Winner of the 2025 Woordfees Short Story Competition announced

With Herschelle Benjamin as host in the Hofmeyr Hall in Stellenbosch, which was packed with writers and literature enthusiasts, Tarina Jordaan was announced on Saturday evening as the winner of the Stellenbosch Woordfees’ tenth annual short story competition, selected from 371 entries.

Jordaan receives a total of R30 000 courtesy of EasyEquities, and each writer whose work is included in the anthology receives R5 000, as well as an EasyEquities investment account with R500 to invest. Twenty-three stories were included in the anthology, including works by Jolyn Phillips, Lynthia Julius, and Sisca Julius. The collection always carries the title of the Woordfees theme. This year it is Deel (Share), which ties in with the festival’s celebration of 25 years of storytelling, art, culture, and expression.

The publication of the volume was made possible with support from PEN Afrikaans.

The enthusiastic Suzette Myburgh, convener of the judging panel since the competition’s inception in 2016, shared with the audience more about the selection process for this anthology, which over the past decade has become a literary institution and serves as a kind of yearbook through which Afrikaans writers reflect something of their time.

Jordaan joked that she only started writing her winning story nine days before the deadline and couldn’t stop talking about the endless support of her husband and her mother. Her husband had come to her rescue many times – once when she forgot a pot of peanuts on the stove and nearly burned the house down – while her mother has proofread everything she’s ever written. “That poor woman has had to slog through so many stories!”

According to Jordaan, the protagonist, Max, had shown up a few months before the deadline, “but she just sat there and didn’t want to tell me her story.”

“So I started listening to music that I thought gave her the vibe I wanted to capture on paper. It was the lyrics of Loreena McKennitt that made me realize – this is the story!”

Her experience as an immigrant in Antwerp was the major underlying inspiration. “Like the protagonist, I was also worried when following the news, but remained hopeful that I would still be welcome abroad.”

Jordaan is overwhelmed by the prize and wants to buy herself a new laptop on which she hopefully will write many more wonderful short stories.

This year’s anthology, as well as those from previous years, are available for purchase at Exclusive Books and, during the Woordfees, also at the Exclusive Books Bookstore at Die Khaya.

– By: Dianne du Toit Albertze