WEALTH OF IDEAS

The Sacramento Bee Book Club will be hosting Zimbabwean-born author, Alexander McCall Smith, at the Pavilions Shopping Center near, not in, Borders Bookstore. Although I am not a reader of the detective series (you can't read everything), I plan to attend this April 25 event. But wait, I will be already at a writers' conference where I am teaching workshops on the making of a story. And talking of the making of a story, the idea of the Number 1 Lady detective agency is fantastic. The concept, the idea of detective stories set in Africa; that seems to be one of the latest sexy things about Africa nowadays, next to celebrities acquiring Malawian orphans. Worthy causes both. In fact, I have often lamented the near-absence of tangible genre literature in Africa and, it seems, Alexander McCall Smith has opened up a phenomenon in detective stories that may soon rival what J.K. Rowling has done with wizardry. And new African writers are also already establishing their names in the det...

This blog will be featuring specials on poetry in April. I will be posting book reviews, poet interviews and more coverage of poetry events. I will be hosting a second Monday poetry reading at the Sacramento Poetry Center, featuring local poets Dennis Hock and Lisa Dominguez Abrahams, who are also my colleagues at Cosumnes River College. Lisa appeared in the premier issue of Munyori Literary Journal , back when it was Munyori Poetry Journal; you can see the interview I did with her by clicking on Lisa Dominguez Abraham . Dennis Hock has a book that came out last year, which I will try to review before the reading (so much stuff to review, but it's all good). So maybe on April 1st, I will feaure an interview with Sacramento poet and artist, Jennifer Pickering. I talked with her today and she thought the idea was fantastic. National Public Radio will be featuring her art at their Sac State Center. Plans are underway to interview Julia Connor, the current Sacramento Poet Laureate. I k...

In September, 2007, I complained about why the people who nominate writers for prizes were not nominating Ngugi for the Nobels, Bookers, Man Bookers and others. In a post entitled "Ngugi wa Thiongo and These Literary Awards", I talked about how I thought his works deserve recognition, that his commitment to African literature and to translation was worth something along the lines of these big prizes. And I was serious. So now I am just thrilled to see his name as one of the contenders for the 2009 Man Booker Prize, which Achebe won in 2007. Just the other day I was rereading Petals of Blood , and told myself I need to re-read all of Ngugi. I haven't read Ngugi outside of Africa, so I feel I may have a different (I don't know) understanding of his works. Like how Marechera's works resonated to me differently reading them here than when I had read them in Zimbabwe, finding out there was more that I could relate with in works like The Black Insider , or if there was ...

Rudolfo Anaya : I don't like research. I think research is harmful for the writer. It's not harmful to a presentation like Michener makes. He can go out and research material and then put it in his own words and incorporate it in a story, but for my search for who I am and the story that I want to tell about those findings, I don't think research is needed. In research you wind up telling somebody else's story or somebody else's idea. [ This is an extract from an interviw Anaya did with David Apodaka and David Johnson in 1979. Anaya is the renowed Chicano writer based in New Mexico. I compared his novel The House of Aztlan with Sembene Ousemane's God's Bits of Wood in a paper once for a class called "Aesthetics of Minority Literature"; I had never once considered Sembene a minority author.]

As I process the review of Harare Noth by Brian Chikwava, which I plan to post or publish somewhere (anywhere), let me share my excitement (again) about this book and the direction Zimbabwean literature is taking. Harare North is one of a few soon-to-be released (April 2) books I throw in the trunk of my car when I visit friends,fellow Zimbabweans or other Africans especially, because at such gatherings there is always one person who will remember that either I write or I talk about books often. I end up running to my car to fetch a book to share something about it with the person. The last time this happened I was with a small group of close friends from Zimbabwe, so I had the chance to read a few paragraphs from Harare North . I always feel that sharing information about such new publications I may influence the target audience of Zimbabweans, especially those in the Diaspora, to order copies for themselves (I don't see myself lending my heavily annotated copy to anyone). I ca...

I am working on a review of Adichie's new book, The Thing Around Your Neck , which I just finished reading. So far I have posted a partial review on Moments in Literature , which focuses only on the last two stories of the book, and hints at my view of the other stories. I enjoyed these stories (they occupied much of my weekend and I have no regrets). Simple little gems about life in America, in Nigeria,and other places. Each story will take you on a rewarding expedition; whether it is about a new housewife who joins her husband in America,where she discovers she loves a woman, an African American artist whose child she babysits; or the story of a young writer who attends an African Writers workshop in South Africa, funded by the British Council, where she discovers she cannot produce an acceptable story unless it meets the agenda of the sponsors; or a teenager at the Nsukka campus of the University of Nigeria where all the professors' sons are so bored by life there that they ...

I recently joined the growing world of tweeting on Twitter , and I have been posting status updates in 140 characters, often failing to update because I have writtern in 141 or more characters. While content may sound like what telegrams used to, or like some text messages, the sizing down or up of the text sometimes requires poetic skills. You find yourself seeking the precise word, a metaphor, or beautiful, but concise, or even messy, phrase that fits within the character limit. Twitter describes itself as "a free service that lets you keep in touch with people through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?" These short broadcasts are similar to Facebook Status updates, where you may just post something about yourself, a frustration you have or what you are doing; some type of speaking to yourself, which to some may appear moronic, but in the world of constant status updates, when things like, "OMG, I'm an idiot!"...

Tinashe Mushakavanhu talks to Namibian poet, musician, playwright and charity worker Christi Warner who says if she was the President love would have its own ministry.

Here is a literary agent who believes that writers should be happy, and he has ten commandments for the happy writer : 1. Enjoy the present. 2. Maintain your integrity. 3. Recognize the forces that are outside of your control. 4. Don't neglect your friends and family. 5. Don't Quit Your Day Job. 6. Keep up with publishing industry news. 7. Reach out to fellow writers. 8. Park your jealousy at the door. 9. Be thankful for what you have. 10. Keep writing. Visit his superblog and read his explanations for each of the commandments.

Mahmood Mamdani reads from his newly released book. The Herbert Lehman Professor of Government and of Anthropology Columbia University Friday / April 10 / 7:30 pm at the Berkeley Arts & Letters at the Berkeley City Club 2315 Durant Ave in Berkeley / Directions: http://www.berkeleycityclub.com/ Saviors and Survivors invites the reader to rethink the lesson of Rwanda in light of Darfur. It is a warning to those who would act first and understand later. Part One discusses the nature of Save Darfur advocacy. Like the War on Terror from which it has borrowed its assumptions and coordinates, Save Darfur has turned into a lavishly funded and massive ad campaign spreading and sustaining a lethal illusion, consistently exaggerating the level of mortality and racializing the reasons for it. Why has Save Darfur not lost credibility even though its information is increasingly divorced from reality? A part of the answer lies in its ability to turn activism around Darfur into a domestic "f...

Winning stories and authors: The Baobab Prize for a work of fiction aimed at readers aged 8-11 years : Lauri Kubuitsile , Botswana. Story: "Lorato and her Wire Car" The Baobab Prize for a work of fiction aimed at readers aged 12-15 years: Ivor W. Hartmann , Zimbabwe. Story: Mr. Goop. The Baobab Prize for a rising writer aged 18 years or younger: Aisha Kibwana, Kenya. Story: Strange Visitors that took her life away. Shortlist for Stories for readers aged 8-11 years: - Good in the world by Marion Drew - The Story of my life by Fiona Moolla - Abena and the corn seed by Vivian Amanor - Live and Let Live by Jenny Robson Shortlist for Stories for readers aged 12-15years - Birthday Wishes by Lauri Kubuitsile - This Ubuntu thing by Jayne Bauling - Courage like a Lion by Jenny Robson - Whips, Tears and Blood by Mercy Adhiambo Shortlist for Rising writer Prize: - Tortoise and the thief by Michael Anim

Tinashe Mushakavanhu: Ruby Magosvongwe of the University of Zimbabwe has described “Zimbabwe as a short story country.” Do you agree/disagree? Why? Chris Mlalazi: It depends on the context this was said. Yes, Zimbabwe is currently producing a lot of short story anthologies, but this is only so, because as Irene Staunton of Weaver Press once remarked, publishing multi-authored anthologies is a chance for many writers to be published during a period of crisis, rather than publishers investing scant resources on single writers. There are many writers in the country with novel manuscripts – in fact, about 90% of the writers who have their short stories published have novel manuscripts waiting for publishers. Are we saying when our economic situation improves and the novels start coming out Zimbabwe will become a novel? I guess what Ruby Magosvongwe meant is that currently Zimbabwe is publishing a lot of short stories and not that writers are writing short stories only. Read the who...

On the 14th March 2009, "Earth Rise" by Ivor W. Hartmann was nominated for the international Ursa Major Award in the Best Short Fiction category. Ivor W. Hartmann is a Zimbabwean author, writing from economic exile in Johannesburg, South Africa. "Earth Rise" and its UMA nomination, represent a major step for African Literature. Firmly set in the genre of Speculative Science Fiction,it shines a welcoming light for African writers to expand from traditional genres, which seem to restrain African Literature. In Ivor Hartmann's words, "African genre fiction, which was a sleeping lion, is now changing. Already if you listen carefully, you can hear the start of our African Roar." As described by Jim Steel of The Fix (TTA Press, the publisher of Interzone, Black Static, Crimewave,): "Ivor W. Hartmann’s “Earth Rise” starts with a man waking in his coffin. Obviously we must then travel back and explore his life. Everyone will end up here, but what, ...

Read some advice on how to edit your stories at the Blood-red Pencil Blog , which receives contributions from a group of editors and writers. It is a very helpful source of information on writing. You can never have too much of such practical advice. There is this great process called "editing yourself into print". Editors always appreciate work that looks polished, especially in the context of literary journals where the publishable work is selected by editorial committees who vote on which works to include. Often, these editors have no time to make or suggest editorial changes. They hare dealing with hundreds of entries, a good number of which is already polished. Here is the approach I am using as I re-read my old manuscripts: 1. Approach the story like an enemy 2. Look for things that are wrong with the story 3. Don't trust the sentences that look and sound beautiful; language can be a wicked, and some words cannot be trusted with the duty of conveying meaning. 4. Wat...

Most people do it; one in a while they go to the Google search window and type their names. I could be curiosity, to see if someone has mentioned them, or just for fun because nearly everyone does it. Just do it; "google thyself", says blogger Straight from Hel , who has an aggressive approach to social networking. She is writing a series of articles on the benefits of networking for writers, and is an advocate for widening the web of networks: You want to know where you’re being talked about or where others have linked to you. Why? So you can go visit them. So you can include them in your blog roll. So you track how you’re doing on your social networking quest .

Looking at the search engine terms people use to find my blog Moments in Literature , I can see that a lot of searches feature the phrase "famous characters in literature". We know them: Ishmael, Ahab (in Melville), the Old Man in Charles Mungoshi, Benjie, Quentin, Caddie (in William Faulkner), Tambudzai in Tsitsi Dangarembga, and many others. Last year I attempted a Google Knol on Famous Characters in African Literature and even began discussing Tambudzai, but then I got too busy and shelved the idea. If search engine terms show that there are people looking for famous characters in literature, there is an opportunities for bloggers! Just take one character at a time and cast him or her as a famous character in literature, some type of mini-biographies for the characters in the literature we love.

I have been following the series of interviews held by Poets & Writers Magazine on the secrets of the publishing world, and I have found them useful. To get a taste of the thinking that guides editors and agents in their busy work, read this interview: Question : Every reader understands the feeling of falling in love with a book. You guys do that for a living. I'm curious if you've given any thought to the specific things that can trigger that experience. GARGAGLIANO : I don't know if there's a specific thing, but you know it immediately. The minute I start it I know that it's the book I want to fall in love with. And that's the one I keep reading. I will read a hundred pages of something else, but I won't fall in love with it. You have this immediate sense of texture and place, and you're just inside it from the first sentence. I think the thing that everybody says about first sentences is true. Everyone should try to get that first sentence perfec...

As I recover from Harare North (that sad, sad story), I am diving into The Thing Around Your Neck , a collection of short stories by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to be released by Alfred A. Knopf (N.Y.) on 26 June 2009. I know I read the title story somewhere on line a long time ago; I think it was on Prospect Magazine or Per Contra ;it dealt with the African Diaspora in the USA (what I would like to call Diasporic Adichie). A few poetry anthologies await my attention. I think I will start with Julia Connor's Oar , published by Rattlesnake Press,then Bill Vartnaw's Suburbs of My Childhood (Beatitude Press), and Kerry Shawn Keys' The Burning Mirror (Pressa Press). With the exception of Adichie's book, the others are from small presses, and I will read them in celebration of Small Presses Month, March. Remember, March is the same month that houses the World Book Day, and that means more reading, as Petina Gappah demonstrated by giving away some really good books. She is ...

I will be one of the faculty at this April 25 conference, offering workshops on "The Making of a Story". More information can be found at the Hart Center website.

In Karanga we say 'tava pedo', which means that we are close. I am talking about Munyori Literary Journal ; if all goes well on my computer, I should be able to post an evolving issue. Evolving in this case means I will continue to tweak it aftet it has been posted, although many readers will not notice the changes. Given what we have in store for you, it's no use keeping you waiting. We have: An interview with Petina Gappah An interview with Tanure Ojaide An essay by Memory Chirere on Southern Africa and the short story. An essay on Yvonne Vera by Ivor W. Hartmann A short story by Valerie Tagwira A short story by Catherine Mark-Beasant A short story by Naomi Benaron Lots of poetry News News We are happy with the content, but we will continue working on the design until we are satisfied. Join us to celebrate the launch of the first multi-genre issue of Munyori on March 9, 2009.

Artsinitiates is currently featuring one of my Mukoma stories.It's entitled "A Long Night", an excerpt of which is forthcoming in a new anthology of African writing published by Third World Press. The full story is featured on Artsinitiates .

Tonight I hosted a reading by Richard Loranger from San Francisco, and now I am restless, torn between poetry and fiction. I am working on several short story projects, but I also have the poetry manuscript, A Sack of Words , calling for my attention. And talking of words, Loranger's poetry uses them well. He treated us to the logic of teeth, seeing the world through all the teeth in one's mouth, each with its name and purpose in life, each acquiring human qualities, so that tooth number 32, for instance has a purpose that conflicts or complements that of tooth number 22. The teeth have names like "the rebel", "the addict" and so on, and when they tell their stories, life can just turn to something that grinds or is ground by beings that are more than teeth; chewing becomes a mastication of the truth, which should be chomped, ground, found, mauled, mailed... Oh, don't forget that because they chew and they cut and they grind, these teeth process reason, ...

The full title of the book is Method and Madness: The Making of a Story , a new edition just reprinted in 2009. It was originally published in 2007 just as The Making of a Story , but this edition emphasizes the two processes writers do as they create their works. There is the liberating phase of madness, which is the flow of ideas out of your creative recesses, in any order, as they want. It is madness,which leads to drafts. Once you have produced a draft, now you can say you are writing a story. LaPlante demonstrates that creative writing requires both madness and method, which represent creativity and craft. She argues that most writers cannot reconcile the two; some will produce very compelling drafts, as far as the creativity goes, but will fail in turning the them into well-crafted pieces. On the other extreme are those writers who have been trained in craft, who know what a short story is, but will produce well-crafted, yet boring stories. Perhaps in teaching people to write, ad...

March is small presses month. Events to celebrate independent publishers and journals will be held coast-to-coast in the United States. According to the Small Presess organization,"Small Press Month raises awareness about the need for broader venues of literary expression. From March 1st-31st, independent, literary events will take place from coast-to-coast, showcasing some of the most diverse, exciting, and significant voices being published today." Here is a video giving details of the kinds of events that have already been planned for the month: Remember too that as a reader or writer, you can support small presses by buying their books wherever they can be found, like poetry readings, writers' conference, but most importantly, online. You can also read journal like Munyori Literary Journal, The Pedestal, African Writing Online, StoryTime and others. These presses do the dirty work of discovering new writing talent and they deserve all the support we can give them. Bel...

This is not a review, but a sigh, now that I have finished reading the book. When I entered the world of the novel, seconds after I opened the padded envelop it came in, I was thinking about Brian Chikwava's "Seventh Street Alchemy", the Caine Prize-winning story which reads like a hurricane. I was ready for those words that dissolve on your tongue like some kind of candy, but you can imagine how I reacted when I read the following: "Never mind that he manage to keep me well fed for some time, but like many immigrant on whose face fate had drive on large peg and hang tall stories, Shingi had not only become poor bread-winner but he had now turn into big headache for me." Then I knew I had to buckle up because the ride would be bumby, and it has been, all the way to the end. I have a few things to say about this new addition to African literature in a review I am writing. But for now, read the novel's first sentence: "No one bother to give me proper tips...

Andy Jones has just announced that Rebecca Foust will perform at Bistro 33 in Davis on Wednesday, March 4. I attended her reading once in Sacramento and I can tell you she is one poet whose reading you wouldnt want to miss. She has earned degrees from Smith College, Stanford Law School, and the Warren Wilson MFA Program. Her poetry can be found in many national journals, including Margie and the North American Review, and in her two prize-winning books. Rebecca’s new book, Mom’s Canoe won the 2008 Robert Phillips Poetry Chapbook Award and will be released in March 2009 by Texas Review Press. It addresses family and place in the Allegheny Mountains of western Pennsylvania, an area of once-pristine rural landscapes now recovering from the last century’s extensive coal mining and railroading industries. Most of the poems were previously published in journals such as Margie, North American Review, Spoon River Poetry Review, and Texas Review, and one was nominated for a 2008 Pushcart Awar...