WEALTH OF IDEAS

The question of whether people of African descent can get along causes much debate whenever it arises. One of my composition classes at CRC has an African American emphasis, and often, over 90% of the students identify themselves as African American. My icebreaker for the class is a five-minute written exercise in which the students answer the question: "Are you African? Why or why not?" The answers are quite revealing, and get us to clear the ground as we get ready to trace the African American experience since 1619. One of the most popular answers I get is "I have African ancestors but I am American", and the next is, "I am just black, Africa-American is just a name." In a few cases, some respondents give the answer, "Not applicable." But what I like about all the responses is that they are a true reflection of a quest, or lack thereof, for a clear identity, and by the time we finish the discussion, the students often realize that their search ...

"1992 will be a year to remember. Not only is Zimbabwe threatened by drought, but we are rocked by dangerous levels of unemployment, widespread corruption, increasing crime...." (Moto Magazine, April 1992). And indeed, we witnessed workers losing jobs. Where I lived, a lot of the workers did not understand the economic changes impacting the country and they thought they were losing jobs because of some angry family spirits, or some bewitching enemies. So, of course, trips were made to traditional healers and diviners who told some of them what they needed to do to appease the ancestors. I saw the n'angas becoming richer; chicken and goats were sacrificed along Mukuvisi river in Harare. The stream that flowed from Willowvale Motor Industries, cutting through Glen View, rushing through Bonongwe forest to deliver its load to Mukuvisi, was crowded by what looked like crazy livestock that had been sacrificed to the spirits. It was a time of change, it was a time of confusion, ...

Petina Gappah's An Elegy for Easterly has been longlisted for the Guardian First Book Prize. An Elegy is also on the shortlist of the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award. The full list of contenders: The Secret Lives of Buildings Edward Hollis Direct Red Gabriel Weston The Strangest Man Graham Farmelo A Swamp Full of Dollars Michael Peel The Rehearsal Eleanor Catton The Wilderness Samantha Harvey The Girl With Glass Feet Ali Shaw The Selected Works of TS Spivet Reif Larsen An Elegy for Easterly Petina Gappah The Missing Siân Hughes The last time a Zimbabwean writer won the Guardian Fiction Prize was in 1979, when Dambudzo Marechera got it for House of Hunger .

On September 8, 2009, Little, Brown and Company (USA) is releasing The Boy Next Door by Geneva-based Zimbabwean author, Irene Sabatini, who grew up "gobbling up books from the [Bulawayo] public library". A graduate of University of Zimbabwe, Irene Sabatini "ventured across continents to Colombia...and one early morning she found herself in the lush countryside outside Bogota,...she opened a red notebook and started writing. She has yet to stop." This book is described as a love story set against he backdrop of political upheaval, crafted from an insider's perspective, since the author grew up in Zimbabwe, lived in two of the most important political enclaves of Zimbabwe--Harare and Bulawayo, not to mention some of her childhood in Hwange. "Insider perspective", great concept, as we all know the old writing adage write what you k now, which, when mixed with write what you don't know , may produce great results. Once you start your story in familiar ...

Perhaps this is my new way of reviewing some of the books I have read but which I may not get time to review soon. I will share the things that stood out, things that come to mind when I think about the books. This post features three of the many books I read during the summer: The Stone Virgins by Yvonne Vera (FSG), Many Rivers by Christopher Mlalazi (Lion Press), and The Trial of Robert Mugabe by Chielo Zona Eze (Okri Books). Yvonne Vera's The Stone Virgins is a rich novel that demands several readings. Even the writer warned her readers in an interview with The Financial Gazette that they had to be patient and thorough. I get the sense that Vera was not just trying to be experimental, but that's the style her subject matter demanded. Each time I think of this book, I can't get over the image of Thandabantu store in Kezi where all the action was--it was the center of those entering or exiting Kezi, the connection of Kezi to the outside world, linked to Bulawayo by ...

This is Irene Sabatini's new book, coming out on September 8 in the United States. Book Synopsis : In Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, the son of Lindiwe Bishop's white neighbour, seventeen-year-old Ian McKenzie, is arrested for a terrible crime. A year later Ian returns home, the charges against him dropped. He is brash and boisterous, full of charm and swagger, and fascinating to fifteen-year-old Lindiwe. She accepts a ride from him one day, despite her mother's warnings, and something grows between them -- becoming stronger and stronger in a world that wants nothing more than to divide them. A secret that Lindiwe keeps hidden, and which Ian discovers years later, ensures that their lives will be irrevocably entwined as their country crumbles around them. [ from author website ] Irene Sabatini (photo credit: author website). Irene Sabatini was born in Hwange, Zimbabwe and grew up in Bulawayo. She studied psychology at the University of Zimbabwe and then took a Masters at the Institu...

I concluded my summer reading yesterday with Chris Mlalazi's Many Rivers , which I plan to review. Much of the reading I am going to do until December will be work-related, so my posts here will focus on the writing process, especially on craft. Today's post thus invites you to share your best practices on your use of scene in story development. There are many ways to think about scene, but I want to focus on the way it can be utilized to bring immediacy to the story. In most stories, there is a good mixture of summary and scene, terms which correspond to the concept of telling and showing. If a writer resorts to summary, we will read pages upon pages of summarized material of what the characters did; even the dialogue will be summarized as well, so the reader begins to feel that he or she is just being told what happened and how. Then there is scene. Maybe in one paragraph I tell you when Mukoma fought, and how he won, but nowhere in that story do I show you a scene of his fi...

I have discovered a new African author whose book, Baking Cakes in Kigali , I have added to my reading list. I avoided the temptation for an impulsive purchase, but that was hard, because the author, Gaile Parkin, is Zambian. I don't remember the last time I walked into a Borders and saw a novel by a Zambian (or another African author) displayed on the front table. Of course, it attracted my attention and I ended up reading the first chapter and putting a copy on hold. Gaile Parkin's prose is clean and the story is accessible to any reader of English. The book was originally published in the UK (in January) and has just come out in the USA through an imprint of Random House. It is one of those books that open a window to Africa, and I like how Parkin luxuriates in the customs of her characters, first with the Tanzanian women we meet in chapter 1 who are the wives of expatriates involved in the rebuilding of Rwanda. What a great subject the author chose; who is not talking about...

Over at Ivor W.Hartmann's Facebook fan page, some Zimbabwean writers and readers are remembering Dambudzo Marechera (June, 1952-August, 1987). The man has had a profound influence on Zimbabwean literature, and a lot of the contemporary writers in would attest to having once or twice entered the Marechera mode as they worked on their writings. I did it, especially during those University of Zimbabwe years, when we were finally introduced to Zimbabwean (African) literature. Just being seen with a copy of House of Hunger felt great. To be a serious writer was to be like Marechera. And years later, reading Marechera away from home, I would come to realize that Marechera was a state of mind, a creative mind, but I also learned to separate his art from his personal life. The art remained attractive, and reading it repeatedly had many benefits. Marechera is great literature for the immigrant condition, whatever that is, but Marechera the man ceased a long time ago to be a role model, and...

Mukoma stayed to see me stabbed by Brutus before he left to fight with the Mhere boys. He had already told me that he just wanted to hear my English, and to see if I had the right body language for it. He was not interested, for instance, in the prize-winning ceremony that would follow the big performance, nor did he care about meeting the teachers to discuss my progress. I don’t think when he left I had finished dying because by the time Mark Anthony was addressing his fellow Romans, half the crowd had left the huge Muunga tree where we were gathered. The teacher who had directed the production signaled Mark Anthony, acted by Chari, to stop, and she walked to me and whispered, “Caesar, your brother.” I turned to look where Mukoma had been standing and was greeted by the grin of nothingness. Then I saw four men running towards the back of the school, and soon I was chasing them.... [ The first paragraph of my story "Parents' Day", which is part of a collection in progress...

The summer has been an opportunity for flexible reading. I decided to focus on the short story, and when the summer began, I was reading connected authors. I have since had a taste of the works of Frank O'Connor, Colm Toibin, Sean O'Faolain (since these are Irish, I had to throw in James Joyce's Dubliners in the mix). I also explored others: Anton Checkov, Alice Munro, Barbara Kingsolver, V.S. Naipaul, T.C. Boyle, Alice Walker...the list goes on. No day was enough for my reading, and I didn't stick with the same author for long, which explains why I was reading up to ten authors at once. This was easy to do because these were short stories. I could easily move from Frank O'Connor to Flannery O'Connor, Barbara Kingsolver to Joyce Carol Oates, Jorge Luis Borges to Doris Lessing and everything in between. I was swimming in short stories, pursuing some aspect of craft that makes this genre interesting. I can't say my pursuit has led to much of anything yet, but ...

Embedded video from CNN Video Book Signings in South Africa: Embedded video from CNN Video On the role of women in African writing: Embedded video from CNN Video

Rattlesnake Review is a quarterly Journalzine published in Sacramento by Rattlesnake Press, which specializes in poetry chapbooks, broadsides, and interview books. Although Rattlesnake Review serves mostly Northern California, it publishes poets from all over the United States, and occasionally features an "overseas" poet. Tinashe Muchuri was the overseas guest poet in the summer 2009 issue. Five of his poems were featured. I just got my copy of the edition today. Congratulations, Tinashe. I am inspired to submit to Rattlesnake Review 23 , whose deadline is August 15. Submissions are by email to kathykieth[at]hotmail.com Tinashe Muchuri also writes fiction. Read his latest short story at StoryTime: African New Fiction. While you are there, check out one of the new writing voices in Zimbabwe, Novuyo Rosa Tshuma and enjoy "Big Pieces Little Pieces" .

I am recycling a post I did on this blog in 2007 because I think it has the potential to become a nice reflective essay: Reading a powerful writer, even a not-so-powerful one, may inspire you to start to write or to conquer the writer's block; you may finding yourself typing away, courageously, typing something that may become a substantial creation. Slow reading -which I like to do, because I get a chance to reflect on the narrative in relation to my experience or is beneficial. When I read any work of fiction, I connect the setting to places I know, places I have lived in, the rich terrain of the Zimbabwean countryside, the beautiful chaos of High Field, the shimmering presence of Glen View, the green and jagged presence of Chimanimani and Chipinge, the stubborn there-ness of Bupwa (some called it Butchwa). Let's say I am reading John Steibeck's "The Chrysanthemums", in which he introduces the story by describing fog that closes on the California Salinas Valley...

Mariana Castro de Ali's art, now exhibited at the Sacramento Poetry Center. I helped her put up the art yesterday. It was my first time featuring a poet and a visual artist, and it worked. I called it a little experiment, but it's something that I will do again in the future. Terry O'Neal reading at SPC Terry read her old and new poetry. She has a new poetry collection coming out before the end of the year, and, judging by the few poems she read, it promises to be a big hit. Of course, she read my all-time favorites, "Mama Africa", "African Child", and others from her volumes The Poet Speaks in Black, Motion Sickness and Good Mornin' Glory . Terry a O'neal When Mariana's turn came, I asked her questions about her art, which she explained well. I liked the performative nature of the question-answer session, an interview almost. Mariana Castro de Ali, talking about her art. More artistic images: Some cattle. Mariana explained that she comes...

This is an initial call for submissions. I am working with two Indian writers/scholars (Sunil Sharma and Jaydeep Sarangi)to put together an anthology of Indian and Zimbabwean fiction. Watch this space for more details on this collaboration, but to get started on your stories, here are some basics: Send 1 to 2 stories of 1500 words or less. Email your submission to indozim@munyori.com The stories can be on any theme but must be literary. Submit your stories by November 30

I have been reading Flannery O'Connor's short stories since March. Reading them slowly, because she wrote them slowly, over a long stretch of time, sometimes on publisher deadlines which she didn't meet; she was always hesitant to let go of her work. For those not familiar with O'Connor, she was a shy Georgia woman who brought her Southern drawl to graduate school at the University of Iowa in the 1940s. Her MFA teachers and peers thought little of her, but when she read her first story in a workshop, it is said that she mesmerized her listeners, and as everyone would shortly discover, she had already published her first story "The Geranium". Flannery O'Connor believed in re-writing and did not allow a story to satisfy her easily. Then those characters of hers, Hazel, Enoch and others, kept coming back in different stories. The early stories were so connected that she later turned them into the novel Wise Blood. Her stories were re-written and transfigure...

Reading Chielozona Eze's The Trial of Robert Mugabe is sending me to Yvonne Vera again. Eze's novel commits its Part 2 to Gukurahundi, and the section is told by a character named Yvonne Vera, author of The Stone Virgins (FSG). You can tell Eze adores Vera the way I love Toni Morrison, and that's a good thing. I like a writer who challenges me to make connections among literary icons, and one of the strengths, basically a treat for literature lovers, is how The Trial of Robert Mugabe gets into the Derridean "structure and play" mode, invoking everyone from Yeats, Conrad, Achebe, Marechera, to Vera. Marechera is one of the judges listening to he testimonies against Mugabe, given by the victims of his regime. The witnesses' stories are given in Part 1; then Vera takes us through Part 2, by bringing to life the characters of The Stone Virgins , but you need to have read Vera's novel to follow Eze's story. Yes, Eze trusts the reader to be well-read, be...

Showing off my copy of Long Time Coming in San Franciso, after the Mabasa reading. I chose to stand by the lion statue because I was reminiscing on the on days when the Zimbabwe Book Publishers Association, led by Miriam Bamhare, with some of its processes coordinated by Ignatius Mabasa, used the motto: A Lion's Share of Reading1 . So these short writings from Zimbabwe are really short, the length of the standard flash fiction,snippets of life in contemporary Zimbabwe. We have Petina Gappah writing about a dying bridegroom, a story that woes you with its humor and musicality, but sends you to tears with the grimness of its subject; Ignatius Mabasa, writing about a man who has forgotten his name in "Some Kind of Madness", a story that echoes Charles Mungoshi, but retains Mabasa's signature treatment of the theme of madness; there is the expected Chris Mlalazi (he has an intrusive voice that will uncover the filth and beauty of Bulawayo in a sweep of fast-paced prose; ...

Mariana Castro de Ali, whose art uses anything from receipts to tampons. Mariana Castro De Ali was born in Cd. Obregón, Sonora México in 1975. She lives works in California. She attended Cosumnes River College, Chabot College, is now pursuing Film Studies at UC Davis. Mariana’s art has appeared in the following exhibitions: Solo 2009 A Matter of Survival, Los Rios Gallery, Sacramento, California 2008 True Colors, Lavender Library, Sacramento, CA 2007 Periodo de fiesta, Casa de las Yayas, Cócorit, Sonora, México Selected Exhibitions 2009 Final & Sigue, Villahermosa, Tabasco, Mexico 2009 Pence Gallery, Davis, CA 2009 100 % Focus, Life Under the Lens, UC Davis, Honor Mention, Davis, CA 2009 Espada de Dos Filos/ Double Edged Sword, Ruiz Gallery, Fresno, CA 2009 Cosumnes River College Art Show, Sacramento, CA 2008 Recycled AIDS Medicine Program 3rd Annual Art Auction, San Francisco, CA 2008 Art Seen, Los Angeles, CA 2008 Center for the Arts Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, CA 2007 The Art o...

This post was created by Sunil Sharma, an Indian scholar and writer with whom I am planning to compile an anthology of Indian-Zimbabwean short stories. An Indian publisher has expressed interest in taking up this project, but before we make a call for submissions, here is a short writing on the project. Sunil Sharma is currently Vice-principal and Reader in the English department of Model College, which is affiliated to the University of Mumbai—MIDC, Dombivli (East), in District Thane,state of Maharashtra, India. He is a bilingual critic, poet, literary interviewer, editor, translator, essayist and fiction writer. Some of his short stories and poems have already appeared in journals like New Woman (Mumbai), Creative Saplings , Muse India (both of them e-zines), Munyori Literary Journal, the Seva Bharati Journal of English Studies (West Bengal), Indian Literature (of Sahitya Akademy, New Delhi), Indian Literary Panorama (Mumbai), Contemporary Vibes (Chandigarh), The Plebian Rag (USA),...

The following is the second installment of my interview with Sunil Sharma, an Indian scholar and writer, who contributes to Creative Saplings . The interview was posted at the Creative Saplings Forum , but I reproduce it here in full: Does poetry still appeal to a culturally diversified mass audience? No. There is no mass audience for poetry anymore. The mass audience does not buy poetry books, or come to poetry events in record numbers. This partially explains why publishers are reluctant to publish poetry, and why the poetry section in book stores is dwindling. More and more, poets are becoming their own audience, so fellow poets are the greatest market for poetry. Is it possible to create a symmetry, consonance and harmony in a language headed for elliptical, fast SMS mode, inverting traditional categories of grammar? As an English teacher, I say it is possible to do so, because part of my job is to make sure that there is harmony and consonance in the language. Symmetry even. It i...