“IN CELEBRATION OF FEMALE LITERATURE”

To honour the 2013 Zimbabwe International Book Fair (ZIBF), the bookshop at Book Café in conjunction with ZIMBABWE WOMEN WRITERS and PAMBERI TRUST announces an evening “IN CELEBRATION OF FEMALE LITERATURE” on Wednesday 2nd October at Book Café, 139 Samora Machel Avenue, Harare.

 

The celebration features performances and readings from Zimbabwe’s sensational young poet Cynthia Marangwanda who brought the house down at Poetry Africa (2012) and who has performed in Netherlands and South Africa, and alongside her the fast-rising Mbira player and vocalist Pauline Gundidza, with a literary reading from Zimbabwe’s very own doyenne of women writers, Barbara Nkala.  

 

Cynthia Marangwanda: A Dikson Slamajamjar Photo

A discussion platform on the theme: “How are female figures represented in contemporary Zimbabwean fiction?” will be led bywriter and a media consultant Tinashe Mushakavanhu with writerIsabel Bandason (nee Mafuso).

 

Tinashe Mushakavanhu holds a PhD in English from University of Kent and degrees from Welsh and Zimbabwean universities. He has co-edited four books including State of the Nation: Contemporary Zimbabwean Poetry (2009) and Visa Stories: Experiences Between Law and Migration (2013). Creative writer and businesswoman Isabel Bandason is a passionate exponent of positive images of African women in literature and has been a member of Zimbabwe Women Writers since 1992.

 

Tinashe Mushakavanhu
 

The moderator will be Mrs Ruby Magosvongwe who is a ZWW and ZIBF board member and Lecturer in the Department of English at the UZ, among other portfolios.

 

Literary Competition

The celebration will launch a literary competition, to write a 300-word essay on “The female writer (or a novel or story written by a female) that changed my life and perception” open to Zimbabweans, with prizes and public readings to be announced.