I’d like to wish Lauren Beukes my utterly ecstatic congratulations on winning the Arthur C. Clarke award for Zoo City last night!
As a South African I’m particularly proud of her – this is a really amazing thing for South African writers and writing, and for the budding ‘genre’ that is South African speculative fiction. Lauren Beukes changed the way I saw SA fiction when she released Moxyland in 2008, doing away with the unfortunate stereotype that SA fiction is ‘all about Apartheid’ – the impression a lot of South Africans got from reading only the dense, painful political fiction prescribed in schools and universities. But Lauren and other writers have proven that SA fiction, while still political (as it should be) can also be awesome, edgy and fun.
In celebration of Lauren’s win I’m giving away a copy of Zoo City – the really cool edition with an award-winning cover. Designed by artist Joey Hi-Fi, it won best cover art at the British Science Fiction Awards.
To enter, subscribe to Violin in a Void (if you haven’t already) using either the email subscription or WordPress subscription functions, and leave a comment on this post. Subscribing via RSS feed or similar doesn’t count and such entries will be ignored.
Entries close on 12 May. The winner will be chosen using random.org and notified via email. Good luck!
