WEALTH OF IDEAS

Lauri Kubuitsile is a full time, Motswana writer. She has thirteen published works of fiction. She has also written two television series for Botswana Television and her short stories have been published in anthologies and literary magazines around the world. She has won numerous writing prizes including the Golden Baobab Prize - junior category (2008/2009 and 2010), the BTA/AngloPlatinum Short Story Contest (South Africa- 2007) and the Botswana Ministry of Youth, Sports, and Culture’s Orange Botswerere Prize for Creative Writing (2007). She was recently chosen to be a writer in residence in El Gouna Egypt for the month of May 2010. She blogs at Thoughts from Botswana . Through her blog, I have come to know Lauri as an avid reader sometimes blogs about the books she reads. Her repeated references to The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver influenced me to acquire my own copy of the book. Lauri's list has a heavy concentration of South African and American authors, and in her interview sh...

Today I feature a writer I think is an important force in Zimbabwean literature. We discuss books and writing frequently by email or over the phone, and it is a great honor that he agreed to share his reading list and to talk about his process here. Memory Chirere teaches literature and creative writing a the University of Zimbabwe. He has worked with young writers through workshops and literary events. He enjoys reading and writing short stories and some of his are published in Nomore Plastic Balls (1999), A Roof to Repair (2000), Writing Still (2003) and Creatures Graet and Small (2005). He has published short story books: Somewhere in This Country (2006), Tudikidiki (2007)and Toriro and His Goats (2010).Together with Prof Maurice Vambe, he compiled and edited (so far the only full volume critical text on Mungoshi called) Charles Mungoshi: A Critical Reader . He blogs at Kwachirere. Memory Chirere's Reading List 1. ‘Mambo Press Book of Verse’ compiled and edited by Colin and...

Today we are featuring a literary interview Sunil Sharma [ right ] did with the celebrated Pakistani-Parsi-American writer Bapsi Sidhwa [ left ] about culture, society, art and the craft of fiction-writing. In the words of Sunil Sharma, "The brilliant mind of the writer is summed up in this long dialogue, just beautiful, perceptive and crystal-clear." Sharma is an Indian associate-professor, freelance journalist and writer. Here he is in conversation with a senior author whose works have been made into cinema by the internationally-known Indian director Deepa Mehta. [ Please note that the series of 2010 readings lists and interviews is still going on, but while waiting for interview response, I thought you may enjoy this interview of an inspiring writer ]. The Interview: Sunil Sharma and Bapsi Sidhwa Sharma: What does it mean to be Bapsi Sidhwa in a globalized and de-radicalized world of 2010, a world where literature, like culture, has been grossly commercialized? Sidhwa: Gl...

Sarah Norman was born and brought up in Zimbabwe. She was fortunate to receive a scholarship to university and then to drama school in the US. She lives in London at the moment, where she works as a theatre director. She will be moving to Kenya in the new year. Sarah runs a reading blog called Bookish , which she started in 2010 to keep track of her reading. I frequently visit the blog, and I can tell you, it's worth a visit. I do more than visit now; I follow it. As Sarah's list and interview show, she is a "bookish" reader who reads just about anything she can find at the library, everything from serious literature to semi self-help books to memoirs to serious non-fiction. In short, to a serious reader, reading is reading; but Sarah advises against wasting time on a boring book. So here is Sarah's reading list, followed by an interview I did with her. Sarah Norman's 2010 Reading List A SUITABLE BOY by Vikram Seth DR THORNE by Anthony Trollope 2666 by Roberto...

Today we feature Bob Stanley, Sacramento's Poet Laureate. Often described as "a passionate member of the poetry community", Bob Stanley is also the president of the Sacramento Poetry Center Board. He teaches Creative Writing and English at CSU Sacramento and at Sacramento City College. His poems have won a number of awards, including the California Focus on Writers prize in 2006 and have been published in numerous journals and anthologies. He recently published his first chapbook, Walt Whitman Orders a Cheeseburger , and he has edited several books, including a collection of poems by poet laureates from different cities in California. I know Bob Stanley as a very busy person, always involved with one event or another, but he set aside a little bit of time to share his reading list and to answer a few of my interview questions. Bobby's Reading List Summerland , by Michael Chabon – A fantasy with a baseball theme. Two Jane Austen novels for the wonderful Sacramento Libr...

Our feature today is a reader, writer, instructor, and coach based in Sacramento, California. Valerie Fioravanti , born and raised in New York City, received a BA in Liberal Arts from the New School. She received her MFA in Fiction from New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, where she worked with writers like Kevin McIlvoy, Robert Boswell, Toni Nelson, and Connie Voisine. Her linked story collection, Garbage Night at the Opera , contains stories that have received four Pushcart prize nominations and Special Mention in Pushcart Prize XXVIII. She is currently working on two novels, one of which is a Fulbright Fellowship project for a work set in Italy. Valerie runs the Stories on Stage reading series, which recently won a 2010 Best of Sacramento Award from Sacramento Magazine . This is a deserved award: not only is Valerie a reader (and writer), but she also brings reading to a stage which normally functions as a poetry venue, and as she says in the interview, the series is a great s...

We present one of the most talented young writers from Zimbabwe, Novuyo Rosa Tshuma, an award-winning short fiction writer whose work has appeared in numerous anthologies. She is a student currently pursuing her studies at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. She was the winner of the Intwasa Short Story Competition 2009, and this year she attended numerous writing events and workshops, including the Caine Prize African Writing Workshop 2010 (in Kenya), the Farafina Summer Writing Workshop with writers like Nic Mhlongo, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Binyavanga Wainaina and others. She also attended book launches in South Africa and Botswana,and her short story, "Big Pieces, Little Pieces" appeared in African Roar 2010 , which I co-edited with Ivor W. Hartmann. This reading list says a lot about the quality of the works she read in 2010, but it is the way she talks about her reading that's revealing of the type of writer she is becoming--a powerful prose stylist to ...

Today's feature, Abigail George, is a young South African poet, memoirist, and short story writer. I have read her moving poetry, sometimes in manuscript form. Some of her short fiction has appeared on StoryTime, the weekly African E-Zine. One of her short stories has been selected for African Roar 2011: an Eclectic Anthology of African Authors , which I am co-editing with Ivor W. Hartmann . Here is Abigail George 2010 reading list , followed by an interview I did with her. Manual of the Warrior of Light – Paulo Coelho The Pilgrimage – Paulo Coelho Like the Flowing River – Paulo Coelho The Zahir – Paulo Coelho Once in a House on Fire – Andrea Ashworth Bird by bird – Anne Lamott Body bereft (poetry book) – Antjie Krog Ribbon of rhythm (poetry book) Franny and Zooey – J. D. Salinger The bell jar – Sylvia Plath Ariel – Sylvia Plath (poetry book) I’ll go to bed at noon – Gerard Woodward Almost heaven – Marianne Wiggins Martin Sloane – Michael Redhill How I live now – Meg Rosoff The mi...