Zimbabwean author Tsitsi Dangarembga to judge Graywolf Press African Fiction Prize 2023

Tsitsi Dangarembga is set to judge the manuscript entries for the US$12,000 Graywolf Press African Fiction Prize 2023. Entries are welcomed from February 1 – 28, 2023.

Graywolf Press was founded with limited-edition chapbooks of poetry by Scott Walker in Port Townsend, Washington, USA in 1974. It has grown to become one of the leading publishers in North America.

It has also published several African writers such as Nuruddin Farah, Anouar Benmalek, Binyavanga Wainaina, and A. Igoni Barrett.

In 2018, they introduced a new initiative they called the Graywolf Press Africa Fiction Prize where writers sent their manuscripts and got the chance to win publication and a US$12,000 advance. 

The first judge for the award was A. Igoni Barrett and it has since been won by Khadija Abdalla Bajaber and Noor Naga.

The 2023 edition of the prize is here with the announcement of the new callout for manuscripts. 

The prize will this year be judged by Tsitsi Dangarembga, author of the Booker Prize short-listed This Mournable Body and the forthcoming Black and Female, in conjunction with Graywolf editors.

Submissions must be full-length, previously unpublished first novels, or first novels published in Africa that have not been distributed or available for sale outside of the continent of Africa. 

The winning manuscript will receive a $12,000 advance and publication by Graywolf Press.

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Social worker mourns mother in poetry collection

The pain of losing a mother to cancer prompted United Kingdom-based social worker Nkosiyazi Kan Kanjiri to pen a poetry collection titled Looking For Mother, his debut book.

Kanjiri’s mother elinah Hlongwane succumbed to cancer in 2008 the year that she was diagnosed with the deadly disease. He was 16.

He told NewsDay Life & Style that he wanted to find a way to deal with the loss when he wrote the poems that include Looking For Her, When Mother Died and Home Is A Memory.

“my mother died in 2008 and i only shed my first tears in 2013 after i had said, let me write the story of my life. So when i was writing this book (which i am still to finish) i would be crying, thinking about my mother. This is how i shed the first tears five years after losing my mother,” he said.

“The first section titled Mother, Home, Memories, is an attempt to mourn my mother. Not every poem in that section is about my mother, for example Hell Heaven, Home and Mothers Memories. They just carry the mother theme and talk about issues affecting women.” Kanjiri said there were several other losses that the collection talked about.

“Overall, the poems are about coming to terms with loss. i wanted to bring out the fact that hope and resilience are not built by shying away from our loss, but from facing it and communicating it as frankly as possible,” he said.

The book, which was published late last year, is available on Amazon and it contains 65 poems.

“The book is now on Amazon as an e-book and paperback. So, anyone can order it from there. But i will make it available in book stores later because not everyone can purchase on Amazon,” he said.

Kanjiri was second winner of the Drama For Life Online Poetry Contest held by the University of Witswatersrand, South africa, in 2007 at the time he was studying at Fort Hare University.

in 2019, his poems were selected for the South african aVBoB (afrikaanse Verbond Begrafnis ondernemings Beperk) poetry project and in 2020 some of his poems were published by Fundza Literary Trust.

He contributed poems to three anthologies, namely Eagle on Iroko (2016), Zimbolicious: An Anthology of Zimbabwean Literature and Arts Volume 3 (2017) and Best “New” African Poets (2018).

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Setswana novelist out to preserve language through writing

A novelist, Nkululeko Jackson, hopes that his Setswana novels will preserve the language especially among the younger generation that is slowly losing the grip on the language. 

The Francistown-born author says he will continue to do his part to ensure that the language does not disappear, through his ‘Mosadi’ book series comprising of 10 editions.

The over 40-year-old has always been passionate about the Setswana language from an early age. 

His latest offering, ‘Matsale wa Moloi,’ is an intriguing read about one of the most known toxic relationships of humankind, that of a bride and her mother-in-law.

He says among many cultures across the world, the relationship between a bride and her mother-in-law is known to always attract negative attention. 

Through ‘Matsale wa Moloi,’ he highlights striking elements that define such a relationship and suggests healthier ways of resolving differences between the two.

His work currently targets young readers and fiction lovers. “I didn’t know I had a way with the language until several people began to notice it through my writings,” he said, adding that he realised that it was serious when people began to approach him for help with Setswana. 

Jackson worked on the book for a long five years, until he was satisfied that it was good enough to hit the market. It was published in 2022. 

“People who have read it are extremely impressed by the storyline. No one seems to predict the end. Many readers like the style of writing and the way the language has been used,” he said, adding that such feedback has inspired him to go on.

Jackson’s intention is to build a powerful publishing company that will revive the Setswana language. 

“I will like to produce what I refer to as Setswana edutainment - a combination of education and entertainment powerhouse.” 

One of his challenges is that since the book was self-published, it is still sold from his car boot, a predicament that most local authors find themselves in. 

It can also be accessed from Botswana Book Centre in Gaborone. He bemoans the lack of market for their work. 

“We do not have enough edictionaries, e-encyclopaedia, Thesaurus, spell checkers installed on systems to ease our work,” he says. 

He has also observed with regret that nowadays, there is a poor reading culture and it gets worse when it comes to Setswana.

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Brilliant Senegalese writer took to film making to make his writing more accessible

January 1 2023 marked the centenary of the birth of Ousmane Sembène, the Senegalese novelist and filmmaker hailed as the father of African cinema.

Over the course of five decades, Sembène published 10 books and directed 12 films across three distinct periods.

He has been celebrated for his beautifully crafted political works, which range in style from the psychological realism of Black Girl in 1966 to the biting satire of Xala (The Curse) in 1974.

Since his death in 2007, Sembène’s status as a pioneer has been further cemented.
But the sheer variety and richness of his work, his ability to reinvent himself as an artist, has often been overlooked.

On the occasion of his centenary, it’s worth looking at what made him such a remarkable creative presence.

Unlike many of his literary peers, Sembène did not come to writing via the colonial education system.

In fact, he left school early and was largely self-educated.

He was born into the minority Lebou community in the southern Senegalese region of Casamance.

His father was a fisherman. He later moved to the colonial capital of Dakar.
After serving in the French Army in the Second World War, he moved to France in 1946.

Employed as a dockworker in Marseilles in the 1950s, he developed a love of literature through the library of the communist-affiliated trade union, the Confédération Générale du Travail.

His first novel, The Black Docker (1956), self-consciously explores the difficulties faced by a working-class black writer seeking to become a published author.

Sembène’s most celebrated novel, God’s Bits of Wood (1960), is a fictionalised account of the 1947-1948 railway strike in colonial French West Africa.

A sweeping epic, set across three different locations with a host of characters, the book illustrates Sembène’s Marxist, pan-Africanist vision of anticolonialism.

He believed the overthrow of colonial powers could best be achieved through alliances between workers across national and ethnic divides.

God’s Bits of Wood is often described as the classic Sembène text, politically committed and realist in style.

However, it proved to be the high water mark of his exploration of literary realism.

In 1960, he returned to Africa after more than a decade in Europe to tour a continent emerging from colonial domination.

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South African readers intrigued by Prince Harry's book "Spare" as pre orders pile up

The British royal drama has been laid bare in Prince Harry’s memoir, Spare, which broke sales records, selling millions during its first week on the shelves. However, once the secrets are known and there’s nothing left to read about, sales could drop.

According to The Guardian, the book’s title comes from an old saying in royal and aristocratic circles, that the first son is an heir to titles, power and fortune and a second, Harry, was therefore a spare, should anything happen to the first-born.

The book details the prince’s anger towards his royal family and the trauma he has lived with for 25 years following the death of his mother, Princess Diana.

He has accused his family of leaking stories about himself and his wife to the UK media. Among many other royal secrets, the prince also details his struggle with drugs, including cocaine, marijuana and magic mushrooms.

But it was the revelation of killing 25 Taliban fighters in leaked manuscripts that got Harry into hot water.

He allegedly called those he killed “chess pieces taken off the board”.

However, he has defended himself, saying his words were taken out of context and that the claims were a “dangerous lie”.

Emeritus Professor in History Studies at the University of Kwazulunatal, Donal Mccracken, said by convention kings and queens do not go public when attacked.

 Therefore, a one-sided melodrama was being presented to the world. Nevertheless, most of the British press was fighting a proxy war on behalf of King Charles III.

Mccracken added that there were two main factors in the Harry versus King Charles and Prince William saga.

The first was Harry losing his allowances as a working British royal, and the millions of dollars he was set to make by going public with his views on behind-the-scenes shenanigans mixed up with family “tittle-tattle”.

“The second factor, strongly linked to the money element, is the advent of instant and rapid mass media and communication.

“This has exported the soap drama to a world audience,” he said.

“Possibly, as with such royal disputes in previous centuries, the natural order of the British establishment will reassert itself and we shall witness something of an armed truce, with an exiled court in glamorous California, a battered but revived stoic and slimmed-down monarch in Britain and a media vindicated in that it had already speculated on much which has now gone public.”

Since its release, the memoir has taken a top 10 spot on the best-seller list at Exclusive Books.

Batya Bricker of Exclusive Books said the Harry and Meghan Netflix documentary and the international hype around the book have undoubtedly contributed to South African interest.

The book was under strict embargo at bookstores until Tuesday, but a delay in delivery from the UK resulted in local deliveries being a few days late.

“We had more pre-orders for this book than any other. We were expecting there to be great demand. It’s also all over social media networks and that always has an influence on the popularity of a title,” she said.

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Winners choose to mend - A forgiveness poem

Friendships are like tree trunks:
They twist, they break, they bend.
But you won't see much growing trees
Unless we choose to mend.

Well, what if it's your grandmother?
Your neighbor or best friend?
They soon could be a nobody
If you don't choose to mend.

"It's not MY fault!" you shrug and scoff,
"THEY chose to offend!"
Pointing the blame's a sore loser's game.
Winners choose to mend.
Perhaps you think, "I'll play along."
Like an actor, you'll pretend.
How can you heal what isn't real?
Take a bow and mend!

Before you post those hurtful words,
Reflect before you "SEND”.
Rethink your tone, put down the phone,
Reconnect, and mend.
Sure, it might not be easy,
It may not be the trend.
It could be strange, but things won't change
Unless we choose to mend.

By Farai Diza

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Poem of the day - A sadness in my soul

There’s a sadness in my soul
A feeling I can’t control
There’s a hurt in my heart
And I don’t know where to start
The thoughts in my head
Have become my daily dread
For now I know it’s true
I cannot be with you.

All the pain that I have caused
Our lives being paused
The things that have been said
Keep me up all night in bed
I hoped we’d have forever
And I can’t believe it’s never
For the love I have for you
Is the deepest and most true
You gave me more than I can say.

  

I’m so sorry its gone this way
No one could ever know
The depth of our twin souls
The connection that we have
Leaves me longing for what I crave
The way you made me feel
It felt so ing real
For the first time in my life
My heart is broken and full of strife
I don’t know how I’ll get through
Every day without you.

The love and joy we shared
Can never be compared
I can’t believe we’re over
You were always my dream lover
I will always think of you
In my dreams and daylight too
You’re the one who gave me reason
And now all I feel is beaten
I will remember every time
Your voice, your eyes, your smile
You’re the one who taught me so much
Our time together was such a rush
I hope you are OK.

And that you remember every day
Our love became my home
And you will never be alone
For I will hold you in my heart
So we will never be apart
You are mine and I am yours
But this life must take its course
And even if it takes forever.

There could never be another
For this love is deep and true
My heart will always beat for you
Our twin souls know the plan
We may never understand
Two souls that Are each other
Are destined to love no other

Penni Will

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Young writer wins publishing deal

For the young authors who won a publishing deal with the Charmza Literacy Club in Knysna, 2023 has presented itself as the year of opportunities.

Charmza, in collaboration with the Knysna municipality, hosted the Emerging Writers Workshop on November 4-5 at the Masifunde Library.

The workshop was offered to up-and-coming writers to experience a curriculum designed to develop and support their imaginative writing across different literary genres.

According to Charmaine Mrwebi, founder of the Charmza Literacy Club, the publishing opportunity was meant to be awarded to only one person but because of the amount of talent, three writers were chosen.

After writing her first book in 2008 and struggling to publish it, Mrwebi saw an opportunity to create a room for upand-coming authors where they would be assisted with not only publishing, but selling their books as well.

“I saw a need to start a foundation that will create a room for writers. When I started this foundation, the aim was to help up-and-coming first-time authors.

“I was inspired by the amount of talent in Knysna and decided this should be a permanent partnership,” Mrwebi said.

Phelelani Best, 21, one of the winning authors, said she was excited to start the year on a positive note.

“I once gave up on writing because no-one believed in me or motivated me,” Best said.

“But I chose to stand by my dreams and because of that I was rewarded with a writing opportunity.”

Best said she had seen the post on the Knysna municipality Facebook page about entering a writing competition and leapt at the opportunity.

She already had a manuscript called “Pain Changed Me”.

She then attended the three-day course, where she learnt about poetry, scriptwriting and storytelling.

She was then selected alongside two other equally talented authors, Zukhanye Lama and Siyamamnkela Yalolo, to publish their books with the help of Charmza.

The aim is have the scripts of the young authors published in June.

Zukhanye, a grade 10 pupil at Concordia High School, said he was glad he had taken the opportunity as he had now been introduced to other writers in the town.
“Now I have people to share ideas with,” he said.

“They inspire me with their stories and we keep each other motivated.”

He hopes to grow his craft and that it will be enough to sustain him financially when he is older.

Mrwebi advised people wanting to become writers to join their local libraries.

“Reading will help you to learn about how writing works, so attend book events and start writing,” she said.

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Visually impaired South African poet has inspired a nation for two decades

Visually impaired, she uses technology to record the words that have come to inspire so many South African women and children.

Now, celebrating 20 years as a poet, Lelethu Mahambehlala, known as PoeticSoul, is paying it forward by developing future poets through her Umyalezo (Message) poetry project.

Mahambehlala, 40, of Bluewater Bay, started performing poetry at underground sessions in Parliament Street, Central, in 2003, then known as a hip-hop hub.

The LLB law graduate lost her vision in 2013 due to a swelling on her brain, which affected her optic nerve.

Her sight might have faded, but she never lost her zeal for life and her passion for poetry only grew.

Technology, over the years, has made writing poetry easier on her smartphone and computer with the assistance of the Nkosinathi Foundation for blind and visually impaired people.

“I decided to do this project to honour the space of poetry, because it is poetry that launched me into the space of everything else that I am able to do.

“I remembered once sitting in a workshop organised by mama Nomhle Nkonyeni, with Napo Mashiyane as the facilitator.

“I remembered how Mashiyane performed in front of us with her whole body, showcasing how poetry is in everything that we are,” Mahambehlala said.

She started with her first workshop last month, teaching 15 poets at the Mendi Arts Centre in New Brighton how to perform as an artist, the business side of the arts, and how to develop an audience, among other things.

In the Umyalezo poetry project, artists can submit their poems under six themes — “Freedom in the new age”; “Initiating boys to men”, “Women birthing nations”; “The right to food”; “The value of the family unit in the midst of genderbased violence and HIV”; and “African romance”.

Entries for the project, funded by the National Arts Council and the sports, arts and culture department under the Presidential Employment Stimulus Programme, closes on Friday.

The project is set to create employment for more than 20 people while changing the lives of six poets.

“We are working in partnership with Mpuma Kapa TV and Kqfm. The poets chosen for each theme will get an opportunity to shoot a video and an audio recording.

“The video of each poet will be shown on Mpuma Kapa TV every second month for a month.

“Thereafter it will be put on YouTube to give the poets an online presence. The audio will be played on radio every second month for each theme and the poets will perform in front of a live audience on March 18 for at least 20 minutes each after we have prepared them,” she said.

Mahambehlala, who won the Lentswe Poetry Project, which was run by SABC2, in 2006, had her poem Woman played for a month on the channel.

She said this was one of her highlights. She added that she wanted to combine her experiences and teach developing poets.

Artists can email their poems to umyalezopoetryproject@ gmail.com or call her for more information on 071-550-0362.

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Brazilian legend Pele celebrated in poetic words

There will never be another like him
A Son of Brazil
A Father to Football
The Goat of all Goats
Fearless at Heart
Performing Miracles
Turning Football into something spiritual
On the Field Making him God's gift to Man

Thank You For The Beautiful Game!

Author Unknown 

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African poetry set to grow in leaps and bounds in 2023

The African poetry scene is set to grow in leaps and bounds in 2023. That is according to those who believe in the beauty of poetry on the continent. 

More attention is being thrust into this untapped spot. The intrigue and love for African poetry is growing.  

The emergence of the Afro Poetry Times has also been a real game changer in the poetic and literally arts sector on the continent. 

The Afro Poetry Times aims at keeping the African poetry and literary arts conversation alive. 

The December issue was filled with Christmas poems from all over the world. If you missed the issue, get your copy from the link below. 

https://www.pressreader.com/canada/afro-poetry-times/20221201

The January issue has also lived up to its billing. Get your copy from the link below. 

https://www.pressreader.com/canada/afro-poetry-times/20230101

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