WEALTH OF IDEAS

October 11 is a big day at the Sacramento Poetry Center. We will host Christopher Mlalazi and Ron Slate. Mlalazi will be traveling from Pacific Palisades, California, and Slate from Milton, Massachusetts. They will read at 7:30 pm. Villa Aurora’s 2010 Feuchtwanger Fellow, Zimbabwean writer Christopher Mlalazi’s two books, Dancing with Life (2008, amaBooks), a collection of short stories, Many Rivers (2009, Lion Press, Ltd., UK), a novel, and his latest play Election Day (2010), deal with the social and political disintegration of his native Zimbabwe. In 2008 he was co-awarded the OXFAM NOVIP PEN Freedom of Expression Award at the Hague, which he received with Raisedon Baya for their play The Crocodile of Zambezi. The Crocodile of Zambezi (2008), a satire of the Mugabe regime set in a fictional country along the Zambezi River, was officially banned and members of its cast and crew were harassed and beaten by state agents. Christopher Mlalazi’s work has received numerous honors and award...

Sacramento poets are converging on New Dimension Saturday, September 25 to celebrate an event that has brought poetry to the people for over ten years. The popular poetry series, "The Show at Wo'se" is moving to a new venue. More than 15 prominents poets with showcase their best from 7 to 10 PM. Among the features are Sacramento Poet Laureate Bob Stanley, NSAA, Supanova, Immobme, Terry Moore, Andy Jones, the vibrant Nikki Brock and many more. Music will be provided by Mr Garret Perkins, a smooth jazz artist, and singers Clarenze Davis and Lisa Gardenia will perform. I will read a poem or two as well. Below is my brief interview with Terry Moore,nationally renowned performance poet and coordinator of this event: 1. How long have you been involved with The Show? I have been involved for the entire 10 years. 2. What are some of the most memorable events? Standing on stage and seeing the place completely packed when we have invited guest poets and singers from out of tow...

Chenjerai Hove recently read Memory Chirere's short story collection "Tudikidiki". He made the following observation, shared in an email to both Chirere and me. Hove has stated repeatedly that the current state of writing by new writers in Zimbabwe makes him proud, especially considering that he has been a mentor to most of these contemporary writers. Chirere, for instance, was in the class Hove taught during his days as the writer-in-residence at the University of Zimbabwe.Other writers like Ruzvidzo Mupfudza, Ignatius Mabasa, Cleopas Gwakwara, Nhamo Mhiripiri and wife, Thabisani Ndlovu, Eresina Wede, Zvisdinei Sandi and others were part of this group. I too had the priviledge of learning from the master in those days, and every now and then we spend time on the phone discussing literature and our common homeland, Mazvihwa, a place rich in history and memories. Hove is currently based in Miami, Florida. Below are some of his comments on Memory Chirere's "Tudiki...

I received the following message from the Achebe Center: We hope this note finds you well! As one of our new initiatives, the Achebe Center is compiling resources to help place talented writers into North American MFA programs--and we could use your help. At this time, we are very interested in individuals who work in an MFA program or have contacts in MFA programs who would like to see international talent in their workshops. At the same time, if you've been through, currently teach or work in, or are currently enrolled in an MFA program and would be willing to mentor a writer through the application process, we would like to hear from you, too. Finally, since we are at the beginning of this process, we are not accepting queries from potential MFA candidates, but we hope to have information available to all interested parties once we have had time to compile it. We look forward to hearing from you! Thanks and all best, Achebe Center

Watch this space...I will be discussing the books I have read, and will be interviewing authors of all stripes (those I can get in touch with, of course). Now that I have posted a draft of my 'memorable moments' in "This September Sun", I am moving on to LOL moments in Chris Mlalazi's "Dancing With Life" (I will call them memorable moments too, for ryhthm). I could easily have made them LOL moments, because Mlalazi will capture the sad drama of life and make you laugh...laugh so hard you might titter on the other extreme of laughter. I come to Mlalazi's work with a great appetite; he captures my Bulawayo. You see, I lived in Harare most of the early 90s, but I always visited Bulawayo, at one time interviewing for admission to Hillside Teacher's College, and then later on visiting people I knew, then later coordinating budding writers' business. The place fascinated me, etc, so I might say Mlalazi's stories reach that nostalgic nerve in me...

Title: This September Sun Author: Bryony Rheam Publisher: amaBooks (Bulawayo) Year of Publication: 2009 Bryony Rheam's first novel, "This September Sun" was published as a mystery/romance, which means that it is not literature,but genre;however, the novelhas features, or, to use E.M. Forster's word, "aspects" of literary fiction. In an interview with me, Bryony said she still would rather see it as genre, but readers are free to categorize it as they wish. I read it as a work of literary fiction. The novel has strong characterization, and it explores beyond mere genre into the complexity of human existence; it's a work that leaves you thinking. Not that genre does not leave you thinking, but this work leaves you thinking for a long time. Because I am still thinking about it, I have decided to discuss some of the key moments I found interesting. The blog will also be posted at Moments in Literature . Here are some of the key moments of "This Septemb...

1. I just finished reading This September Sun and I enjoyed it a lot. You created an impressive character in Ellie. I also now know that the book is not autobiographical, but what inspired Ellie? Although the novel is not an autobiography, it is autobiographical in many ways. I am very much like Ellie and there are parallels in the events in our lives. I don't see her as myself though - she is a character in her own right. 2. I love the first sentence of this novel, but this question is about the ending. Is it reasonable for Ellie to expect to go back to Zimbabwe and find Tony waiting for her after all these years? Was it just a momentary epiphany, or a sudden realization that there could actually be alternatives to how she had thought she could dream? Or does it really matter what she returns to as long as she returns with a sense of hope? The ending of the novel appears to be a 'happily-ever-after' one, but the more you think about it, the more you begin to wonder i...

Since it's my birthday, I thought I should share a childhood memory. This is one of those small steps towards memoir.... In 1978, we were little boys and girls living in the war-torn village of Mototi. We were not child soldiers, but we all knew the war, we knew the slogans, knew the enemy, based on what the comrades had told us, or what we observed. And we observed a lot... During those all-night meetings with the comrades, one adult in my extended family stayed home with us. She was one of my big brothers' wives (I was little but already had married big brothers, and brother meant distant cousins, half brothers, brothers of half brothers, etc,twenty, thirty years older. She was a storyteller who kept us awake for hours, telling us stories that showed hare's skills, baboon's stupidity, stories of revenge, of violent animals doing cruel things to other animals. Stories featuring snakes that always swallowed goats, calves, and people. On other nights the stories featured...

Monterey Bay writer-editors CJ Sage and JP Dancing Bear will read from their new books, The San Simeon Zebras and Inner Cities of Gulls, both from Salmon Press. Sage edits the National Poetry Review and The National Poetry Review Press. Bear edits the American Poetry Journal and Dream Horse Press. The reading will be followed by a Q&A about literary publishing. Poetry Reading and Publishing Q&A September 13, 7:30 P.M. Sacramento Poetry Center HQ for the Arts at 1719 25th St.

I feel like returing to poetry. By this I don't mean I am planning to leave fiction, but that I must concentrate on writing and reading poetry. I doubt though that I ever left poetry. I host poetry events at the Sacramento Poetry Center every second Monday, and I attend poetry events at other venues. I am always in the company of poets, and I read poetry every so often. But still, I feel like returning to poetry. Perhaps I mean this in the sense of turning on my poetic voice, so that I can resume writing poetry. That's what it must be, because in the last year or so, I have been focusing my writing on short fiction (Well, I tend not to mention that I am working on long ficton, an novel here, another there, but like Raymond Carver, Flannery O'Connor, or Dambudzo Marechera, in reverse order, I sometimes have no patience for very long, sustained stories, thus my longest novel manuscript (which I began in 1999) has too many stories struggling to become long stories each in its ...