WEALTH OF IDEAS

Writivism has announced the 2019 Short story contest shortlist of three short stories. The search for the winning story is still going on, but for now, enjoy the contending stories.  Here are the three writers and links to their stories. Resoketswe Manenzhe, author of  “Maserumo” , is a PhD candidate with the chemical engineering department at the University of Cape Town; this, after receiving her master’s degree with distinction. Starting in 2015, her poems and short stories have appeared in several online magazines and journals, and in 2017, two of her poems were shortlisted for the Sol Plaatje EU Poetry Anthology, and subsequently published in the anthology of selected poems. She currently lives in Cape Town, South Africa, but she’s been known to occasionally wander to the Arctic region, where she fell in love with blueberry pie and a small rural town whose name is difficult to pronounce. Frances Ogamba’s stories appear in Afridiaspora and Writivism 2016 Short Sto...

Thank you for the opportunity to share a few words on writing contests and the emerging writer. While I can talk about different  types of writing competitions, I am going to focus on the short story in this discussion.  I have judged a few writing contests featuring both unpublished and published entries.  One of my earliest judging assignments was in 1996, for the Budding Writers Association of Zimbabwe (BWAZ), the English short story category.  I remember that the winners were Memory Chirere (open category) and Wilson Mutingwende, a high school student  Ndima High School in  Chimanimani. Winning a prize in a writing contest boosts a writer's productivity and exposes their work to publishers and readers. Below is a point-by-point coverage of some of the things I have learned as a judge of different contests. 1. Participating in writing competitions  can potentially lead to your being discovered by publishers and readers. Competitions encourage a sp...

Culture Week is commemorated as part of the universal declaration on cultural diversity by the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) which also declare May 21 as the World day of Cultural diversity for dialogue and development. Mazvihwa, a rural community South East of Zvishavane is set to celebrate in style this year's Culture Week which begins on May 19 to 25 throughout the country.The national launch will be in Gwanda, a more central venue according to the organizers, the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe ( NACZ). A Mazvihwa-based and non-profit organization, Muonde Trust has lined up three crucial Bio- Cultural activities for the week's celebrations.   Top on the list is the collective effort by both the community and Muonde Trust in restoring Mazvihwa's popular sacred forest popularly and locally as ' Rambotemwa'. This sacred forest used to be home to a thousand variety of indigenous tree...

Accra, Ghana, May 10, 2018 - Ghanaian writer, Portia Dery, and South African artist, Toby Newsome have won the internationally coveted Children's Africana Book Award (CABA ) for their book, Grandma’s List.            ( Portia Dery & Toby Newsome, 2018 CABA Winners) The Children's Africana Book Award is an annual prize presented to authors and illustrators of the best children’s and young adult books on Africa published or republished in the U.S.A. The awards were created by Africa Access and the Outreach Council of the African Studies Association (ASA) and its sponsors include the African Studies departments of universities Harvard, Howard and Yale among others. Past winning writers of CABA include Desmond Tutu, Niki Daly and Nnedi Okorafor.       Grandma’s List is a brilliant and colorful story about an 8-year old girl Fatima, who wants to save the day by helping her Grandmother complete her li...

There is an abundance of it on US soil; it seems American publishers have discovered African writers (never mind that that haven't discovered me yet, because I haven't given them a chance to). I remember in the 90s, when I came to this country, I would scour book shelves, in bookstores and libraries, but it was hard to find many books by African writers. Yes, there was Achebe, and of course Ngugi, Soyinka. I needed more though. I couldn't find Marechera (I came to the realization that he had not penetrated the American market). I couldn't find Nervous Conditions, nor Why Don't You Carve Other animals. I couldn't find Bones, The Harvest of Thorns; I couldn't find  The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born; I couldn't find Song of Lawino, nor even The Breast of the Earth. I was okay I guess, because then I made it a mission to find more Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, Richard Wright, Charles Johnson and others in the African American canon. It was good that th...

Who are you?* That's a tricky question. I was born Emmanuel Hove Mhike but I think I'm just a crazy Prince, Prince of Mazvihwa. Why do you write? Writing is my life blood. I think the pen inhales the cabon dioxide I exhales and I inhales the oxygen it exhales :) How do you write? My writing is inspired by events. I do not think deeper. I write about my everyday experiences. Does it pays to be a writer in Zimbabwe? No, you pay to be a writer in Zimbabwe. Writers are living in abject poverty. The whole arts sector is languishing. What can be done? Writers, we are agents of change. Zim politics is the culprit. We don't need violence, Pen is mightier than the gun! Do you enjoy writing? Absolutely! I live to write. I enjoy readers' comments, complaints and complements What can you say about your poems? Here is the Universal remedy. This universe needs some healing, it is suffering from dangerous but curable diseases such as corruption, civil war...

            Straight Out Scribes  ��  NSAA Sean King  ��  Michael Ellis Monday ,  January 16 @ 7:30 pm Sacramento Poetry Center, 1719 25th St Host: Emmanuel Sigauke    Free Admission       Straight Out Scribes Dr. V.S. Chochezi and Staajabu     NSAA  Lawrence E Dinkins Jr     Sean King     Michael Ellis     Straight Out Scribes, Dr. V.S. Chochezi and Staajabu, Sacramento's unique mother/daughter dynamic poetry duo is still in full effect as they embrace the New Year.  If you want to get the year off to an uplifting, inspiring, start come share some positive vibes with Straight Out Scribes!  Dr. V.S. Chochezi and Staajabu also known as Straight Out Scribes have published and performed their original poetry at numerous venu...