The Paperight Young Writers’ Anthology 2013 has arrived!

Today we have the honour of introducing the world to South Africa’s future poets, writers and illustrators with the release of the first ever Paperight Young Writers’ Anthology.

Compiled from the very best work from thousands of submissions from South African high school learners – in English, Zulu, Xhosa, Sotho and Afrikaans – the Anthology celebrates a new generation of South African writers and artists.

“The Paperight Young Writers’ Anthology was conceived as a way for us to help spark a culture of writing in our country, in the places where it must be allowed to grow – our schools,” said editor Sibabalwe Oscar Masinyana.

This is an outstanding achievement for the selected students who made it through a highly competitive shortlisting process that lasted over three months and involved thousands of entries in four categories – poetry, short stories, essays and illustrations. Together, the pieces represent a broad spectrum of South African experiences and concerns. In the run-up to Youth Day, we wanted to uncover and celebrate a new generation of South African writers and artists– we think the Paperight Young Writers’ Anthology 2013 is a great example of the high standard of writing and illustration emerging in our country that is too often overlooked.

We also took the opportunity to reward a winner in each of the four categories with a R1000 cash prize. The selection process was undertaken by a panel of esteemed judges and critics, including poet and academic Sarah Rowan, Dr. Hedley Twidle of the UCT Department of English Language and Literature, Professor Russell Kaschula of Rhodes University’s School of Languages, and art curator Gabi Ngcobo. The winners are:

• Poetry: James Sulter (St John’s College, Johannesburg)
• Short fiction: Jenna Solomon (German International School, Cape Town)
• Essay: Triston Liebenberg (Bergvliet High School, Cape Town)
• Illustration: Chad van Heerden (Eden College, Durban)

The Anthology will serve as an important introduction to the Paperight network to those who currently need it most, our country’s youth. “Many of the people using our network are high school students, buying matric study guides and past exam papers,” said Paperight founder and CEO Arthur Attwell. “The Anthology is a way for us to engage with these learners and find talented young writers among them. Now it’s blossomed into a rich piece of literature in its own right.”

The Young Writers’ Anthology is available right now! So get to your nearest Paperight outlet to see what the fuss is about. Follow us on Facebook to take part in the mounting excitement as we launch Anthology teasers and competitions.

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We’ve been kind enough to put together a Young Writers’ Anthology poster for you, too, whether you want to put them up in your school, or your outlet. Click here to check it out, or click here to get a custom poster done for your school or outlet from our design team.