures in contemporary African writing, Bwesigye Bwa Mwesigire is the co-founder of the Centre for African Cultural Excellence (CACE).

He is a lawyer and a writer. His work has appeared in This is Africa, Africa in Words, African Arguments, Africa is a Country, Chimurenga Chronic, Saraba Magazine, African Roar among other literary periodicals.

Sabata-mpho Mokae is a prolific writer who writes in English and Setswana. He teaches creative writing at Sol Plaatje University in Kimberly. In 2014, he was chosen as writer-in-residence at the Univeristy of Iowa.

His works include a biography, The Story of Sol T Plaatje, a youth novella, Dikeledi, and a poetry collection, Escaping Trauma. His first novel, Ga Ke Modisa (I’m Not My Brother’s Keeper), won the M-Net Literary Award for Best Novel in Setswana as well as the M-Net Film Award in 2013.

The contest closes on the 31st of May, 2017.

You just might be the lucky winner of the R5000 cash prize.

Click here to learn more about the competition.