A new funding round has opened under the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture’s Publishing Hub programme, offering grants to support writers, publishers and editors producing books in indigenous languages as well as Braille and audiobook formats.
The Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC), together with the Academic and Non-Fiction Authors’ Association of South Africa (ANFASA), has officially opened applications for the fourth cycle of the DSAC Publishing Hub - a programme that has already funded 91 books across indigenous languages, Braille and audiobook formats since its launch in 2023. For writers, publishers, and editorial professionals sitting on the fence: grant funding is available across all three application streams, with deadlines arriving in June.
The numbers from the first three cycles tell a clear story of growth. Twenty-four publishing companies have moved manuscripts through the programme. Seventy-nine editors, assessors, and language specialists across South Africa’s official languages have been supported to evaluate and develop new works. Entries have grown year on year - and the fourth cycle is the most ambitious yet, targeting new literary works.
Among the 91 published works to date: twelve exist in Braille and fifteen as audiobooks - extending South African storytelling to readers who are visually impaired and opening up audiences the publishing sector has historically struggled to reach. Perhaps most significantly, five titles have been published in Khoi and San languages - Khwedam, !Xuhnthali, and Nama - languages with almost no other formal publishing infrastructure in the country.
