The contest is arranged especially for adults and secondary school learners who have not yet published, as well as those who have previously published for remuneration. Participants must submit one or more original essays, narratives, short short stories, short stories or poetry in Afrikaans on prescribed, interesting subjects. Entries are adjudicated completely anonymously.

Apart from attractive money prizes, four floating-trophies for schools are at stake. The school which sends in the most entries, wins an additional R1 000! The competition consists of four categories: three prose categories and one poetry category. Category A consists of prose for learners (Juniors: Grade 8 and 9) and (Seniors: Grade 10 to 12). Category B is an open category for writers who have not previously published, Category C is an open category for writers who have previously published short prose for remuneration. Category D is a poetry category for published and unpublished writers. Entries from learners in Category A should be no more than 1 000 words in length; entries by adults should be no longer than 2 500 words and poets should submit poems of no longer than 40 lines. In each category there are attractive money prizes, as well as an incentive prize (also a money prize) for a participant whose mother tongue is not Afrikaans.

Furthermore, all prize winners may attend a workshop for budding writers presented by the Bloemfontein Writers’ Association in August 2010 free of charge. The workshop presenter for 2010 is the famous dr. P.G. du Plessis – an event not to be missed! All the prize-winning entries will be published in Inkvars 2010, a household publication of the Bloemfontein Writers’ Association. The contest is administered with the support of the National Afrikaans Literary Museum and Research Centre in Bloemfontein. The contest was held for the first time on a nation-wide basis in 1989 and has since grown to become the biggest of its kind in the country.

All entries must be accompanied by a prescribed entry form. To obtain this form as well as full particulars of the contest and the subjects, contact Mrs Christa Jordaan at (051) 5229155 (office hours), or ms Lelani Fourie at 0733883377, or contact us at [email protected] to obtain the entry form electronically.