US University Press to Release book by two Zimbabwean Authors

'Together', a collaborative book by John Eppel and Julius Chingono, will be released by the University of New Orleans Press. The book is co-published with Zimbabwe's 'amaBooks, which is based in Bulawayo and the University of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa). I look forward to this work.


Julius Chingono (1946 -2011) was born on a commercial farm near Harare. He spent most of his working life as a rock blaster in the mines. He wrote in both Shona and English, and won awards for poems written in both languages. He had five books published: one play, Ruvimbo; one novel, Chipo Changu; two poetry collections, Flag of Rags and Kazwi; and one collection of short stories and poetry, Not Another Day. His poem They are picked was chosen by New Internationalist for their collection Fire in the Soul, of the best 100 human rights poems from across the world over the last 100 years. Julius read his poetry at various international festivals, including the Poetry International Festival in the Netherlands, Poetry Africa in Durban, and the Shaari International Poetry Festival in Israel. He died in January 2011, after a short illness.



Born in South Africa in 1947, John Eppel was raised in Zimbabwe, where he still lives, teaching English at Christian Brothers College in Bulawayo. His first novel, D G G Berry’s The Great North Road, won the M-Net prize and was listed in the Weekly Mail & Guardian as one of the best 20 South African books in English published between 1948 and 1994. His second novel, Hatchings, was short-listed for the M-Net prize and was chosen for the series in the Times Literary Supplement of the most significant books to have come out of Africa. His other novels are The Giraffe Man, The Curse of the Ripe Tomato, The Holy Innocents and Absent: The English Teacher. His poetry collections include Spoils of War, which won the Ingrid Jonker Prize, Sonata for Matabeleland, Selected Poems: 1965-1995 and Songs My Country Taught Me. He has written two collections of poetry and short stories: The Caruso of Colleen Bawn and White Man Crawling.

John’s short stories and poems have appeared in many anthologies, journals and websites, including six poems in the Penguin Anthology of South African Poetry. His poem Vendor and Child was chosen by New Internationalist for their collection Fire in the Soul, of the best 100 human rights poems from across the world over the last 100 years.