At an august ceremony held during the proceedings of the Publishers Association of South Africa Annual General Meeting, Elinor Sisulu, Founder and Executive Director of the Puku Children’s Literature Foundation was awarded the Nick Perren Lifetime Achievement Award for 2024. The Award consists of an ornate, engraved trophy, a notarized certificate honoring the occasion and a cash component.
As a way of recognizing an individual that has made a significant difference to the freedom of expression that the Late Nick Perren was a valiant and prolific proponent throughout his life from his early work on the African continent to later endeavours as UK Publishers Association representative to the Federation of European Publishers (FEP), International Publishers Association (IPA) as well as many other contributions to the global book sector including stints as a Non-Executive Director of the famed Waterstones bookshop, Chairman of both Profile Books and Laurence King Publishing. Nick’s own imprint John Murray was eventually acquired by Hachette.
The late Nick Perren was also a board-member of famed British bookseller Waterstones that lead the e-book revolution amongst traditional shops by pioneering e-reader solutions for UK customers.
Amongst the Nick Perren Foundation-PASA (NPF-PASA) Lifetime Achievement Award Committee members are Brian “the Brain” Wafawarowa out-going President of PASA, Mr Jerome Davis, Ms Terry Morris of Pan-Macmillan SA, and Mr Roy Mansell. The award presentation was at the PASA AGM on the 22nd August 2024 at the Southern Sun Hotel in Newlands, Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa.
The award committee considered stringent criteria as prescribed by the late Nick Perren’s Foundations’ guidelines in consultation with his widow Roberta Perren.
Selecting from notable individuals in South Africa who have really made a mark in the publishing world. The nominee for the Nick Perren prize should have been a game-changer in the industry for many years, covering any key areas of publishing and all sectors represented by PASA.
The award committee is said to have considered eligible persons exhibiting:
- Major impact and influence on the industry
- Long-term service to the industry and related fields, going beyond just their job requirements
- Developing colleagues and industry members through leadership, guidance, encouragement, mentoring, and training
Basically, the Nick Perren award is about celebrating an amazing career, not just the length of time a candidate has been around.
Previous winners of the award are a veritable honor roll of literature sector visionaries including Marie and David Philip of David Phillip Publishers and New Africa Books, Stephen Johnson of Penguin Random House and Lieze Kotze of Oxford University Press.
The stated goal is to recognize a track record of excellence and service to the publishing industry and so children’s book author and literacy activist Elinor Sisulu eminently qualifies having dedicated her life to the task of improving the Southern African literary landscape specifically for children as well as raising the profile indigenous, mother-tongue languages. The foundation she heads has achieved significant milestones under her leadership, not least winning the UNESCO King Sejong Prize of 2021 as well as fostering international collaborations with global institutions including the Kalimat Group headed by Her Excellency Sheikha Bodour bint Sultan Al Qasimi.
Puku Children’s Literature Foundation is dedicated to ensuing access to quality children’s books in African languages as South Africa tackles a reading and children’s comprehension challenge of crisis proportions according to various sources. Elinor is a member of the National Reading panel and was a participant in discussions of the National Reading Barometer. In the last calendar year, Ms Sisulu’s Foundation has facilitated student-teacher training book review workshops in collaboration with Rhodes University Faculty of Education in efforts to overcome the hurdles at grass roots where it is needed. Puku is also developing a superior online children’s book selection tool powered by book sector internationally standardized enhanced Onix metadata. Quality reviewed book information that can be shared between business-to-business and business-to-consumer systems across the book value chain from publishers, to librarians, to booksellers and onto teachers, guardians and parents of children.
It is a fitting award to an exceptional warrior for quality children’s literature during South Africa’s Women’s Month.
