WEALTH OF IDEAS

Stories Invited for a Zimbabwean Short Story Collection amaBooks Publishers are planning a collection of Zimbabwean short stories, to be published in 2017.  We are inviting submissions by February 14, 2017. There are no restrictions on the length of the stories, and there is no particular theme. Stories for consideration should be emailed as Word attachments, with no artwork or photographs included, to amabooksbyo@gmail.com . Unfortunately, we will be unable to give feedback on those stories that are not accepted for publication. The writers whose work is accepted will each receive a copy of the book and they will retain copyright of their stories. The previous collections of short writings published by amaBooks include Where to Now? Short Stories from Zimbabwe , Long Time Coming: Short Writings from Zimbabwe and Short Writings from Bulawayo I , II and III . Where to Now? was co-published by Parthian Books in the UK and Long Time Coming was selected by New In...

Title : Together Authors : John Eppel and Julius Chingono. Publisher : UNO Press (USA) Date : 2011 Reviewed by Emmanuel Sigauke One question I remember asking in the late eighties and early nineties in Zimbabwe is: Where are all the white writers? I could easily have concluded that Zimbabwe had no white writers, or that white Zimbabweans could not write. But I remembered that when I started school in the 70s, before Zimbabwe's independence, I had read stories and poems by white writers in school. So, as works by black writers flourished in the eighties, what was happening to works by white writers? John Eppel hints at  one of the many possible answers in a short essay in the poetry collection, 'State of the Nation': "None of the Zimbabwean presses would publish me; none of the South African presses. Influential academics (and editors) of anthologies, not only at home but in those countries starched with political correctness like post-independent South ...

'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 i...

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 ...

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...

Chris Mlalazi This is big. Congratulations are in order for Chris, for his impressive creative journey from NAMA (Zimbabwe) to NOMA (Japan). His short story collection, Dancing with Life: Tales from the Township has won an Honourable Mention in the 2009 Noma Awards, one of the most significant book prizes in Africa. The book was one of the four books shortlisted for the 2009 Award, chosen from submissions by 43 publishers in 12 different African countries. Sefi Atta of Nigeria won Noma Award, worth $10 000, for her short story collection Lawless and Other Stories , which is published in the USA as News from Home . Tunisian writer Sonia Chamkhi’s Leila ou la femme de l’aube , and Love in the Time of Treason , by South Africa’s Zubeida Jaffer also received the Honourable Mention. The other members of the Jury in 2009 were Walter Bgoya from Tanzania (jury chair, Professor Simon Gikandi (a US-based expert on African literature), Robert Schirmer Professor of English at Princeton Unive...

Lately, I have been reading fiction that features Bulawayo a lot, starting with Short Writings from Bulawayo II and Long Time Coming, both edited by Jane Morris and published in Bulawayo by amaBooks, to Yvonne Vera's Stone Virgins and Chris Mlalazi's Many Rivers (the latter is set in Johannesburg, but Bulawayo plays a significant part), and now I am reading The Boy Next Door by Irene Sabatini, which gives abundant details about Bulawayo as a setting. Bulawayo matters to me, especially in my fiction. Since I grew up in Mazvihwa, I had easier access to Bulawayo than Harare. Mine was known as the Harare family, because all my older brothers worked in Harare, but most families in Mototi sent their children to Bulawayo. Even our local bus brought more passengers from Bulawayo than anywhere else, and most of my school mates spent their holidays in Bulawayo, and when they came back, we heard all about it. It was where, for instance, Leni (fictionalized name) escaped to when his un...

Showing off my copy of Long Time Coming in San Franciso, after the Mabasa reading. I chose to stand by the lion statue because I was reminiscing on the on days when the Zimbabwe Book Publishers Association, led by Miriam Bamhare, with some of its processes coordinated by Ignatius Mabasa, used the motto: A Lion's Share of Reading1 . So these short writings from Zimbabwe are really short, the length of the standard flash fiction,snippets of life in contemporary Zimbabwe. We have Petina Gappah writing about a dying bridegroom, a story that woes you with its humor and musicality, but sends you to tears with the grimness of its subject; Ignatius Mabasa, writing about a man who has forgotten his name in "Some Kind of Madness", a story that echoes Charles Mungoshi, but retains Mabasa's signature treatment of the theme of madness; there is the expected Chris Mlalazi (he has an intrusive voice that will uncover the filth and beauty of Bulawayo in a sweep of fast-paced prose; ...

Ignatius Mabasa at the Western Addition Libray in downtown San Francisco. This has got to be one of the best poetry events in the United States, its magnitude and the display of international talent. Listening to the poets read in their languages, you could tell that they had to be some of the best in their countries. Syrian poet Maram al-Massri who read with Mabasa. Of course, there was one of Zimbabwe's best poets, Ignatius Mabasa, who read in Shona. I caught him in action at an event that featured him and the Syrian poet Maram al-Massri. It was a wonderful reading. Each poem was read twice, first in Shona, then in English. Mabasa was paired with San Francisco poet Michael Warr, who read the English versions of the poems. Of course, I sat there laughing long before anyone else in the room understood what was happening. It felt like an honor for my family to be the only people in the audience who understood what the poet was saying in Shona; then I laughed again (there is humor...