In line with promoting both academic and creative writing among students, DUT Writing Centres will be running a writing competition. The competition is a student development initiative and all DUT full-time undergraduates with a passion for writing are eligible. This year’s competition is in honour of Zanemvula Kizito Gatyeni Mda, popularly known as Zakes Mda, who is a South African novelist, poet, playwright and academic.
The competition will be divided into three genres, namely short stories, poetry and essays (opinion pieces). The broad theme for the competition is African Heritage and the sub-themes are as follows:
• Africa
• Society
• Culture
• Language
• Love
• Peace
• Unity
• Democracy
• Education
• Human rights
• Social justice
All students need to do in the first round of the competition is to submit, using their DUT4life e-mail account, a short story or children’s story in English or an essay/opinion piece of not more than 500 words or a short poem not longer than one page (1.5 spacing, 12pt, Times New Roman) to Ms Shahieda Kraft at shahiedak@dut.ac.za not later than the 4th June 2018. The students’ sample writing should be accompanied by an application form collectable from any of the Writing Centres. It should be guided by one or more of the above sub-themes.
To increase a students’ chance of progressing to the next round, they are encouraged to consult with Writing Centre tutors. Furthermore, a free of charge workshop will be facilitated by renowned and experienced creative writers on a date and time to be advised shortly. The aim of the mentorship workshop is to give the competition participants an opportunity to hone their creative writing skills through working closely with seasoned writers.
There are exciting prizes to be won such as a brand-new laptop, to name but a few.
To learn more about this year’s writing competition, call (031) 3736735 or e-mail Ms Shahieda Kraft on shahiedak@dut.ac.za.
Pictured: Zakes Mda, South African novelist, poet, playwright and academic.
Photo sourced from: (SA Booksellers).
Shahieda Kraft
