WEALTH OF IDEAS

And here are the details from the Caine Prize website: The shortlist for the 2013 Caine Prize for African Writing has been announced today (Wednesday 15 May) – and among the five stories chosen are an unprecedented four Nigerian entries.   The Chair of judges, art historian and broadcaster, Gus Casely-Hayford said, “The shortlist was selected from 96 entries from 16 African countries. They are all outstanding African stories that were drawn from an extraordinary body of high quality submissions.”   Gus described the shortlist saying, “The five contrasting titles interrogate aspects of things that we might feel we know of Africa – violence, religion, corruption, family, community – but these are subjects that are deconstructed and beautifully remade. These are challenging, arresting, provocative stories of a continent and its descendants captured at a time of burgeoning change.”   The winner of the £10,000 prize is to be announced at a celebratory dinner at the B...

______________ Beaven Tapureta ______________ Guests mingling few minutes before the start of Marechera commemoration at the ZGS, Harare, March 13 (Photo: Zimbabwe/Germany Society) Following the publication of short personal narratives on the late Dambudzo Marechera’s love affair with his biographer Flora Veit-Wild (who authored the narratives) in the current issue of Wasafiri , a London-based journal for international contemporary writing, Marechera’s life has become a poser that will keep challenging even literary and cultural luminaries in new, interesting ways. The power of Marechera’s life story, which is inseparable from his texts, was clearly felt at his  commemoration held at the Zimbabwe-Germany Society, Harare, on the evening of March 13. The event, running under the theme “Re-visiting Dambudzo Marechera: Old Texts Brought to Life”, had a mixed-bag of panelists drawn from different fields in the literary sector and was moderated by Flora ...