Geko Mofolo Prize for Outstanding Fiction in Sesotho opens on 1 April every year. The Prize accepts manuscripts from all over the world – for fiction written in all Sesotho dialects and orthographies.

The Geko Mofolo Prize is intended to re-ignite interest and efforts in the reading and writing of new, imaginative, outstanding and original fiction in Sesotho in the new and modern age.  The work can be about any subject, theme or story.

The jury will consider a Sesotho manuscript that add to the language of Sesotho and its body of knowledge. The winning manuscript must show authenticity, brilliance of language and most of all, an ability to “add new words, meaning, proverbs and idioms to the language of Sesotho”. The work must be original – not a translation, transcreation or adaptation of existing work or canon. The manuscript must be a minimum of 25 000 words (there is no maximum length); written in any dialect, or orthography of Sesotho and can originate from anywhere in the world.

The winning manuscript will get a full publishing contract from Geko Publishing (Pty) Ltd. The resultant book will be marketed, distributed and sold by Geko Publishing and it’s trade partners. The jury panel will decide on secondary and subsidiary prizes to be awarded to the winning author.

The Prize is administered and awarded in South Africa and its submissions are open to all Basotho in the continent and in the diaspora. The award opens at the end of March and closes in July of every year. The winner is announced on 8 September every year, the anniversary of Thomas Mofolo passing in 1948. He was born on 22 December 1876, in Khojane, Leribe, Lesotho.

Thomas Mokopu Mofolo remains the greatest Basotho author of fiction. Mofolo was an accomplished author – and the first Mosotho to write a full-length novel in Sesotho. In 1907, he wrote Moeti oa Bochabela and in 1910, he wrote Pitseng. It was his Chaka (1925), that put him on the map. Chaka remains Mofolo’s best work, and a canon of African literature. The library at the National University of Lesotho is named the Thomas Mofolo Library in his honour.

The deadline is 31 July.
Submit your manuscripts here.

Visit Geko Mofolo Prize website for more details.