The South African novelist Zachariah Rapola (IWP, '00) is the recipient of the 2008 Noma Prize, awarded by the prominent Japanese Kodansha House to an African work published in Africa, for his collection Beginnings of Dream.

The book has been described as "a strikingly original collection" focusing on "the interior world of its characters". Rapola is a freelance writer and filmmaker born and raised in Alexandra, Johannesburg.

The National Arts Council of South Africa awarded him a fellowship to the University of Iowa International Writing Program in 2000. In 2001 his widely acclaimed youth novel Stanza on the Edge was published, and he is currently developing a television series based on the novel. His short stories and poetry have been published in magazines and anthologies, and he has also written for a BBC/SABC comedy series.