Visionary Fiction, Fantastic African Futures

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'Textures' published in North America

Textures, poetry by John Eppel and Togara Muzanenhamo, is now available across North America through Canadian publisher Guernica Editions.

Textures was published in Zimbabwe by amaBooks in 2014, and is available elsewhere in the world through the African Books Collective. The book won a Zimbabwe National Arts Merit Award for Outstanding Fiction.

Dan Wylie, Professor of English at Rhodes University, in his review of Textures, commented that:

"In a way, the two poets are united by so high a degree of craft that almost every poem – they are not all equally weighty or felicitous – serves as a kind of meta-meditation upon poetry itself."

Togara Muzanenhamo reads 'Gondershe' from Textures, with Leo Svirsky.

Togara Muzanenhamo:

Born in 1975, Togara Muzanenhamo studied Business Administration in the Netherlands and in France. He has worked as a journalist and a film script editor. His poems have appeared widely in international magazines, journals and anthologies. In 2006 his debut collection of poems, Spirit Brides, was published by Carcanet Press and shortlisted for the Jerwood Aldeburgh First Collection Prize. The Times Literary Supplement welcomed the poet as a young writer of solid distinction: ‘he can be “cool” but seldom “light”. His best writing makes no reference to itself, does not allow itself to be damaged by over exuberant metaphor.’ In 2012 Muzanenhamo was chosen to represent Zimbabwe at Poetry Parnassus in London, ‘the biggest gathering of poets in world history’, where he read at the gala event with Seamus Heaney, Kim Hyesoon, Bill Manhire, Kay Ryan and Wole Soyinka at the Royal Festival Hall. Poetry Parnassus was part of the Cultural Olympiad that preceded the 2012 Olympic Games. His second collection, Gumiguru, is published by Carcanet Press. Muzanenhamo's short story 'The Silt Path' is published in Moving On and Other Zimbabwean Stories (2017).

John Eppel reads 'A Suburban Night in August' from Textures

John Eppel:

John Eppel is an award-winning poet and novelist. His first novel, D.G.G. Berry’s The Great North Road (1992), won the M-Net Prize in South Africa. His second novel, Hatchings (1993), was short-listed for the M-Net Prize and his third novel, The Giraffe Man (1994), has been translated into French. His other novels are The Holy Innocents, The Curse of the Ripe Tomato, Absent: The English Teacher and Trafickings.

His first poetry collection, Spoils of War (1989), won the Ingrid Jonker Prize, and his collection Landlocked was recently published in the UK. His short story and poetry anthologies are The Caruso of Colleen Bawn, White Man Crawling and Together (with Julius Chongono). Other poems have been featured in anthologies that include The Heart in Exile: South African Poetry in English 1990-1995 (1996) and Intwasa Poetry (2008), while his short stories have appeared in anthologies that include Short Writings from Bulawayo (2003), Short Writings from Bulawayo II (2005). Writing Now: More Stories from Zimbabwe (2005), Short Writings from Bulawayo III (2006), Laughing Now (2008), Long Time Coming: Short Writings from Zimbabwe (2008), Where to Now? (2012) and Moving On and Other Zimbabwean Stories (2017).