Textures launched in Harare

from Panorama Magazine: 

http://www.panorama.co.zw/index.php/archives/115-pan-news/856-poets-launch-new-book

  

Togara Muzanenhamo and John Eppel were in Harare for the launch of their poetry book, Textures, published by Bulawayo-based amaBooks.

The well-attended and engaging session was marked by readings from Textures by the two authors, followed by a conversation the two had with poet and publisher, Ignatius Tirivangani Mabasa. 

Speaking at the event, British Council Director, Samantha Harvey, said they were always looking to see how they can add value to the literary and publishing sector.

The event coincided with World Diversity Day, an occasion set aside by the United Nations International for the promotion of diversity issues. 

The concept of diversity encompasses acceptance and respect. It means understanding that each individual is unique, and recognizing individual differences. But it also requires the need to recognize how much people have in common.

 Addressing a cross-section of guests at the Harare launch, amaBooks’ Brian Jones referenced the opinion of the Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, saying:

 “Every poem is unique but each reflects the universal human experience, the aspiration for creativity that crosses all boundaries and borders, of time as well as space, in the constant affirmation of humanity as a single family.”

He said Muzanenhamo’s words in the introduction to the book are apt and quoting the much-travelled poet said:

 “It fascinates me how similar people are. You can go to any country and find we all possess the same emotions; perhaps we speak different languages, and there’s a different landscape, but the baseline to all humanity strums at the same rhythm.”

Muzanenhamo and Eppel, he said, are two very different poets with much in common.

Eppel was born in South Africa, moved to Zimbabwe when he was very young, and stayed, apart from a few years away in South Africa finishing his education. 

Muzanenhamo was born in Zambia, moved to this country when he was very young, and stayed, apart from a few years away in Europe finishing his education. 

Eppel has had four poetry collections published – all in Southern Africa. Muzanenhamo has had two poetry collections published – both in the United Kingdom.

Eppel won the Ingrid Jonker Prize for his first collection, Muzanenhamo was shortlisted for the Jerwood Aldeburgh Prize for his first collection.

Eppel is well respected as a writer – in poetry and prose, winning the MNET Prize for his debut novel, having his second chosen for the Times Literary Supplement series on the most significant books from Africa, and having five other novels, two collections of stories and poems, and two collaborations with other writers, Julius Chingono and Philani Nyoni, published.

 Muzanenhamo is well respected as a poet – he was chosen as Zimbabwe’s representative to Poetry Parnassus – the greatest gathering of poets in the world that coincided with the 2012 London Olympic Games, as well as attending the World Literature and other international festivals and residences. Soon after this launch he will be heading for Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom for a residency and festivals.

In this collection Eppel’s poems are noticeably rooted in the soil of Bulawayo; Muzanenhamo’s range more widely, from the Arctic wastes, down through North America to South America, across the Atlantic to Britain, the Netherlands and France, down to Somalia and then to rural Mashonaland farmland.

 But, as Drew Shaw says in his introduction, “they both weave words beautifully, making music, and they both adhere to a core structure of poetry – the rhythm, the rhyme…” They are both recognized masters of the craft of poetry.

 Quoting from some of the reviews of Textures, Brian Jones said: “This is a book about precious feelings”, “A journey of wonder” and “A well crafted and creatively satisfying anthology that often oozes with perfection.”

Australian poet Fred Simpson says in his review of Textures: “Their differences are obvious: one poet, grounded in Bulawayo, generally writes short, evocative, personal and structured poems to probe the subconscious and unearth, in heart-breaking beauty, penetrating truths; while the other, a citizen of the world, crafts longer narratives gathered from everywhere, and delivers them in spell-binding voice and imagery. 

“Stepping back, however, we see a pattern emerging, a collaboration that spurns the pettiness of competing poetry schools and prescribed content; we see a portrait of love which takes our breath away. Robert Graves stated that his poetic intention was ‘to mesmerise time with stored magic’. Textures achieves this.”

The launch at the Book Cafe was supported by the Culture Fund and British Council. 

Drew Shaw wrote the introduction to the book; Helen Leiros donated the painting that appears on the cover; and Veena Bhana designed the cover.

Accompanying are some of the images from the Harare launch of Textures. – © Panorama Magazine 2015.

Textures, poems by John Eppel and Togara Muzanenhamo, to be launched in Harare

On Ideas and Stuff - Tendai Huchu

On Ideas And Stuff 

The following article was written by Tendai Huchu.

from: www.culturefund.org.zw

Where do your ideas come from? There isn’t a writer who hasn’t been hit by this question at one literary event or the other. This month I published The Worshipful Company of Milliners, a speculative fiction story in Interzone, Britain’s oldest SF magazine. The story is about writers’ ideas, which are represented as hats made by magical milliners in an old brick factory in Southerton. The milliners are there in lieu of the muses who’ve long since abandoned that particular form.

I’m no closer to figuring out where ideas come from (somewhere in the neocortex?), but the exploration of one idea often leads to other ideas. Sort of a variation on the law of accelerating returns: the more I write, the more ideas I have, and so on, easily plottable on an exponential graph. After my first novel The Hairdresser of Harare was published, I was surprised by many requests for a sequel from well-meaning readers. The book has an open ending, but that ending represents the author going of stage and leaving the space for the reader – who is, after all, co-creator of the work – to add their twist, their imagination to the story. A German school once sent me a dozen or so alternate endings that their students had come up with for the story. The idea that there is one definitive version of a narrative is, historically, a new concept, so, given our strong oral tradition, the invitation to go beyond the text is one the Zimbabwean reader should embrace.

Fast forward to 2015 and my new novel The Maestro, The Magistrate & The Mathematician has been published by amaBooks with the backing of The Culture Fund. I’ve grown, I’ve changed, become interested in different things; the story is different, perhaps a little more complex. Most writers cannot be static, like sharks they must keep on swimming forever or die where they stand. The movement is found in experimentation, constant exploration of different forms and possibilities. This change means losing some readers, not everyone who was with you for the last text will be there for the next, and gaining a new audience.

At the moment I’m doing a bit of work in short stories in different genres. I’ve found that switching genres with their different rules and conventions often means discovering new techniques and different ways of viewing literature as an art form. But if you strip away the bullshit explanation for why I’m doing this, then you find the kid who was into the Hardy Boys, Space Operas, Greek Mythology and all sorts of weird stuff in school. I’m merely writing what I want to read.

The ideas are already there in the ether that is sometimes called the library, at other times the bookstore, even life itself. Above and beyond that, I can say nothing more that might be vaguely considered meaningful.

Zimbabwean novel crosses borders: Southern Eye

TENDAI Huchu’s second novel The Maestro, The Magistrate & The Mathematician that was produced by ’amaBooks is set to be published outside the country later this year.

SHARON SIBINDI
OWN CORRESPONDENT, SOUTHERN EYE. February 13, 2015

The book is to be published in the West African countries of Nigeria and Cameroon and is set to be translated and published in Germany and Italy, while discussions with publishers in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Kenya are currently underway.

Huchu was in 2014 shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African Writing.

Speaking to Southern Eye Lifestyle, director of ’amaBooks Brian Jones said The Maestro, The Magistrate & The Mathematician was Huchu’s second book and its storyline was set in the Scottish city of Edinburgh, where the writer is presently based.

“What remains in common is Huchu’s inimitable humour,” said Jones.

“The Maestro, The Magistrate & The Mathematician is getting a good response from readers in this country and we have been very pleased with the interest in the book outside Zimbabwe.

“One of the publishers described the novel as ‘really impressive’, another as ‘funny, energetic, with great setting and great characters. It’s confident and unusual, in a good way’.”

Jones said Huchu was developing as a writer and ’amaBooks was particularly keen to make arrangements with publishers in other African countries so that their books could be published in those markets.

He said most of the issues addressed in Huchu’s book were common across the continent and the cost of distributing copies from Zimbabwe to other countries was prohibitive.

“The book is available now worldwide — both in print and e-book format — through the African Books Collective, Amazon and other websites, but being available in bookshops through local publishers in other countries certainly raises awareness of the book and the writer,” Jones said.

“There seems to be an interest across the world in good Zimbabwean writing.

“We at ’amaBooks are very grateful for the support given by the Culture Fund of Zimbabwe Trust, which made it possible for the book to be published.”

Jones said the novel had three strands, each telling the story of one of the three characters in the title of the book.

“The magistrate has moved to the UK with his wife and daughter, where he struggles to adjust to the very different society, especially as he cannot find an equivalent job to the one he held in Zimbabwe,” he explained.

“He worries as his teenage daughter begins to lose her ‘Zimbabweanness’, becoming more Scottish by the day.

“His character is cleverly juxtaposed with that of Alfonso Pfukuto, who appears to be the fool of the novel. The maestro works in a supermarket, but after work, he returns to his high-rise flat where he loses himself in the world of literature.

“The mathematician leads a carefree, hedonistic lifestyle with his Scottish girlfriend and Zimbabwean friends, while pursuing a doctorate exploring hyper-inflationary economics. Eventually, in the latter part of the novel, the universes of the three main characters collide.”

Jones said a review for the Royal African Society website by Philani Nyoni describes the book as “a universal and truly illuminating work”.

In addition, he said the cover design was impressive and followed the ’amaBooks tradition of using the work of local artists, on this occasion Know and Don’t Believe by Tafadzwa Gwetai.

“Other artists whose work has been used on ’amaBooks covers include Aubrey Bango, Anne Hutton, Jeanette Johnston, Helen Leiros, Owen Maseko, Gilmore Moyo, Arlington Muzondo, Dumisani Ndlovu, Charles Nkomo, Sindiso Nyoni, Voti Thebe and Sininisabo Tshuma,” he said.

http://www.southerneye.co.zw/2015/02/13/zimbabwean-novel-crosses-borders/

'The Maestro, The Magistrate & The Mathematician' reviewed in Harare News

I first went to Edinburgh, Scotland to visit Tendai Huchu, with whom I had been buddies on social media, in 2012. He came to pick me at Waverley rail station, situated in a steep, narrow valley between the medieval Old Town and the 18th century New Town and we would traverse between the two.

Scotland’s capital city is a place of culture and literature. The heart of the city, a World Heritage Site, is packed with fascinating buildings and a remarkable history. The famous castle sits proud on its rock at the top of the Old Town, a warren of medieval streets and alleyways sweeping down to Holyrood Palace and the Scottish Parliament at the foot of the Royal Mile. And there is Holyrood Park, surely one of the most dramatic city parks I have seen, with the mini-mountain of Arthur’s Seat at its heart.

The opening of Huchu’s new book, The Maestro, The Magistrate & The Mathematician, vividly reminds me of this visit. In hindsight, it is as if when we walked we were rehearsing some of the scenes in the book. With the turn of every page Edinburgh becomes real.

The story is told in three voices which are emotionally distant, ruminative, and sometimes intellectual. Its principal characters are known by the titles of their current pursuits or former professions. Collectively the trio has some absences to fill, personal histories to recover.

Set during the decade of crisis, the novel zooms into the too often agonising life of Zimbabwean emigrants and also provides some valuable insight into the political and economic issues currently afflicting Zimbabwe.

Bindura and Edinburgh simultaneously move in the magistrate’s mind. Like many emigrants, he becomes an “in-between” person who does not belong here nor there. He remembers the man he was before Edinburgh took away his dignity.

Somehow it is the magistrate’s wanderings and their connections to personal histories — both his own and those of the people he meets that form the driving narrative, allowing him to reflect on his adopted country of Scotland and the Zimbabwe of his youth.

He is the character around which the whole narrative revolves – his dysfunctional family, his dalliance with opposition politics and his emasculation dominate most of the story. Indirectly he connects the other characters in the book by association.

Also embedded in the narrative are references to old Zimbabwean music. Music is used to map memories of identity and being. After all nostalgia has a playlist. In fact, Zimbabwean music is used to connect the narrator’s past with his present.

Immigration and exile are not new literary subjects, but Huchu’s treatment of them has a quiet clarity and surprising force. In fact, the book reads so much like a sequel to Brian Chikwava’s Harare North – the overseas territory of Zimbabwe is not limited to London but also extended to Edinburgh.

Edinburgh has a sinister side. Political turncoats and opportunists befriend the Zimbabweans, pretend to be a political agitators yet spy for the Zimbabwe government. In the Zimbabwean political discourse there is currently a rhetoric war between zvipfukuto, corrosive insects known as weevils, and gamatox, a poisonous pesticide.

After the walk about we stopped at a bookshop, I don’t recall its name, but it was a bargain bookshop that Huchu frequented. He bought me a copy of Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Brave New World is an unsettling, loveless and even sinister place. In its patient, cumulative way, The Maestro, The Magistrate & The Mathematician paints a startlingly dim picture of Zimbabwe’s present moment. And the past is no refuge.

Review by Tinashe Mushakavanhu

Reproduced from Harare News, February 2015

The publication of The Maestro, The Magistrate & The Mathematician was supported by the Culture Fund Trust of Zimbabwe.

Tendai Huchu interviewed, from www.b00kr3vi3ws.in

from http://www.b00kr3vi3ws.in/

Tendai Huchu’s first novel, The Hairdresser of Harare, was released in 2010 to critical acclaim, and has been translated into German, French and Italian. His short fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The Manchester Review, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Interzone, Gutter, AfroSF, Wasafiri, Warscapes, The Africa Report, Kwani? and numerous other publications. In 2013 he received a Hawthornden Fellowship and a Sacatar Fellowship. He was shortlisted for the 2014 Caine Prize. His new novel is The Maestro, The Magistrate, & The Mathematician.

I cannot believe I did not have you over my blog sooner. Well, better late than never… So, how have you been doing?

Thanks for having me, Debdatta. I’ve been great, doing a bit of this and that, you know, trying to save the world one tale at a time.

Tell us, when did you first realize that you wanted to be a writer/ a storyteller?

I think it’s more a gradual process than anything. You tell a story, here and there, someone likes it and you think, ‘Great I can do something other people enjoy,’ because at the core of it, you’re really telling stories you yourself want to hear. Folks indulge you, and before you know it, you’re this 30-something year old dude, still making stuff up.

What inspires you to write?

Real life – to be fair, there’s a lot more crazier shit out there in the real world, than anything that can be conjured up in a book. But I enjoy literature as an art form, so other writers inspire me. The inspiration comes from just existing and checking stuff out.

What was the general response to ‘The Hairdresser of Harare’ and ‘An Untimely Love’?

Readers are very kind, especially to a writer still trying to find his feet.

How did you come up with the idea for your current story?

I don’t want to sound all mystical or hocus-pocussy, but it just came to me. Ideas are there, churning away in your subconscious, you just have to be a little patient and a little receptive to them.

What is your favorite scene in the book? Why?

The book works as an integrated whole for me. I couldn’t pick one scene over any other.

Did any of your characters inherit some of your own quirks?

Inevitably some of you filters into the work, unintentionally. But I suppose I can point to a character called Tendai, who has a very brief cameo in the book. He’s a bit awkward, drinks more than he really should, and generally makes an ass of himself.

Tell us about your writing process.

I wake up at 7am, have breakfast, then I work till 10:30. After that I run/cycle/walk for 1 ½ to 2 hours.  I come back, have lunch. Depending on how the work is going I may write a bit more, or rewrite and revise. There’s a lot of flexibility in that structure allowing me to do important stuff like Twitter or Facebook or generally procrastinate and ruminate over my unappreciated genius and/or world peace.

What is your most interesting writing quirk?

I generally loath my work after it has been published. Each sentence feels like a step away from the perfect idea that was there on the blank first page. What keeps me going is the naïve hope that the next story might just be a little bit better.

Do you read? Who are your favourite authors and how have they influenced your writing style?

I read all the time. You can’t even contemplate being a writer if you don’t read – forget it. 

Favourite authors – really hard coz I read so much, and am at the stage where I really don’t know what I get from whom. But if I had to pick:

Dostoevsky and Jim Thompson – insane psychological exposition.

David Mitchell – breadth of imagination and structural prowess

David Foster Wallace – need I say more

What is the best piece of advice you have received, as a writer, till date?

No one knows what they’re doing in this game, we’re all winging it.

What is the best piece of advice you would give to someone that wants to get into writing?

Don’t do it, get a real job instead. You’ll be a lot happier that way. However if you must – then read a lot first and learn from the masters. The best creative writing tutors are in your local library.

What would be the Dream Cast for your book if it was to be turned into a movie?

Idris Elba – The Magistrate

                                                                        James Franco – The Maestro

Michael B. Jordan – The Mathematician

                                                                             Chiwetel Ejiofor - Alfonso

If you were to be stranded on the famous deserted island, what three things would you carry?

Paper and pen and a cool sunhat.

How do you spend your free time? Do you have a favorite place to go and unwind?

I play a bit of chess, walk or cycle a lot, usually along Union Canal in Edinburgh.

Can you share with us something off your bucket list?

I wanna see the Lalibela churches in Ethiopia.

Tell us three fun facts about yourself.

I have restless leg syndrome, so my legs run about while I’m asleep.

Addicted to marshmallows, I can’t stop myself whenever I get a packet I keep going till it’s empty.

I’m afraid of the dark… really afraid.

What do you have in store next for your readers?

Working on a scifi novel. Doing more short fiction in the noir and literary genres. Varying it up a bit.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with your readers?

I’m sure they’ve had enough of me by now. Thanks a lot, Debdatta :)

Three very different men struggle with thoughts of belonging, loss, identity and love as they attempt to find a place for themselves in Britain. The Magistrate tries to create new memories and roots, fusing a wandering exploration of Edinburgh with music. The Maestro, a depressed, quixotic character, sinks out of the real world into the fantastic world of literature. The Mathematician, full of youth, follows a carefree, hedonistic lifestyle, until their three universes collide.

In this carefully crafted, multi-layered novel, Tendai Huchu, with his inimitable humour, reveals much about the Zimbabwe story as he draws the reader deep into the lives of the three main characters.

The Maestro, The Magistrate, & The Mathematician was published by 'amaBooks, with the support of the Culture Fund of Zimbabwe Trust

Photo of Idris Elba "Idris Elba 2014" by DFID - UK Department for International Development, other photos from Wikipedia. 

Tendai Huchu interviewed in steppesinsync.com

This is probably the first time you hear from Tendai Huchu in 2015 — and Scotland’s best Zimbabwean author vows to drop postmodern narrative artifices by 2034

From: steppesinsync.com

Steppes in Sync’s own Andy Kozlov @KozlovAndy talks to Zimbabwe’s Scotland-based writer Tendai Huchu about the newly released novel The Maestro, The Magistrate & The Mathematician (Get Print Copy on Amazon).
The author of The Hairdresser of Harare explains why he went with a Bulawayo-based publishing boutique, amaBooks.
Together we uncover the quintessential quixotic character in African literature and Tendai tries to imagine how his Scotland-set novel would be different if it was set in Zimbabwe, and if he was to publish it at 52 and not 32.

A Character Question
Your Maestro is a quixotic character. Can you think of a quintessential quixotic character in African literature before your novel graced the bookshelves around the world?
No one beats John Eppel’s ultra-ridiculous George J. George from Absent: The English Teacher. Few contemporary writers equal Eppel [who teaches English at Christian Brothers College in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe] in terms of technical skill and comedic ear. In George J. George you have a character who mistakes his white Ford Escort for the moon (think Don Quixote and the windmill) and everything goes downhill from there.

A Setting Question
Many a culture buff considers Scotland’s capital Edinburgh one of the world’s capitals of culture. Epitomising this image: The Edinburgh Festival. By singling out a mathematician over a nurse or a physicist, do you maybe hope that the number of Zimbabwean mathematicians attending the Edinburgh Festival will surge, inspired by the adventures of their colleague in your novel?
You’re taking the piss, right?

An Alternative Setting Question
If the novel was set in Zimbabwe’s capital Harare — an urbs that you have ‘documented’ in your previous magnum opus – how would the maestro, magistrate and mathematician be different? Would they be émigré Scots, for starters?
Every novel is a complex algorithm with numerous variables. You change one factor and the whole thing becomes something else. Remember, this text doesn’t work in a vacuum – there have to be alterations to do with the social, political, environmental, legal, cultural, technological, economic… in fact every aspect of life you can think of has to change, which alters the language, character interactions, etcetera. This is almost an impossible question to answer; because of the scale of transformation the book would have to undergo we might as well be talking of two different novels.

A Medium Question
Zimbabwe like most nations on the African continent is seeing a tremendous rise in mobile internet consumption. Do you have something like an ebook or a novel-dedicated Android app in the pipeline?
There is an online platform called Mazwi which makes Zimbabwean literature available to mobile users. My first novel The Hairdresser of Harare is already available there. [At USD1.99], it is the cheapest novel they sell, because I waived my royalties in order to bring the costs down. Such is my desire for my fellow countrymen to be able to access my work.

A Publisher Question
I know the fabulous amaBooks duo personally — Brian Jones and Jane Morris, are the two directors of amaBooks. But still why did you go with this Bulawayo-based publisher?
I had a lot of starts, stops and false hopes with this novel. It’s an emphatic departure from my earlier work. However, working with my editor Jane Morris from amaBooks has got me turbo charged. She understood the scope of my ambition, and helped me fine tune and hone my craft. In the process, she has given me essential skills to improve my work.
I consider the year I spent editing it with her as the most important period in my writing life. In that same year I sold short fiction in my three favourite genres — literary fiction, crime and sci-fi — to leading journals around the world (The Manchester Review, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Interzone), which I believe was influenced to a great extent by that apprenticeship. I am extremely grateful for the partnership I’ve had with Jane Morris and Brian Jones at amaBooks.

A Sponsor Question
The Culture Fund of Zimbabwe Trust sponsored the publication. So really, what does a Zimbabwean writer need to have achieved to end up being chased by high-profile sponsors like the Culture Fund of Zimbabwe?
I wasn’t chased. My publishers put in an application for funding, and, fortunately, the CFoZ deigned to cover part of the printing costs. I think this is more reflective of the fact that sales of fiction in Zimbabwe are so poor publishers need a subsidy to make the production viable. The nature of my work naturally disqualifies me from the school textbook market, meaning it’s highly unlikely my publisher will recoup their investment from the domestic market. That’s the f*cking reality.

A Research Question
How much time did it take you to research for the novel? What were the major unknowns for you as you embarked on the research?
This was a three-year project. Research was ongoing; right up until the editor was like “enough”.

A Lost-in-Translation Question
Judging from previous experience, do you expect any localized creative spins that publishers in Germany will have to come up with to translate The Maestro, The Magistrate & The Mathematician to the German-speaking reader and to promote the novel in German content-consuming markets?
The question for the German publisher is: How do I sell this book by a relatively unknown author from Africa, who has won no awards and has no marketable hook/gimmick? Yahweh only knows what the answer to that might be.

Such-a-Random Question
Try to imagine: how would your novel be different if you were to publish it at 52 and not 32?
I would hope 52 year old me is more skilled and has less need for tricks and postmodern narrative artifices to mask his deficiencies. He/She (if I have a sex change) would perhaps be better at sentence construction, suspense, scene setting, characterisation, plotting… what I am trying to say is — Insha’Allah — he would be a superior craftsman. Early Huchu vs late Huchu – how pompous does that sound?!

Tendai Huchu's 'The Maestro, The Magistrate & The Mathematician' Published in Zimbabwe

Tendai Huchu's second novel has been published by 'amaBooks, and is available in outlets across Zimbabwe. It will soon be available elsewhere through the African Books Collective.

Set mainly in the Scottish capital Edinburgh, The Maestro, The Magistrate & The Mathematician introduces us to the three Zimbabweans of the title who each struggle to find a place for themselves far from home and the world they knew. The Magistrate tries to create new memories and roots, fusing a wandering exploration of Edinburgh with music. The Maestro, a depressed, quixotic character, sinks out of the real world, preferring novels and fantasy. The Mathematician, a youthful character, follows a carefree, hedonistic lifestyle, until the universes of the three main characters collide.

In this carefully crafted, multi-layered novel, Tendai Huchu, with his inimitable humour, reveals much about the Zimbabwe story as he draws the reader deep into the lives of the three main characters.

The publication of The Maestro, The Magistrate & The Mathematician was supported by the Culture Fund of Zimbabwe Trust.

Tendai’s first novel, The Hairdresser of Harare, was published in Zimbabwe and the UK, and was translated into French, German and Italian. This year, Tendai’s short story, ‘The Intervention’, was shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African Writing. The story was first published in the Indian magazine Open Road Review and is available in Zimbabwe in the Caine Prize anthology The Gonjon Pin and other stories, published by ’amaBooks. The Bulawayo-based publishers are the Zimbabwean publishers of the annual Caine prize anthologies. The collections are published across Africa by other publishers and also in the UK.

Tendai Huchu’s short fiction and nonfiction has been published in magazines all over the world and the quality of his writing has been recognized by his receiving a Hawthornden Fellowship and a Sacatar Fellowship.

'An unusually astute and unflinching writer' The Guardian

 

'Tendai Huchu illustrates universal notions well' The Examiner

 

'Tendai Huchu seems to be the great-grandchild of Jonathan Swift with many voices in his head' Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung