Petina Gappah Shortlisted for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award

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 world."

The shortlisted books are as follows:


1. An Elegy for Easterly by Petina Gappah published by Faber, London.

2. Singularity by Charlotte Grimshaw published by Vintage, New Zealand.

3. Ripples and other Stories by Shih-Li Kow published by Silverfish Books, Malaysia.

4. The Pleasant Light of Day by Philip O Ceallaigh Published by Penguin Ireland.

5. Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower Published by FSG New York and Granta UK

6. Love Begins in Winter by Simon Van Booy published by Harper Perennial New York.

For more details, go to the Award website.

According to the Guardian, four out of the shortlisted stories are by first-time writers. Our own (Zimbabwe's) Petina Gappah told the Guardian that "she had been 'going around with a rather demented grin on my face' ever since she heard that her debut collection, An Elegy for Easterly, was on the list"

"I still can't believe I am on the shortlist ahead of all those excellent writers," she said. "It is too bizarre. At this rate, I may just start to be believe that I actually know what I am doing!" she said.

Congratulations, Petina!

San Francisco International Poetry Festival: Carla Badillo Coronado

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 festivities and rituals. She has said that her San Francisco appearance will showcase some of her dances, in addition to the poetry.



Friends of the San Francisco Public Library, Mayor Gavin Newsom, Jack Hirschman and the San Francisco Public Library will present the second San Francisco International Poetry Festival, July 23-27, 2009. The festival will take place at the Palace of Fine Arts and various venues and libraries throughout San Francisco.

The Festival honors the City’s great legacy of hosting and encouraging cross cultural dialogue. In 2007, the four-day extravaganza drew thousands of people from the Bay Area for free and open-to-the-public poetry and music at both large and small venues throughout the City, including a street party in North Beach, youth events, book signings, translation workshops and more.

Twenty-six poets from 21 countries will journey to the Festival, reading together with the leaders of San Francisco’s own highly regarded literary community. The truly international group of poets, from countries including Bangladesh, China,Ecuador, France, Greece, Haiti, Iraq, Israel, Nigeria, Sudan, Zimbabwe and others, represent a wide spectrum in the world of poetry, from recognized masters to emerging new talents, who are redefining the art in our evolving times.

Petina Gappah Youtube Clip with Ben Wilson

The Trial of Robert Mugabe: a Novel

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.

SF International Poetry Festival: July 22 - 26

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 2007 the first ever SFIPF, a three-day extravaganza, drew thousands of people from the Bay Area and beyond to venues and celebrations throughout the City, including a street party in North Beach, youth events, book signings, translation workshops and more.

Since the 2007 Festival, Friends of the SFPL has presented smaller poetry festivals in a variety of languages, such as the Iranian Literary Arts Festival, Vietnamese Poets of the Diaspora and Flor y Canto en el Barrio: A Celebration of Latino Poetry, in their ongoing effort to continue to build cultural bridges, celebrate the literary arts and foster international dialogue.

Places & Concepts in Our Stories

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 course, most serious readers often understand that a writers need not give a glossary of Murehwa just as they don't have to define Conney Island; it's a setting,therefore it is....

What does all this mean? Imagine the person who is put off by a name of a setting or a person being an editor or an agent, or a reader for a potential publisher of your book? I feel that readers can do better than this....

In the meantime, let your stories shape themselves in the most natural way possible, unbidden by the unfamiliarity of some readers to the places, concepts, names in them. One day, such stories will find their readers, and that day can come sooner than you think.....

INDIGO MOOR WINS CAVE CANEM NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY PRESS POETRY PRIZE

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 is a second book award for African American poets. Of The Stonecutter’s Window, John Keene writes, “These poems open a sustained and impressive dialogue with the visual arts, history, the natural world, and the poetʹs dreams and nightmares, while dancing poly‐rhythmically across and down each page.” Reginald Gibbons says, “Always in motion, [Moor’s] lines are choreographed to make sense of all that is most elusive in meaning: music, violence, art, love, history, anger, race, belief, desire.”

POETS
Indigo Moor’s first book of poetry, Tap‐Root, was published in 2006 as part of Main Street Rag’s Editor’s Select Poetry Series. His poetry and short stories have appeared in such journals and anthologies as Xavier Review, LA Review, Poetry Now and The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South. He has received the 2005 Vesle Fenstermaker Poetry Prize for Emerging Writers and finalist finishes for
the T.S. Eliot Prize, Crab Orchard First Book Prize, Saturnalia First Book Award, the Naomi Long
Indigo Moor

Madgett Book Award and the WordWorks Prize. He is a Cave Canem fellow and a graduate
member of the Artistʹs Residency Institute for Teaching Artists, and has received scholarships to the Summer Literary Series in St. Petersburg, Russia, the Idyllwild Summer Poetry Program, Indiana University Writer’s Conference and Napa Valley Writer’s Conference.

Remica L. Bingham’s first book of poems, Conversion (Lotus Press, 2007), won the Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Prize. Her work has been featured in New Letters, Crab Orchard Review and Essence, among other journals. Nominated for a Pushcart Prize, she is the recipient of the 2005 Hughes, Diop,Knight Poetry Award, and has attended the Callaloo Creative Writing Workshops. A Cave Canem fellow, she is the Writing Competency Coordinator at Norfolk State University in Norfolk, Virginia.

Visual artist and poet JoAnne McFarland’s poetry collections include Stills, a finalist in the Brick House Books Manuscript Competition; Flight Patterns; Lightfast; Brushstrokes; and Watermarks, chosen by Cornelius Eady as a finalist in the 2002 AWP Award Series. Her artwork is included in many private and public collections, including the Library of Congress, the Department of State and the
Columbus Museum of Art.

JUDGES
Poet, fiction writer, translator and literary critic Reginald Gibbons is the author of eight books of poetry, including Creatures of a Day, a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award. His novel, Sweetbitter, won the Anisfield Wolf Book Award. He has received Guggenheim and NEA fellowships and won the Carl Sandburg Prize and the Folger Shakespeare Libraryʹs O. B. Hardison Jr. Poetry Prize. Editor of TriQuarterly magazine, 1981 to 1997, and co‐founder of TriQuarterly Books, he is a professor of English, Classics, Spanish and Portuguese at Northwestern University, where he
is co‐director of the MA/MFA in Creative Writing and Director of the Center for the Writing Arts.

Recipient of the Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Award and the Margaret Walker Short Story Award, Parneshia Jones has published in several anthologies, including Warpland: A Journal of Black Literature and Ideas, The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South, Limestone and America! What’s My Name.

She has been featured on Chicago Public Radio‐Chicago Amplified series and is a member of the Affrilachian Poets, a collective of Black voices from Appalachia. She is the head of sales and international rights for Northwestern University Press.
John Keene is the author of the award‐winning novel Annotations and the poetry collection Seismosis, with artwork by Christopher Stackhouse. His fiction, poetry, essays and translations have appeared in many journals, including African‐American Review, AGNI, Encyclopedia, Gay and Lesbian Review, Hambone, Indiana Review, Kenyon Review, New American Writing and Ploughshares. He is an Associate Professor of English and African American Studies and Director of the English Major in
Writing at Northwestern University.

Founded in 1996 by poets Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady to remedy the under‐representation of African American poets in writing workshops and MFA programs, Cave Canem is a home for the many voices of African American poetry and is committed to cultivating the artistic and professional growth of African American poets. Cave Canem has grown from an initial gathering of 26 poets to become an influential movement with a renowned faculty and a high‐achieving fellowship of 289 poets residing in 34 states. Its programs include an annual week‐long retreat, first and second book prizes, Legacy Conversations, Poets on Craft talks, writing workshops, publications and national readings. Such world‐class poets as Elizabeth Alexander, Lucille Clifton and Yusef Komunyakaa number among the organization’s faculty and judges.

To date, the organization has published Gathering Ground: A Reader Celebrating Cave Canem’s First Decade (University of Michigan Press, 2006)
and The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South (The University of Georgia Press, 2007). For more information, go to cavecanempoets.org.
Since its inception in 1893, Northwestern University Press has been at the forefront in publishing important works of scholarship, as well as quality works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry and literary criticism. In 1992, the Press joined forces with TriQuarterly magazine—Northwestern University's innovative literary journal aimed at a sophisticated and diverse readership, now a publication of the press—to establish the TriQuarterly Books imprint, which is devoted primarily to contemporary
American fiction and poetry. For more information, go to ww.nupress.northwestern.edu.

Nnenna Okore's First Major Exhibition in Nigeria

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 prestigious galleries and museums including the Museum of Art and Design, New York and the October Gallery, London.

Achi by Nnenna Okore

The German Cultural center, the Goethe Institut are her hosts for this show presented by Kachifo Limited, publishers of Farafina Books. The show runs at the Goethe Institut from June 20th until July 10th. Learn more about this artist by logging on to www.nnennaokore.com, or by contacting the organisers at info@kachifo.com.

Foliage by Nnenna Okore

Nnenna Okore is an Assistant Professor of Art at North Park University. She received her B.A degree in Painting from the University of Nigeria (First Class Honors) in 1999, and an M.A and M.F.A. in Sculpture from the University of Iowa in 2004 and 2005. She has received several awards and residencies worldwide, and been shown in numerous prestigious galleries and museums within and outside the United States. She currently has work on display at Sakshi Gallery, India. Her two solo outings will open in June and July at the Goethe Institut, Lagos, and the Chicago Cultural center, Chicago respectively. She will also exhibit in a year long exhibition, Trash Menagerie, curated by Janey Winchell at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA. The show runs from June 20, 2009-June, 2010.

Learn more about this vibrant artist by visiting her website.

Okore says:
Much of my inspiration stems from my childhood years at Nsukka, a small university town in south-eastern Nigeria. As a child, I was fascinated by the social, natural, and man-made conditions in rural dwellings around the University campus. Embedded within its landscape were evocative imageries captured within its rocky slopes, and architectural structures. I came across several stunning traditional art and architectural forms, such as, roofed shrines characterized by huge mounds of sand under a thatched structure, and yam barns and fences that traced the borders of people’s compounds. I was also drawn to simple sights of bare-footed children appropriating toys and hunting tools from scrap objects.

Adichie's New Book Tour Venues & Dates

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).

Promoting the Reading of African Literature: An Interview with Marcellina Chikasha

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 African father: “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark ”, “to be or not to be…” “all the world is a stage…” etc. The quotes from African literature are not as familiar or as oft used. I am hard pressed to quote Charles Mungoshi, Chinua Achebe, Chenjerai Hove or Dambudzo Marechera. As TALENT therefore is to make African Literature marketable, sellable and familiar to the audiences for which it is written. I look at the Harry Potter phenomenon, the money those books made and I wonder when an African-authored children's book will make such sales and ignite such interest. TALENT wants to play a major role in the overall promotion of African Literature.

The African continent contains great literary minds, which have been underappreciated and unrecognized due to the education system prevailing in most post-colonial African countries. Tavavanhu African Literature Enterprise (TALent) seeks to expose African Literature and create a love for it both in the young and the old. We also seek to motivate young writers and would-be writers by giving them exposure to writers whose works have been published, especially works about contemporary Africa .

2. What is the reach or scope of the group's activities? Does it follow the idea of outreach, going to remote areas of Africa?

The book club is a part of Tavavanhu Youth Organisation, which draws its membership from even the remotest parts of any country. However, you are well aware that logistically in Africa communication with those in remote parts is virtually impossible. We need to get to a stage where our telecomms and internet availability is widespread. So far our outreach programmes have involved donating books to schools in the remote parts of Zimbabwe. However, once books are donated you find that there are other issues, for example, the plethora of problems facing schools in Zimbabwe do not make them a conducive environment for reading. By the time a child has found water, food, walked to school and done their share of chores do they have the leisure time to read?

Some of the young readers that Marcellina works with at one of her projects, Tichakunda.


3. What prompted you to start this effort?

My love for Africa, first and foremost. I always get upset at the labels attached to Africa: poor, third world, developing. It is almost an obsession of mine to prove to young and old alike that Africa should shake off these negative labels. I believe one way of instilling pride and self-worth in the people is through reading so that we can gain an appreciation of who we really are as a people.We also need to encourage writing so that we are then the true custodians of our history and that it be recorded from our perspective as African people. How does one gain a true understanding of the period that Zimbabwe has just gone through? BBC News Reports? CNN? Books studying the events from a Western author? I believe a real authentic appreciation even 100 years from now would be obtained from a Zimbabwean author such as Valerie Tagwira, in her book The Uncertainty of Hope.


4. Describe the role of writers and publishers in this effort.

Our workshops and book club meetings are graced by writers and in most cases directed by them. We had a five-hour session with Shimmer Chinodya who was truly inspirational. He did some readings from his books, gave us his bio and took questions from the members. We have also established relationships with certain publishers e.g. Weaver Press, who sell us books at a discount and periodically donate to the book club. The meetings are an exchange of ideas and books among readers, publishers and writers.


5. In blogosphere, there have been debates regarding the scope of African literature. What is African literature to you?

“What is African Literature? The debate which followed was animated: Was it literature about Africa or about the African experience? Was it literature written by Africans? What about a non African who wrote about Africa : Did his work qualify as African literature? What if an African set his work in Greenland : did that qualify as African literature? Or were African languages the criteria? Ok: what about Arabic, was it not foreign to Africa ? What about French and English, which had become African languages...” Ngugi wa Thiongo, Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature.

I love this quote which shows us just how difficult it is to define African Literature. I certainly am not of the mindset that African Literature is writings about Africa or an African experience as these can be from a Eurocentric perspective. I believe that African writing is any writing which is essentially African in its perspective.

6. Have you travelled to different African countries to promote this idea?

Not yet but I intend to do so.

7. What is the role of the African Diaspora in promoting readership of African writing?

The African Diaspora tends to lose their Africaness (which is something that is subject to debate). I believe that the message that things African are inferior, combined with our inability to market ourselves aggressively in the West, has led to disinterest in not only African Literature but also many African products, primarily amongst us Africans. For example, my facebook club has hardly generated any real interest amongst the Diasporans, save for a few. The commitment and solid support has been here in Zimbabwe and in South Africa (where we have some members). For the Diasporans to promote anything they themselves have to believe in the cause, which is the hurdle. However, there are some that can start by buying African literature for themselves and their children. The spinoff effects of this money supporting our authors and publishers will make a huge difference in elevating African Literature to its correct positioning.


8. What are the group's short-term plans?

We are currently trying to raise funds to buy books for Mufakose 1 High School. We need 120 copies of the book Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie. TALENT is also doing an African Lit awareness talk for schools in the Harare area.

Interview Your Characters

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, what she knows may be very different from what I know.

I am trying to write convincingly using a female narrator, to run away from the brother-to-brother narratives I have been writing in the past year.I have accumulated Mukoma stories that could be turned into An Elegy for something... (Talking of elegies, I finally saw Petina Gappah's An Elegy for Easterly at my Borders in Sacramento, right on the shelf with Garcia-Marquez. Two copies. I was hoping for more; in fact, I wanted to see it in the front of the store, right there with vampire stories and massive mystery volumes).

I want to interview Tendi; question her motives, ask her what she wants. For one, she wants her brother's British pound; she wants clothes, but as you read deeper into the story, she wants more, but she hasn't quite opened up to me.

I want to interview Tendi; to have her talk about Mazvihwa in a way that will make sense to any reader. Mazvihwa is a place of mystery, as far as I can tell from the way Tendi is telling or trying not to tell the story. I talked to someone who said historians were beginning to eye Mazvihwa for its unique history. Who would have thought that Mazvihwa had a history? With Murowa Diamond Mine flourishing in Murowa, and the displaced villagers languishing somewhere in a farm in Masvingo where they were relocated, there is a story brewing in Mazvihwa. And Tendi (is this even a girl's name anymore?) touches on that as well, but her story is about the return of her brother, "a tall, dark Karanga man who has brought a light, tall (too) Ndebele woman he met in the UK somewhere" ( we are never told where because Tendi does not know where), but she is determined to tell her brother's story....

I want to interview Tendi, and, in the words of a writer friend who has read the first draft, "to particularise her". To give her a voice. Hers not mine. In doing this I would be killing two birds with one stone: working on characterization and point of view. She uses the first person POV. I can say that when I conceived her, she wasn't a teacher at all, but after three drafts, I watched as she woke up to find out that she had turned into a teacher. And lately, disturbingly, she has begun throwing in some profanity.

Coming Soon to Munyori: Interview with Memory Chirere

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. Reading ‘House of Hunger’ is a rite of passage of sorts. However, at least a third of the students immediately begin to be overly outspoken. They begin to grow their own dreadlocks. They begin to smoke and drink. They begin to scribble their own poetry and prose and you are waylaid by young men and women who plead with you to look at what they are writing.

At Bookaholic I am Blogger of the Month (BBM)

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.

Writing News: Mlalazi, Morrison, Mungoshi, Moyo, Munro and More...

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 September 2009
The other side of the river and other stories by A C Moyo
The Fading Sun by David Mungoshi
The Redemption Story by Pastor Moses Owusu-Sekrere

The African Roar (short stories from Story-Time e-zine) and Tadya Shuga by Memory Chirere, Ngano Dzavapwere by Jonathan Masere and The Clan Oracle and other stories by Jonathan Masere are also in the queue for publishing.

I notice Aaron Chiundura Moyo is coming out with an English title. Moyo is a leading novelist and playwright who insisted, at book meetings in the 90s, that he would only write in Shona. I attended international book fair conferences where he would only speak in Shona, and when I was a student at the University of Zimbabwe, and an active member of the Zimbabwe writing organizations, he invited me to one of his programs at ZBC to argue about language. We had fun with that: I was arguinng then that Shona (and other indegenous African languages) should start stealing words from languages like English in order to expand, and he was arguing for linguistic purity, Shona yemandorokwati. A C Moyo, whose novels were part of the Shona curriculum for my primary and secondary education, was my first influence in the decision to become a writer. So I look forward to this his new publication, and perhaps sometime soon, we may pick where we left on the language debate.


In Nigeria, Farafina-Kachifo has concluded a six-week writers' tour of four cities, which had the goal of bringing writers and their works to the readers. Below is an update from Farafina:

The 6-week tour has seen the collective of Nigerian writers travel to Lagos, Warri, Benin and Ibadan. The book tour opened with a party at the African Artists’ Foundation in Lagos, then moved on to Cambridge House in Ibadan where Christopher Okigbo was said to have hosted parties for such literary luminaries as J. P. Clarke, Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka. The writers returned to Lagos one week later for the third reading, where they drew crowds at The Palms shopping mall. Then it was on to the city of Benin, where they put literature on the centre stage in a nightclub dancehall. This was followed one week later by a visit to the heart of the Niger Delta, as they dared the booming guns in Warri to accept the hearty welcome of Professor G. G. Darah and the US-based poet, novelist and academic, Tanure Ojaide.

The "grand tour" ended on June 2 in Lagos. More such tours should happen in Africa. Maybe more people may appreciate reading.

I am anxiously waiting for Petina Gappah's book, An Elegy for Easterly, to hit US stores. I have been making numerous trips to Barnes & Noble to look for it in the front of the stores, but as of yesterday, it hadn't arrived. The publication date is listed as May 26, but it's possible that the laydown date (when a book is put on a shelf or display table) may be June 9, since new books are usually brought out on Tuesdays.

StoryTime editor-in-chief Ivor W. Hartmann has announced that ZBC radio will be featuring the website's stories beginning June 7. The inaugural show will feature Christopher Mlalazi's new work on StoryTime. We might as well call it the Mlalazi moment because he will also be launching his first novel, Many Rivers, published by Lion Press Ltd. Mlalazi has already won awards for his short stories.

C.E. Chaffin Reads at the Sacramento Poetry Center

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 itself not only by its content but through the work of poets at its board in winning and/or placing in the InterBoard Poetry Competition repeatedly. He has won one poetry contest (Desert Moon Review, 2002) and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in By Rose and Thorn. He quit counting publications several years ago but has been the featured poet in various journals over twenty times. He also keeps a blog, and provides tutoring through an intensive, fee-based, online poetry course. Anyone who is interested in becoming a student should email C. E. Chaffin for information

In addition to poetry and criticism, Dr. Chaffin has published fiction and been a regular columnist for three magazines. Married to Kathleen Chaffin, he lives in Mendocino in Northern California where he enjoys his four children and one grandchild.

He is the author of two books Elementary (Mellen Poetry Press 1997) and Unexpected Light (Diminuendo Press 2009).

Dambudzo Marechera And His Influence on Zimbabwean Literature

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 writing than is often represented by "these academics" or "critics" .

I am happy that one reviewer said of Forever Let Me Go:"it straddles Mungoshi and Hove" and is a bit reminiscent of Musaemura Zimunya (who is my true mentor); that was such a great honor. Critics can see these things.... writers just write, and when it gets really serious, your writing cares not who influences it; it will just happen...

I am conducting Marechera-based interviews, and some of the questions deal with this issue of measuring contemporary Zimbabwean writing against Marechera as opposed to Mungoshi, Vera, Dangarembga, etc.

My friend brought to my attention a book by a David Pattison, published by Africa World Press in the USA (2001), which portrays Marechera as an irresponsible, insecure, unaccomplished writer...etc.

I have read everything of Marechera I could find, including the detailed "Sourcebook" of his life, but have always told myself that as much as I appreciate the talent and the writing, I could not follow his lifestyle. In my life outside of Zimbabwe, especially at the beginning,I had moments of asking, as a writer, "What would Marechera have done in this situation?" But I found myself telling the thought, "No, thank you".

Perhaps Brian Chikwava is the Chikwava of Zimbabwean literature, while Mlalazi always has his Mlalazi moments, and Mabasa is the Mabasa of Shona literature? Or is this now the anxiety of influence Harold Bloom talks about, of either exceessively embracing past works or completely dismissing them altogether?

With the renewed interest in Marechera's works and life, this might be a time of self-reflection for some Marechera followers.