Please stand firm on Ronge
A VERY distinguished list of literary people appended their names to a letter opining that naming the Sunday Times fiction prize after Barry Ronge was inappropriate and “confusing”.
“Confusing”? Maybe novelists are easily confused. It could be regarded as confusing, then, that the nonfiction award is named for Alan Paton, a writer best known for his profound works of fiction (it is the luminous novel Cry, The Beloved Country on which his fame rests).
Do novelists such as Donna Tartt find it confusing to receive a prize for their literature that is named for a great reporter and publisher, Joseph Pulitzer? Have women novelists spent years being confused about entering their works for the Orange Prize, named for a telecoms company?
Inappropriate? Ronge helped to found these awards. It is thanks, in great part, to him that they exist and flourish. Through his dedicated support, through his commitment to compering these awards over more than 20 years, he helped to shape them, advance them, make them the grand and important event on the literary calendar they now are. Had he never written a word himself, that would make him a worthy recipient of this honour.
As for the suggestion that this award should be named after some South African writer . . . I believe that any of the choices mentioned could be seen as divisive — Bessie Head, acclaimed as a Botswana writer? Olive Schreiner, who was white? Zakes Mda and Nadine Gordimer, both still alive and therefore potential recipients themselves?
It is far better to name the award for someone who worked to advance the cause of writing in this country, rather than a writer. So he was not a writer of fiction, nor a prolific critic of fiction. Nor were the mentors who sent many writers on their way: teachers and lecturers, librarians and bookish adults who encouraged small children to read, or storytellers who fired their imaginations. Ronge, in helping to found and strengthen these awards, was a nurturer in this vein. I hope you stand firm in your decision to honour him. — A Shackleton, Roodepoort