Togara Muzanenhamo in Europe

Togara Muzanenhamo headed for Europe this week to take part in international poetry events. This follows the successful launches of his collaboration with John Eppel, Textures, in both Bulawayo and Harare. The poetry in Textures has been well received by those attending the launches and particularly by reviewers.

Firstly, he will be in The Netherlands for the 46th Poetry International Festival Rotterdam from 9-13 June. He will read from his recent poetry publications, Gumiguru and Textures, at the opening and closing ceremonies of the 'Reasons to be Cheerful Festival', as well as at several events during the festival, sharing the stage with with China's Guo Jinniu, Belgium's Els Moors, Holland's Hester Knibbe, Russia's Philip Nikolayev, Britain's Jen Hadfield and Australia's Lionel Fogarty. Togara will also talk about the craft of his poetry on the afternoon of Saturday 13 June.

From The Netherlands, Muzanenhamo plans to travel on to the United Kingdom for a number of events, including participating in the Ledbury Poetry Festival in early July. Ledbury will feature many well-known poets, including Simon Armitage, Paul Henry, Don Paterson,

Rowan Williams, Jonathan Edwards, John Burnside, Sophie Hannah, Ko Un and John Cooper Clarke. Togara will share the stage with John Burnside on 12 July, the last day of the festival.

Togara is no stranger to poetry events in Europe, having been on several residencies and the Zimbabwe representative at Poetry Parnassus, 'the greatest gathering of poets in world history' in London in 2012.

Photograph courtesy of Rumbi Katedza