Nick Mulgrew's 'The First Law of Sadness' is shortlisted for the Nadine Gordimer Award 2018

David Philip Publishers is proud to announce that Nick Mulgrew’s collection of short fiction, The First Law of Sadness, has been shortlisted for the Nadine Gordimer Short Story Award at the 2018 South African Literary Awards (SALAs).

The SALAs aim to pay tribute to writers who have “distinguished themselves as groundbreaking producers and creators of literature.” Categories awarded in any year may include the First-time Published author award or the K Sello Duiker Memorial award, among others. The Nadine Gordimer Short Story award celebrates exponents of short fiction writing in South Africa. The winners of the awards will be announced in early November.

The First Law of Sadness is a collection of startling imagination and sympathy – set primarily in South Africa’s least fashionable cities and suburbs – these stories maintain a precarious balance between rich comedy and despair throughout their explorations of grief, spectacle, sex, nostalgia, and the lives of animals, both human and not. The collection includes “Robot Run”, a series of photographs by Michael Tymbios.

In 2017, a story from Mulgrew’s debut collection, Stations, received the Thomas Pringle Award for Short Stories. Stations was also shortlisted for the Nadine Gordimer award last year and longlisted for the Edge Hill Prize in the UK.

Stations and The First Law of Sadness are available for purchase directly from the publisher online.