Feeling towards the Contemporary: Judging New South African Fiction

The awarding of a prize to a work of art is meant to convey something about the value of that work in the world. But art prizes always provoke questions that evade easy answering: what purpose do prizes serve? What visions of life are promoted when we choose one book over another? How do the judges arrive at their choices? This response tells a partial story about the process of judging a literary award and what informs the event of decision-making. I frame the exercise as an illuminating immersion in the mood and feeling of the literature currently being published in South Africa.