WEALTH OF IDEAS

Petina Gappah has been shortlisted for the 2009 Frank O'Connor Short Story Award. Below are the details of this update. The quotes are from the Award's website. "The award at 35,000 euro is the richest prize in the world for the short story form and is given annually to an original collection of stories judged to be the best. Previous winners have included Haruki Murakami, Miranda July, Jhumpa Lahiri and Yiyun Li. The award is organised by the Munster Literature Centre with generous funding from Cork City Council. Notable names edged out for a position on this year's shortlist include Booker winner Kazuo Ishiguro, Orange Prize winner Chimanda Ngozi Adiche, veteran short story authors Ali Smith, Mary Gaitskill and James Lasdun and reviewers' darling Sana Krasikov. The winner will be announced in Cork on September 20th at the closing ceremony of the tenth Frank O'Connor International Short Story Festival which is the oldest annual short story festival in the wor...

Carla Badillo Coronado, June 2009,dancing with the zuleta skirt This post features Carla Badillo Coronado, a poet, artist and dancer from Ecuador who is going to be part of the San Francisco International Poetry Festival. The same festival is going to feaure poets from more 21 countries, including Zimbabwe's Ignatius Mabasa. I will post an interview I did with Carla, but for now, let me feature of few photos of her at different dancing functions in her country. We are working to bring Carla to the Sacramento Poetry Center in August for her to perform her poetry and show her artwork. If all goes well, the same event will also feature Sacramento artist Mariana Castro de Ali. Carla with the "fueguito sagrado" (sacred fire). Carla Badillo Coronado performs with the group group Tullpucuna (which means "colors" in Quichua).The group is featured below: Carla has told me that her poetry and the dances celebrate her culture and ancestors. There much color in the festivi...

Yes, that's the title of a new novel coming to a booksore near you on September 15, 2009. Published by Okri Books of Chicago, the novel is by the esteemed Nigerian writer and scholar, Chielo Zona Eze, who teaches Postcolonial African Literature at Northeastern Illinois University. I just received my review copy, so Maupassant, Nabokov, and Flannery O'connor, I will have to take a brief break from you to nibble on this new treat! Description of Book : Unable to recall when exactly he died, Robert Mugabe is shocked to be in the presence of God for trial. Facing him are countless people who died during his regime. They tell their stories, after which God condemns him to hell. Mugabe suddenly wakes up, in Harare, realizing he just had a dreadful dream. Set in the African Afterlife, The Trial of Robert Mugabe tells the Zimbabwean story from the perspective of two iconic Zimbabwean writers, Yvonne Vera and Dambudzo Marechera.

Information about this unique international festival, which will feature Zimbabwe's Ignatius Mabasa, can be found at SFIPF. I am going to this one! About the Festival Mayor Gavin Newsom, San Francisco Poet Laureate emeritus Jack Hirschman, Friends of the San Francisco Public Library and the San Francisco Public Library present the second biennial San Francisco International Poetry Festival, July 23-27, 2009. The SFIPF takes place at the Palace of Fine Arts, public libraries and various venues throughout San Francisco. All events are free and open to the public. This year’s landmark event will be co-hosted by Hirschman, California Poet Laureate Carol Muske-Dukes and San Francisco Poet Laureate Diane di Prima. San Francisco Poet Laureate emeritus Lawrence Ferlinghetti will be presented with a special honor. Robert Mailer Anderson and Nicola Miner are the Honorary Chairs of the SFIPF. The festival honors San Francisco’s great legacy of hosting and encouraging cross cultural dialogue....

In my stories, I mention places, names, and concepts without always explaining them; I am driven by the belief that all places are equal, and that in them, life as it's known anywhere does happen. And if it's not familiar to some readers, it is still life in that story. I feel no obligation, therefore, to explain that Mazvihwa is a place near Zvishavane, which is a town in the Midlands of Zimbabwe. I will let a story about a Jakove, a Mukomberi, or a Sithole unfold, and expect the right reader to enjoy the story, or at least experience what Jakove experiences. But, in several workshop environments in the United States, there have been some cases of readers failing to make sense of a story because it has a name like Chimanimani in the first sentence, or lately, "Why didn't we know in the first sentence that SRB means Strong Rural Background?" etc... oh, then I sometimes will give characters names like Mai Vanji, Mukoma Chakuti: "What's that?" Of cour...

Second from right, Indigo Moor . Let me congratulate my friend and fellow poet Indigo Moor for winning the Inaugural CAVE CANEM NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY PRESS POETRY PRIZE. Northwestern Press, Cave Canem, this is a big deal. Below is the entire copy of the press release announcing the results: NEW YORK, NY (June 5, 2009) — Cave Canem Foundation, Inc., North America’s premier “home for Black Poetry,” is pleased to announce that Indigo Moor has received the inaugural Cave Canem Northwestern University Press Poetry Prize for his manuscript, Through the Stonecutter’s Window , selected by Reginald Gibbons, Parneshia Jones and John Keene. Northwestern University Press will publish the collection in March 2010. Honorable Mentions were given to Remica L. Bingham and JoAnne McFarland for their manuscripts, What We Ask of Flesh and Acid Rain, respectively. Combining the efforts of the two organizations to celebrate and publish works of lasting cultural value and literary excellence, the prize i...

Nnenna Okore, the talented and internationally acclaimed sculptor and installation artist, returns to Nigeria to hold her first major art exhibition beginning June 20th, 4pm, at the Goethe Institut in Lagos. After a successful series of exhibitions at galleries in the US and the UK, the Assistant Professor of Art at North Park University, Chicago will bring her vibrant and constructive approach to sculptural and installation art to a keen Nigerian art audience. The exhibition will be opened by her former professor and mentor at the University of Nsukka and famed art sculptor in his own right El Anatsui. conjoined by N. Okore Nnenna often uses materials found in urban environments. Her artworks reflect the way that natural and man-made materials evolve, decay and transform, while other pieces can take on the character and flowing shape of traditional woven cloths or elements of nature. She has received several awards and residencies worldwide, and has been exhibited in several prestig...

Here is a schedule of Chimamanda N. Adichie's US Tour of The Thing Around Your Neck . I will go either to the Menlo Park, CA (June 30) or the July 1 San Francisco one. Ignatius Mabasa comes to San Franciso July 25, then shortly after, Oliver Mtukudzi might be touring the Bay Area too (as has been his annual tradition).

In this post I interview Marcellina Chikasha, the founder of a reading initiative called TALENT. She was brought to my attention by Ivor W. Hartmann , after I complained in a blog post that all the big literary contests, judged by big writers like J.M. Coetzee were not reaching Africa's disadvantaged, especially the talented ones in the rural areas. Well, I got in touch with Marcellina and requested that we chat about this issue. Enjoy. 1. What is the idea behind the African Book Fan Club? This Book Club is now known as TALENT (Tavavanhu African Literature Enterprise). The idea behind the book club is to promote African Literature. How many of us Africans, by whatever definition, can quote glibly from a Shakespearean novel? Even our fathers are able to give us a line or two from Hamlet . How many schools, post-independence, still have Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and Shakespeare as set authors for literature? I grew up being bombarded by alien quotes from my university-educated A...

I know we are the creators of the characters. We have the power to make them protagonists, to make them nameless anti-heroes, and often we are too controlling and subject them to our will, so that they operate like puppets we manipulate. As I revise some of my stories, I am learning that encountering my characters like personalities I didn't create helps me see things from their perspective. Take Tendi, for instance. She nearly ruined my story when she suddenly used an American profanity. She is based in Mazvihwa, and although she has been a temporary teacher in the Gudo area, she has not lived in the city, nor has she ever travelled abroad. I doubt that she has seen any television in her life, although, as a former temporary teacher, she could have a good idea what a TV looks like, what it does, etc. She suprised me at a crucial moment of the story. I want to interview her. And let her answer her questions fully. She knows what she knows, and I realize that if I do a good job, wha...

The next issue of Munyori Literary Journal will feature interviews on the recent Dambudzo Marechera Festival at Oxford. Among the writers interviewed is Memory Chirere, who presented a paper on the influence of Marechera on University of Zimbabwe undergratuate literature majors. Below is an excerpt: Question : The Standard report stated that your presentation was on the influence of Marechera on UZ undergraduates. What influence has Marechera had on these literature students? Do they appreciate him more than previous generations? What books of Marechera, for instance, do they read these days at the UZ? Memory Chirere : At UZ’s English department we read various Marechera texts at different levels. I talked specifically about how the first contact with Marechera literature, especially the novella House of Hunger is a moment of transformation for our undergraduate students. For the whole Marechera series, students rarely miss classes or come late and you are assured of a full house. Read...

The Bookaholic Blog has featured me as a blogger of the month. Thank you Bella et Tayo! Visit The Bookaholic Blog and read the brief interview they did with me and one of my shortest poems,"A Sack of Words", originally featured at One Ghana, One Voice , and published by Northern California's Rattlesnake Review (2008). The Bookaholic Blog, operated from Lagos, Nigeria, is a fast-growing blog which features great information on writing and other arts. The bloggers follow an interactive approach, so you can join in the discussions and even follow them.

Toni Morrison on the dangers of censorship . Books are sacred, authors are humanity's necessity. Marilynne Robinson wins the 2009 Orange Prize . When it comes to writing, she takes her time, letting the story gestate even for decades. I have always broswed this author's works; now it's time to take her seriously. She teaches creative writing at University of Iowa. Short story master Alice Munro wins the Man Booker prize. This is good news for the short story genre. A growing number of well-known Zimbabwean writers are turning to Lion Press Ltd. David Mungoshi, Christopher Mlalazi, Joyce Makwenda, Ignatius Mabasa, are among the many whose books are being published by the UK-based, Zimbabwean small press. Below is a partial list of some of the upcoming titles: Coming in June The Man, Shaggy Leopard and Jackal and other stories by Ignatius Tirivangani Mabasa Divorce Token by Joyce Jenje-Makwenda In Pursuit of an African Dream by Fritz KanyileKa-Ngwenya Coming out in Sept...

Presents C. E. Chaffin Monday June 8, 2009 at 7:30 PM HQ for the Arts 1719 25th Street Host: Emmanuel Sigauke Craig Erick Chaffin goes by his initials because he doesn't like his first name, though he is trying to make peace with it now. Born in Ventura, California, in 1954, he graduated from UCLA in 1976, Summa Cum Laudanum, winning the top honors award in English, The Edward Niles Hooker Award, though he was not in the honors program. He later taught Family Medicine at UCI and was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians before the age of 40. Due to chronic spinal pain and manic-depression, he elected to retire on disability from medicine in his early 40s, which led to his discovery of the literary internet. He published, and edited, The Melic Review: a journal that distinguished i...

Commenting on my poetry collection, Forever Let Me Go , a good friend of mine pointed out that he was a bit disappointed that the only Zimbabwean author alluded to in the poems is Dambudzo Marechera. He feared that this tendency is a growing one among contemporary Zimbabwean writers and academics, but it may do a disservice to all the writers who have influenced new Zimbabwean literature. It seems every new writer is being measured according to Marechera standards, so, for instance, Ignatius Mabasa is the Marechera of Shona literature, Christopher Mlalazi's work has its Marechera moments, and Brian Chikwava is a walking Marechera, or his nameless narrator is a reincanation of Marechera, etc. I like the critique as it refers to a potentially damaging image of African literature, of taking only a handful of African writers and using them as the models for and only representations of the full extent of African writing. According to my friend, there is more diversity in African writin...