The University of Johannesburg Prize (UJ Prize) for South African Writing has announced its shortlists for books published in 2025, spotlighting six titles across its Debut and Main Prize categories.

Established in 2006, the UJ Prize is one of South Africa’s most respected literary awards, prized for its openness to any genre and its rigorous, judge-led selection process. This year’s submission window ran from January 27 to March 13, 2026, and the shortlisted books emerged from what organizers describe as an intensive adjudication process.

Three titles made the cut for the Debut Prize: Buried in the Chest by Lindani Mbuyunza-Memani, Not This Tender by Sarah Uheida, and The Fragile Mental Health of Strong Women by Michelle Myeko Kekana. The Main Prize shortlist brings together Griefseed by Malika Lueen Ndlovu, Song of a Slave Girl by Ashraf Kagee, and The Nightwatchman: Representing Black Men in Colonial South Africa by Hlonipha Mokoena, a lineup that spans poetry, fiction, and scholarly nonfiction.

The Main Prize carries a R75,000 award, while the Debut Prize winner receives R45,000, with all shortlisted authors in both categories receiving certificates of recognition. Winners are expected to be announced before the end of September 2026.

This year’s shortlist follows a 2025 edition that saw Siphokazi Jonas take the Debut Prize for her poetry collection Weeping Becomes a River, while Barbara Boswell and Shubnum Khan shared the Main Prize for The Comrade’s Wife and The Lost Love of Akbar Manzil respectively, the panel noting that year’s entries reflected “South Africa’s extraordinary range within the genre, spanning realism to the gothic.” With poetry, fiction, and historical scholarship all represented on this year’s list, the 2026 shortlist looks set to continue that same tradition of range.