Alumni literary awards news: August 2025
- Wits Alumni Relations
Witsies receive several accolades for their work as storytellers.
Campbell Meas
Campbell Meas (BA DA 2016) is the winner of the 2025 National Playwright Competition for her play Vakavigwa (Burials/They Were Buried).
Meas received R20 000 for her script and saw it premier at this year’s National Arts in Makhanda in July. The judges said, “Vakavigwa is a gripping and ambitious work that exemplifies the evolution of contemporary theatre. With its innovative use of multimedia integration and multi-plane storytelling, the play refuses to be confined to a conventional stage. Instead, it immerses the audience in an intricate theatrical experience that blends live performance with digital projections, layered soundscapes and dynamic staging.”
In a recent interview Meas said that she made so many good friends and working relationships at Wits. But her journey after has not been rosy: “You kind of just continue the hustle. And I use the word ‘hustle’ not in a happy way."
The accolade has been a special affirmation of her writing: “This has been an unexpected gift! I wasn't planning on entering at all, doubting that this was something I'd be right for. Throughout this period I've learnt to trust my instincts in how I choose to tell stories.”
Athol Williams
Athol Williams (BSc Eng 1992) is the winner of the 2025 Best Story for “The Ring Around Saturn” that appeared in the Short.Sharp.Stories anthology Power: Short stories that light the dark.
Short.Sharp.Stories is a platform showcasing established and emerging South African short story writers. For the 2025 anthology, writers imagined “power” in fictional terms – how it influences and affects, including political and personal power.
Williams is a poet and applied philosopher at Oxford University and “The Ring Around Saturn” is his third published short story. In 2023 he received the mayor's Medal for Extraordinary Bravery from the City of Cape Town, and in 2019 the Cultural Affairs Award for his contribution to the Literary Arts. In 2024, Hertford College, University of Oxford elected Williams an Honorary Fellow, their highest recognition. He has published seven books of poetry and twice been awarded first prize in the Sol Plaatje EU Poetry Contest. He is the author of the Oaky series of children’s books and three books of nonfiction. He is the founder of the Cape Flats Book Festival and recipient of the Cape Town Mayor’s Medal for Extraordinary Bravery for his anti-corruption activism. Read profile in Wits Review.
Judges described Williams’ contribution as a “beautifully crafted narrative that interweaves past and present, fantasy and reality, self and other. With whispers from the canon of Arabian Nights, the story-within-a-story becomes a narrative tapestry, as two outspoken protagonists, father and son, elucidate the power of the planets, of the personal, and the immense power of storytelling itself."
Kally Forrest
Kally Forrest (BA 1973, PhD 2006) who is a Society, Work and Politics Institute associate, won the 2025 National Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences Award for Best Non-Fiction Biography for her book Lydia: Anthem to the Unity of Women.
The biography follows the life of Lydia Komape (LLM honoris causa 2002), also known as Mam Lydia Kompe, with her family, friends, comrades and ancestors, from Limpopo and Johannesburg to Cape Town where Komape sat in Nelson Mandela’s parliament. Forrest’s book highlighted Komape’s pioneering feminist views and activities during the years of apartheid, as well as her leadership qualities, despite only having a grade 9 education. Judges described the book as “substantively South African”, and that it is presented “clearly, cogently and coherently”.
“The writing style is both accessible, and scholarly rigorous. The innovation lies in the focus on the life of a woman who has not yet received scholarly or popular attention as she deserves,” the judges said.
Forrest told Alumni Relations: “I was delighted to win this award which honoured the feisty independent land and labour activist Lydia Kompe. I hope she will now not be forgotten.”