WEALTH OF IDEAS

I am excited about the upcoming launch of "Writing Free" in Harare on September 19 at Da Eros (86 East Road, Belgravia), from 5:30 - 7:00 PM. Published by Weaver Press and edited by Irene Staunton, the book features short stories by writers like Petina Gappah, Ignatius Mabasa, Tendai Huchu, NoViolet Bulawayo, Ambrose Musiyiwa, Christopher Mlalazi, Fungisayi Sasa, Blessing Musariri and others. I have a story in there as well, and I am happy about it. My story, entitled "African Wife", opens a new chapter in my writing; it is set in the USA and introduces one of the many Diaspora issues my new stories are exploring. I am excited too because of company of writers I have in that collection, and because of the fact that it's a book being published in Zimbabwe... it feels like writing a letter (maybe an email) back home. Working with editor Irene Staunton by email was a wonderful experience.

Today we feature novelist Tendai Huchu, who has read 51 books so far in 2010. As he admits in his interview, he was a busy reader. He read contemporary works as well as classics; he read award-winning books, but did not necessarily use awards as a criterion to choose what to read, but he would not ignore a book that was making noise, either because it had won an award or was being talked about everywhere. About Tendai Huchu Tendai Huchu, author of The Hairdresser of Harare (Weaver Press, 2010), was born in 1982 in Bindura, Zimbabwe. He attended Churchill High School in Harare and from there went to the University of Zimbabwe to study a degree in Mining Engineering. He dropped out in the middle of the first semester, found work briefly in a casino and from there drifted from one job to the next. Four years later he returned to university and is now a Podiatrist living in Edinburgh, Scotland. Tendai Huchu's 2010 Reading List 1) Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke 2) Ev...

The next priority on my shelf, "The Hairdresser of Harare" by Tendai Huchu. I am excited. Just received my signed copy of Tendai Huchu's The Hairdresser of Harare , a novel published by Weaver Press, Zimbabwe. Many thanks to Tendai for this wonderful gift on a Thursday evening, a great distraction indeed. I have started reading the book, and I like the voice. What I am beginning to enjoy about stories set in Zimbabwe is how over and over again they reach that nostalgic nerve in me, how the mention of something as ordinary as Harare Gardens, the Avenues, or the throwing in of an occasional Shona or Ndebele phrase, can lead whirlpool of memories. It is perhaps a search for some type of Zimbabwean authenticity in the prose (that you can find easily), but it is undoubtedly something that feeds into the rusty homesickness (that's what homesickness becomes when you have been away for too long). For instance, as I read Huchu's novel, I am enjoying, first off, that it h...