​​The University of Johannesburg (UJ) has awarded authors Ken Barris and Steven Boykey Sidley with the institution’s annual literary award for South African creative writing in English.​

Barris won UJ’s main prize for South African Writing in English, worth R75 000, for his novel Life Underwater. The noveltells the story of the three Machabeus brothers: Jude, Simon and younger Eli, first as children and teenagers, and then as grown men upon the death of their father.

Sidley took the R30 000 debut prize, also for a novel, Entanglement. The novel is about charismatic physicist, Jared Borowitz, who is fast losing his sense of humour.​ ​