Season of Awards: NAMA (Zimbabwe)

Zimbabwe's NAMA awards cover diverse fields of the arts, but I will just share information about the literary awards. The results of the 9th NAMA awards in this category are as follows:

Outstanding Fiction Book

•The Fading Sun by David Mungoshi
(Other nominees were: Absent: The English Teacher by John Eppel and Many Rivers by Christopher Mlalazi)

Outstanding Children’s Book

•The Man, Shaggy Leopard and the Jackal by Ignatius T. Mabasa
(The other nominee was: Kolobeja by Phathisa Nyathi)

Outstanding First Creative Published Work

•Harare North by Brian Chikwava
(Other nominees were An Elegy for Easterly by Petina Gappah and The Trek and the Other Stories by Lawrence Hoba)

Congratulations to the winners and all the nominees. This is very inspiring, considering that I have followed some of these books since their manuscript and galley phases. I know the authors as hardworking, no-nonsense people committed to literature, and this is a deserved honor. Two of the winning books, and one nominee, are by Lion Press Ltd, the new UK-based publisher run by Zimbabwean writers.

Comments

Jonathan Masere said…
Brother Manu, thanks for the props. I look forward to congratulating you for an award fairly soon.
February 23, 2010 at 12:38 PM
Emmanuel Sigauke said…
Thank you, my brother. I know you have a lot to offer too, and one of these days we will be reading more of your works. There is just so much talent, and this seems to be the right time to showcase Zim writing.
February 23, 2010 at 1:35 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Abuja Writers' Forum Call for Submissions

Wordsbody has announced the following call for submissions: CAVALCADE literary journal, devoted to publishing original stories, poems,one-act plays, reviews, critical essays and art from an African perspective,will debut in October 2008 with a special edition. The tri-annual journal, a project of the Abuja Writers' Forum (AWF), is now seeking submissions for the second and third editions. Deadline: October 30, 2008 See more details here: Contribute to Cavalcade.
Read more

Roland Mhasvi's Flowers

Image
This is the cover of my copy of Roland Masvi's Flowers of Yesterday, a collection I reviewed in 1996 for The Herald. I was going through my old stuff when I saw this book in my old collection.  As I was flipping through the pages, I saw the cut-out for the original review, which in part reads: "This is a collection of highly esoteric poetry..., which can be charged of what Afrocentric scholars have described as 'piles of esoterica and ostentatious erudition'... The language is to the ordinary reader opaque, the imagery is inaccessible and the symbolism is surprisingly unusual but invitingly novel...real food for scholars."   The review just reminds me of the Chinweizu days, when we, as university students, had rediscovered African literature and its theory. Talking about Afrocentricity had a certain appeal, and we were looking at a lot of writing through the lenses of this newly-discovered Afrocentricity. Looking back, perhaps there was more in Mhasvi's poe
Read more

FREEDOM, a poem on South Africa by Afzal Moolla

Freedom The shackles have been cast off. Chains broken. People once squashed, under the jackboot of Apartheid, are free. Free at last! Freedom came on the 27th day in that April, 1994. Freedom from prejudice. From institutionalised racism. From being relegated to second-class citizenship. Freedom came and we danced. We cried. We ululated as we elected our revered Mandela. President Nelson Mandela. Our very own beloved 'Madiba'. Black and white and brown and those in-between, All hues of this rainbow nation, rejoiced as we breathed in the air of freedom and democracy. Today we pause. We remember. We salute. The brave ones whose sacrifices made this day possible, on that 27th day of April, 18 years ago. Today we dance. We sing. We ululate. We cry. Tears of joy and tears of loss. Of remembrance and of forgiveness. Of reconciliation and of memories. Today we pause. We acknowledge the tasks ahead. The hungry. The naked. The destitut
Read more