Love Letters From a Fat Man by Naomi Benaron

Love Letters from a Fat Man, winner of the G.S. Sharat Chandra Prize for Short Fiction.

I introduce Naomi Benaron, whose short story will be appearing in the next issue of Munyori Literary Journal. Benaron, MFA Antioch, professor of Creative Writing and Geology in Tuscon, Arizona, has published short story in journals and anthologies. Her award-winning short story collection has been hailed by Gayle Bandeis as "fearless" because it "shines into the darkest corners of human existence and, in doing so, helps us both bear witness to atrocity and find hope and healing." Brad Kessler describes the stories as "tender, knowing, sometimes wicked, often wise, always heartfelf."

Love Letters from a Fat Man is one of the books on my reafing list. I have already found the title story to be innovative in style in its utilization of the email format. The stories set in Rwanda seem promising too, and I am always drawn to this introduction of one them: "Lake Kivu...was formed on the hot, dry plains of northwestern Rwanda when a selfish and deceitful wife squatted down in her fields to relieve herself. As punishment for her bad behavior, Imana made her waters flow until her fields were covered, and she drowned." With the allusion to this legend, I am immediately drawn into the world of the story.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

FREEDOM, a poem on South Africa by Afzal Moolla

Freedom The shackles have been cast off. Chains broken. People once squashed, under the jackboot of Apartheid, are free. Free at last! Freedom came on the 27th day in that April, 1994. Freedom from prejudice. From institutionalised racism. From being relegated to second-class citizenship. Freedom came and we danced. We cried. We ululated as we elected our revered Mandela. President Nelson Mandela. Our very own beloved 'Madiba'. Black and white and brown and those in-between, All hues of this rainbow nation, rejoiced as we breathed in the air of freedom and democracy. Today we pause. We remember. We salute. The brave ones whose sacrifices made this day possible, on that 27th day of April, 18 years ago. Today we dance. We sing. We ululate. We cry. Tears of joy and tears of loss. Of remembrance and of forgiveness. Of reconciliation and of memories. Today we pause. We acknowledge the tasks ahead. The hungry. The naked. The destitut
Read more

Abuja Writers' Forum Call for Submissions

Wordsbody has announced the following call for submissions: CAVALCADE literary journal, devoted to publishing original stories, poems,one-act plays, reviews, critical essays and art from an African perspective,will debut in October 2008 with a special edition. The tri-annual journal, a project of the Abuja Writers' Forum (AWF), is now seeking submissions for the second and third editions. Deadline: October 30, 2008 See more details here: Contribute to Cavalcade.
Read more

Importance of African Languages in African Literature

Once in a while, I check  the search engines terms that are driving the most traffic to my blog, Wealth of Ideas, and the searches are often revealing of what kinds of information people are looking for  at any time. Today, of the several interesting ones,  "the importance of African languages in African literature" stood out. It's a topic I too am passionate about. I have written about it before in a post entitled " Language in African Literature ", but even this doesn't begin to cover the most important facts about the issue. Perhaps one day I will write treatise on the topic of language in African literature, and mini posts like this are my way of mapping a project description. But now let's go to some serious stuff on African languages in African Literature. Let me start by saying that I am annoyed by glossaries. Their intent seems to be to appeal to a foreign audience, or, most importantly, to any speakers for whom the glossaried language is forei
Read more