M-Net Literary Awards were a group of South African literary awards, awarded from 1991 to 2013. They were established and sponsored by

M-Net M-Net (an abbreviation of Electronic Media Network) is a South African pay television channel established by Naspers in 1986. The channel broadcasts both local and international programming, including general entertainment, children's series, ...

(Electronic Media Network), a South African television station. The award was suspended indefinitely after the 2013 season. In the awards' fourth year, an award for indigenous African languages was inaugurated, alongside the original English and

Afrikaans Afrikaans is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language spoken in South Africa, Namibia and to a lesser extent Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and also Argentina where there is a group in Sarmiento, Chubut, Sarmiento that speaks the Pat ...

awards, to encourage writing in indigenous languages. In subsequent years there were six language categories, covering all eleven official South African languages: English;

; Nguni ( Zulu, Xhosa, Ndebele, and Swati);

SeSotho Sotho (), also known as ''Sesotho'' (), Southern Sotho, or ''Sesotho sa Borwa'' is a Southern Bantu languages, Southern Bantu language spoken in Lesotho as its national language and South Africa where it is an official language. Like all Ba ...

( Sotho, Pedi, and Tswana); TshiVenda; and SeTsonga. In 2005, a Film award was introduced, for novels that novels that showed promise for translation into a visual medium. Three Lifetime Achievements Awards were also given: to Mazisi Kunene (2005), Cynthia Marivate (2006), and Mzilikazi Khumalo (2007). In their early years, the M-Net Awards were notable among South African literary awards for considering, under their judging criteria, not only literary merit but also "strong narrative content" and "accessibility to a broad reading public." They were also, in the 1990s, the best remunerated literary awards in South Africa. From 2011, winners received a prize of R50 000, up from R30,000 in previous years.The 2011 M-Net Literary Awards Winners"
. Books LIVE. Retrieved 21 June 2011. Until 2010, the Awards were announced at the same event as the Via Afrika Awards (previously known as the Nasboek Literary Awards), which are ongoing as the Media24 Books Literary Awards.

Award winners

References

{{Reflist

External links

M-Net Literary Awards
''African Book Awards Database'', Indiana University South African literary awards Awards established in 1991 1991 establishments in South Africa South African fiction awards South African literary events Awards disestablished in 2013 2013 disestablishments in South Africa