The Search for the Rarest Bird in the World, was long-listed for the 2015 Sunday Times Alan Paton Literature Prize, and has been translated into Arabic and other languages. A Tree for the Birds, was long-listed for the Sunday Times Barry Ronge Fiction Prize and short-listed for the National Institute of Humanities & Social Sciences 2020 Fiction Prize. His poetry has been long-listed for the Sol Plaatje European Union Poetry Prize in 2014, 2017, and again in 2019.

He has an MA in Creative Writing (UCT) and writes for various international literary magazines. His latest novel, On that Wave of Gulls, won South Africa’s prestigious Cultural & Creative Industries Award for ‘Outstanding Fiction Book 2024’, a national award, bestowed on him by the South African Government, and described by the judges as a ‘raging, raving masterpiece’, and internationally by Prof. Bert Almon of Alberta University as ‘ Faulknerian in scope, and a worthy tribute to the Nobel prize-winning poet Derek Walcott.’ Vernon is presently working on a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Pretoria.