Why I Read by Christopher Mlalazi

I grew up with a natural love of story telling. This goes way back to my childhood. My father was a gifted storyteller, but not a public one as his stories were only for his family. 

My father had an amazing repertoire of folklore, usually told around the fire after the evening meal in the late 70s when we lived in Old Pumula Township. There was no electricity in houses in that township then – the only electricity was for obvious reasons for the tower lights, the police station, clinic and housing office. This was during colonial rule.

And so there we would be, sitting around the fire under the stars, with father entertaining us with his tales. I remember that most of them had dialogue and song, and he would sing the songs, and then teach us them too so that when he repeated the tale on other nights, we would sing along with him.

Sometimes when we had aunts and uncles visiting from the village, he would ask them to tell us their own tales.

This was the time that my love for stories gestated. When I grew a bit older, I started hunting for books for more stories. I read everything I could find, from first staring at pictures in comic books before I could read and trying to figure out the stories they were trying to tell, to actually reading books when I had learned how to read at school.

I was always on the hunt for a good story, especially adventures, as they were a window to far off lands for a kid coming from a poor township. Yes, I grew up in one of the poorest townships in Bulawayo, but that does not mean that the people living there were poor in thought, creativity and ambition.

As I grew older and my reading matured, I started discovering that stories carried much more than adventure and thrills. Or the chance to get an erection from a Nick Carter or James Bond novel. That was before I went to secondary school. I began to learn that behind most stories there were coded all kinds of social, economic and political commentaries. This was driven home to me when I started studying literature in high school, reading books like Things Fall Apart, Animal Farm, The Mayor Of Casterbridge, Julius Caesar and the like.

So, in a nutshell, I now read for diverse reasons, to appreciate world aesthetics, to hear the creaks of the wheel of life, and to also see and think clearly. Last but not least, sometimes I read to relax –  over a copy of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right. Lol.

Caine Prize anthologies as ebooks in Zimbabwe

The 2012, 2013 and 2014 Caine Prize anthologies - African Violet, A Memory This Size and The Gonjon Pin - are all available as ebooks in Zimbabwe through shop.mazwi.co. Also on the new website are other 'amaBooks titles by Pathisa Nyathi, Bryony Rheam, John Eppel, Christopher Mlalazi and others. More titles are to follow soon.

More 'amaBooks titles available in South Africa through Mega Books

Bryony Rheam's novel 'This September Sun', John Eppel's collection of stories and poems 'White Man Crawling' and 'Intwasa Poetry', which features poets who have read at the Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo, are now available in South Africa through the website megabooks.co.za.

The books join other 'amaBooks titles already on the website - 'Long Time Coming: Short Writings from Zimbabwe', 'Where to Now?: Short Stories from Zimbabwe', Christopher Mlalazi's 'Dancing with Life: Tales from the Township' and Pathisa Nyathi's 'Zimbabwe's Cultural Heritage'.

amaBooks titles from Mega Books in South Africa

Dancing with Life: Tales from the Township, Where to Now? Short Stories from Zimbabwe, Long Time Coming: Short Writings from Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe's Cultural Heritage are now available through print-on-demand from Mega Books. Other titles will follow soon.

Telling Zim story through literature

 from Daily News. Sunday May 19, 2013

BULAWAYO‑BASED co‑director of amaBooks Publishers Brian Jones believes they have made a contribution to Zimbabwe's literature industry for the past decade despite a decade of economic hardships in the country.

AmaBooks is one of the few publishing houses in the country that have given space to both upcoming and established writers and the chance to expose their talents.

Daily News on Sunday's Jeffrey Muvundusi spoke to Brian Jones (BJ). Below are excerpts of the interview:

JM: May you briefly tell us about your organization and yourselves?

BJ: AmaBooks Publishers is a Bulawayo‑based book publishing company run by myself and Jane Morris. I am an astrophysicist and presently a Professor Emeritus of Applied Mathematics at the National University of Science and Technology in Bulawayo. Jane's background is in literature, social work and training. She is the editor of AmaBooks.

Brian Jones and Jane Morris

JM: How did you start this project?

BJ: AmaBooks started in 2000, by accident. Jane was involved with training volunteers for the charity Childline in Bulawayo, and the publication of a book of poetry was suggested as a way of raising funds.

The award‑winning Bulawayo poet John Eppel offered a selection of his work, and his Selected Poems. 1965‑1995 was published, with all proceeds going to Childline. It sold well, and so ‘amaBooks was born.

JM: How many books have ‘amaBooks published to date?

BJ: Since then we have published 26 books including novels and collections of short stories, which feature a total of 123 writers.

JM: How do you rate your organisation?

BJ: We have done well despite the economic challenges. Some of he books have won awards, including National Arts Merit Awards and Zimbabwe Book Publishers Association awards.

Some have had recognition on a wider scale ‑ Christopher Mlalazi’s short story collection ‘Dancing with Life’ and Sandisile Tshuma's story ‘Arrested Development’ winning honourable mentions in The Noma Award for Publishing in Africa and the Thomas Pringle Awards respectively and ‘Long Time Coming. Short Writings from Zimbabwe’ being selected by the ‘New Internationalist’ as one of their best two books from across the world in 2009.

JM, What are your challenges?

BJ: The reality is there is a small book buying public and over the years the book industry, like any other industry, suffered due to the poor performance of the economy.

People often do not read for pleasure but towards success in their academic studies or for professional purposes.

JM: So what can you say is the major objective of this project?

BJ: One of our aims was to give a voice to Zimbabwe writers who had previously been unpublished, publishing them alongside more established authors. We achieved this through the Short Writings series, of which five have been published to date, the first being Short Writings from Bulawayo and the most recent,Where to Now? Short Stories from Zimbabwe.

JM: What's your take on Zimbabwean authors?

BJ: There are many excellent Zimbabwe writers out there, each with wonderful stories to tell. As ‘amaBooks, we wanted these stories to be available to people across Zimbabwe, and across the rest of the world.

JM: What are you doing in terms of uplifting the book industry?

BJ: We have recently entered into co-publishing and rights agreements with several publishers in other countries.

We recently entered into an agreement with World Reader, so that many of our titles and some individual stories from those titles, are available digitally, to be read on e-readers and cell-phones, to children and their families across Africa.

We are also in discussions with publishers in South Africa and the United Kingdom about the co-publication of two further novels and a poetry collection.

Most AmaBooks publications are available outside of Africa through the African Books Collective on a print-on-demand basis and as e-books.

In order to reach a wider readership, we have participated in the Jozi, Cape Town, London and Frankfurt Book Fairs to promote the books.

JM: Any notable progress from your products?

BJ: Bryony Rheam's debut novel, ‘This September Sun’, which won Best First Book at the Zimbabwe Book Publishers Association awards and is a set book for Zimsec 'A’ level Literature in English, and the collection ‘Where to Now? Short Stories from Zimbabwe’ have been published in the United Kingdom by Parthian Books and distributed in North America by the Independent Publishers Group.

The late Julius Chingono and John Eppel's collection of poems and stories, ‘Together’, has been published by the University of KwaZulu-Natal Press in South Africa and the University of New Orleans Press in North America.

For the first time in 2012, the stories from the Caine Prize for African Writing were available in Zimbabwe, ‘African Violet’ being co-published by New Internationalist in the United Kingdom, by ourselves and by six other African publishers.

JM: What does your organisation really intend to achieve?

BJ: The aim of ’amaBooks is also to have Zimbabwe stories available to all within Zimbabwe.

Our books are on sale through many outlets in both Bulawayo and Harare. But the economic problems over the last decade have led to the closure of many bookshops or to them concentrating solely on texts for schools.

To give those outside the main population centres and those who cannot afford to buy books an opportunity to read local stories, ’amaBooks donated more than 400 books to rural and city libraries at a ceremony during the 2012 Zimbabwe International Book Fair in Bulawayo.

To encourage interest in local writing we have taken an active role in literary arts at the Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo and  several workshops for young writers. We have also donated books and helped with reading clubs in the high-density areas of Bulawayo.

So far, their publications have all been in English, but, with the support of the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa, amaBooks is in the process of having ‘Where to Now? Short Stories_from Zimbabwe’ translated into Isi Ndebele, as ‘Siqondephi Manje? lndatshana zasezimbabwe’. The book will be published later this year.

JM: Tell us about the future?

BJ: AmaBooks will keep publishing great Zimbabwean stories, and work hard to get those stories read by as many people as possible in Zimbabwe and in the rest of the world.

We are also keen to have new writers come and have their voices heard through us.

amaBooks to translate book into isiNdebele

The Chronicle, 27 May 2013

AMABOOKS, the publishers of the story anthology, Where to Now?: Short Stories from Zimbabwe, are working on translating the book from the English language to isiNdebele to help promote the language.

The book would be titled Siqondephi Manje, Indatshana ZaseZimbabwe.

It is a collection of 16 short stories from Zimbabwean writers, the majority of them from Bulawavo.

In an interview, Brian Jones from Amabooks said they decided to translate the book into isiNdebele for the stories to reach a wider audience as well as promoting the language.

"The majority of the stories in the collection were written by Bulawayo writers in and out of the country and we realised that sometimes they think in isiNdebele and some of the words lose meaning in the process of translation into English.

"The stories often read much better in isiNdebele because it's the writers' mother tongue and some of the humour works better in isiNdebele," said Jones.

He said South African based writer Dr Thabisani Ndlovu was translating the book.

"So far, three stories have been translated by Dr Ndlovu, who is based at Wits University, and we are expecting that he would be done by the first of July.

"Zimbabwe has good writers and we want the stories they tell to be available locally as well as reach out to a much wider audience," he said.

The 150‑page anthology is made up of stories that deal with various social issues, among them life in modern day Zimbabwe, traditional values, modern life and the particularly changing role of women in today's society.

Where to Now is the fifth short story collection from Amabooks publishers.

The other books in the series are Short Writings from Bulawayo I, II and III, and Long Time Coming: Short Writings from Zimbabwe.

"The first books were mainly made up of pieces from Bulawayo writers because we were the only publishers in English here at that time, but we have since attracted Zimbabwean writers from all over the globe so we felt we should stop calling the books 'from Bulawayo’," said Jones.

Barbara Mhangami Ruwende's Christina the Colourful has been translated as Itshatshazi ElinguChristina and Mzana Mthimkhulu's I am an African am I? as NgingumAfrica Akunjalo?

Some of the popular short story writers are Raisedon Baya, Caine Prize winner NoViolet Bulawayo, Christopher Mlalazi, John Eppel and Mzana Mthimkhulu, among others.

Jones said they are expecting the book to be available on the market in September.

The project is funded by the Open Society Initiative of Southern Africa.

Auxilia Katongomara, Entertainment Correspondent

Freedom Poetry Competition winners

Yoshira Marbel, from South Africa, has won the inaugural Freedom Poetry Competition, co-organised by Poetry Bulawayo and ’amaBooks Publishers, with her poem Peace. In second place was Farai Mpofu, with Flying Away, followed by Tinashe Muchuri’s If You Allow Me Just a Moment, Christopher Mlalazi’s Elephant Grass and Bhekilizwe Dube’s Celestial Dreams. Both Farai Mpofu and Bhekilizwe Dube are better known for their short story writings, both having been published in several of the ’amaBooks short writings collections, and Tinashe Muchuri is well known as a performance poet. Christopher Mlalazi’s previous reputation is primarily as an award-winning playwright and prose writer.

There were 78 submissions to the competition, from Zimbabwe, South Africa, Nigeria and from Europe. The results were announced during the Zimbabwe International Book Fair on March 22 2013.

Peace

Coarse sand

settles on skin

like faux fur

on soft hands

Zephyr of dust

pirouettes through the air

as mortars whistle in the distance

absorbing the sounds of hunger and despair

Worms festering

in outstretched bellies

care not for who owns whose land

In the fight for power and control

victory parades

surrender grandeur

amongst dead souls

'amaBooks at ZIBF in Bulawayo 2013

’amaBooks are at the Zimbabwe International Book Fair in Bulawayo on Friday 22and Saturday 23 March. The theme of this year’s fair is ‘ZIBF@30: Enabling Creativity, Writing, Publishing and Reading for Africa’s Growth’. We will have a stand throughout the fair at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo, displaying not only our own publications but also those of other publishers, including Weaver Press in Harare and Jonathan Ball and Pan Macmillan in South Africa.

ZIBF in Harare 2011

On Friday afternoon, at the end of the Fair’s Indaba, we will donate around 400 books to libraries in and around Bulawayo. The distribution of books to rural libraries, and to Bulawayo Municipal Libraries, will be organised through the National Free Library’s Rural Libraries Programme. The donation has been supported by the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa.

Books to be donated include: This September Sun, Bryony Rheam’s debut novel, which won a Zimbabwe Book Publishers Association ‘Best First Book’ award and is a set book for ZIMSEC ‘A’ level Literature in English; Long Time Coming: Short Writings from Zimbabwe, which was chosen by New Internationalist as one of their two ‘Best Books of 2009’; Dancing with Life: Tales from the Township, by Christopher Mlalazi, which won a National Arts Merit Award and an Honourable Mention at the Noma Awards for African Publishing; John Eppel’s novel, Hatchings, which was chosen for the Times Literary Supplement series on ‘The Most Significant Books to have come out of Africa’; Deon Marcus’ poetry collection; Sonatas, which won both a National Arts Merit Award and a Zimbabwe Book Publishers Award; Intwasa Poetry, a collection of poems by local and international poets who have read at the Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo; and Pathisa Nyathi’s Zimbabwe Book Publishers Association Award winning Zimbabwe’s Cultural Heritage.

Two of ’amaBooks’ recent publications are also included. For the first time the Caine Prize for African Writing anthology has been published in Zimbabwe, the 2012 edition being entitled African Violet. Where to Now? Short Stories from Zimbabwe is the fifth book in the ’amaBooks Short Writings series, which started in 2003 with Short Writings from Bulawayo. Where to Now? was co-published with Parthian Books in the United Kingdom, and is to be translated into Ndebele, the translated version will be available in Zimbabwe later this year.

Friday evening, at 7pm in the Gallery, will see the awards ceremony for the Freedom Poetry Competition, organised jointly by ’amaBooks and Poetry Bulawayo. 78 poems have been submitted for the competition, with entries from across Zimbabwe and from South Africa, Nigeria and Europe. This will take place during a literary evening organized by ZIBF.

Photograph shows Jane Morris, Hosea Tokwe, Beaven Tapureta, Ignatius Mabasa and Fungai Machirori at the 'amaBooks stand

'amaBooks titles now available in South African copy shops

Several 'amaBooks publications can now be legally printed in copy shops across South Africa, through Paperight.

Paperight is a website that lets a copy shop, at present only in South Africa, print books for customers legally and quickly. 

Customers probably already ask the shop to photocopy books for them, but it’s illegal to copy without permission. Paperight gives the outlet a legal way to print books. Paperight have already got the publisher’s permission on your behalf.

The Paperight site is so fast and easy to use that it saves time and money, and is more cost-effective for customers than finding or copying traditional books.

Once the copy shop registers on the Paperight website (which is free and quick to do), it can choose from a whole library of books to print, as customers ask for them.

Publishers charge a small rights fee for each copy printed. When Paperight charges a rights fee, it is just added to the customer’s normal printing and binding charge. The overall cost to a customer is less than buying a traditional copy of a book, it is legal, and writers and publishers get their fair share.

For registered outlets near to you, if you are in South Africa, please look at the Paperight website http://paperight.com/. 

The available titles are:

Dancing with Life: Tales from the Township (Christopher Mlalazi)

Hatchings (John Eppel)

Intwasa Poetry

Long Time Coming: Short Writings from Zimbabwe

Short Writings from Bulawayo I, II and III

White Man Crawling (John Eppel)

Zimbabwe's Cultural Heritage (Pathisa Nyathi)

Where to Now? review in The Zimbabwean

Where To Now?

Published by amaBooks

Genre - Fiction

Review by Jerá

from http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk/entertainment/art-and-literature/60080/where-to-now.html

Where To Now?Short Stories from Zimbabwe, published by ’amaBooks and edited by Jane Morris, is an anthology of 16 potent short stories by Zimbabwean writers. It is the 5^th anthology in the short writings series that have been released by ’amaBooks and follows up from the acclaimed 4^th collection – Long Time Coming: Short Writings from Zimbabwe.  This latest book is a co-publication with Parthian Books of the United Kingdom and – having been launched at the Jozi Book Fair and the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo, as part of the Intwasa Arts Festival – will be launched in the United Kingdom later this year.

Blessing Musariri

By blending the works of new writers with more established authors, ’amaBooks seeks to promote previously unpublished writers.  Names that are immediately recognizable, among the array of writers, are award winning playwright, Raisedon Baya, award winning author, John Eppel and Oxfam Novib PEN Freedom of Expression award winner and NAMA award winner, Christopher Mlalazi.  Award winning author of children’s books, Blessing Musariri, winner of the Zimbabwe Book Publishers Association’s Best First Book Prize in 2010, Bryony Rheam and woman of the moment, 2011 Caine Prize winner, NoViolet Bulawayo, also grace this collection.

Most of the stories are set against the backdrop of the country’s decade of hyper inflation, economic demise and political strife but, as displayed in this book, Zimbabwean writers do manage to find humour.  It is not all comedy.  The stories in the anthology are divergent in theme – from comic, tragic, social commentary and allegorical.

Caught in a compromising position, a wife outsmarts her husband in Mapfumo Chihota’s comical tale of spousal infidelity - A Beast and A Jete.  Set in rural Zimbabwe, this story leaves a lasting impression for its humour and its clever plot.

Barbara Mhangami’s Christina the Colourful, also within a rural setting, continues the theme of womanly triumph.  However, it is something of a paradox, in that the author illustrates the oppression of women, yet the main character’s chosen profession – prostitution – it can be argued, is one that perpetuates the very same oppression, from which women seek to flee.  However, as a story, Christina the Colourful is well constructed and stands out as one of the best written pieces of the anthology.

The poignant and tragic tale of sexual abuse, Making a Woman, by Thabisani Ndlovu, illustrates the prejudices existing in society, against people with physical disabilities and the social pressure on women to marry and enter into motherhood.  While Mongi, the lead character, a deaf woman, claims a victory of sorts over the men who abuse her, she is left mentally and physically scarred from the ordeal.

Snapshots, set in inflation ravaged Zimbabwe, will draw smiles and chuckles from every reader, before turning into a tragic narrative, in NoViolet Bulawayo’s characteristic style.  The characters, for their names and their quirks, will remain in readers’ minds, long after the story ends.  It is typical NoViolet; uncomplicated yet intense.

Crossroads illustrates the trials and tribulations faced by the Zimbabwean immigrant – from visa application to arrival in Mzansi – in search of a better life.  Precocious talent, Novuyo Rosa Tshuma, in this story – as with all her previous works – is a sculptor of words.  Novuyo, who, at only 21, won the 2009 Intwasa Short Story Competition, is a skillful writer who, by her work, promises to emulate past literary greats, such as Yvonne Vera.

Nyevero Muza’s The Poetry Slammer is an unforgettable piece, whose concept is unique, in that there is a character within a character and a story within a story – Nhamo, the lead character is a writer, who invents the story of a performance poet and it is the latter character who dominates this memorable tale.

In this era, where professional women are forced to choose between boardroom success and family, Alone, by Fungai Machirori, is a relevant piece, which is notable for its superb construction and humour.

In this reviewer’s opinion, Sudden Death, by Blessing Musariri is the most outstanding story.  Musariri’s use of language and her writing style, which appears so effortless, will endear her to most readers. Rosanna, known to her colleagues as Agnes, is a care worker, living in England.  Together with her husband, Simba, they labour tirelessly to save for their dream home, back in Zimbabwe.  An unexpected telephone call brings bad news.  The humour of this tale turns into heartache.  This funny and, in some instances, quirky story deserves special mention among a line-up of 16 beautifully composed, expertly edited, fiction stories.

Where To Now? is a recommended read and would be a worthy addition to the bookshelf of any fan of Zimbabwean literature. 

Christopher Mlalazi offered Creative Writing Residency in Iowa

Christopher Mlalazi has just been offered a creative writing residency under the International Writing Program (IWP) at the University of Iowa called. 

Running from August to November annually, this programme is the oldest and largest multinational residency in the world and has been in existence since 1967. Over 1400 writers from more than 130 nations have taken part in the residency. The goal of the IWP is to provide authors the time to write, read, translate, study, conduct research, travel, give readings, and also be part of the vibrant literary and academic community of the University of Iowa, a major American research institution in Iowa city, the only American city designated as a UNESCO City of Literature. 

Christopher Mlalazi has published short stories with ’amaBooks in Short Writings from Bulawayo I, II and III, in Long Time Coming: Short Writings from Zimbabwe and in Where to Now? Short Stories from Zimbabwe. His anthology Dancing with Life: Tales from the Township, published by ’amaBooks in 2008, won the 2009 National Arts Merit Award for Best First Published Book and was given an honourable mention in the 2009 Noma Awards for African Publishing.

Christopher is also an award-winning playwright, with Election Day, adapted from the short story of the same name in Dancing with Life, winning a National Arts Merit Award in 2010 for Outstanding Stage Play.

Christopher was a creative writing fellow in Los Angeles in 2010, and in 2011 he was guest writer at the Nordic Afrika Institute, where he had the opportunity to read his work in Germany, Finland and Norway.

More 'amaBooks titles available as ebooks

More titles from 'amaBooks are now available as ebooks through into-ebooks, including Christopher Mlalazi's Dancing with Life: Tales from the Township, John Eppel's Hatchings, Intwasa Poetry, Long Time Coming: Short Writings from Zimbabwe, Short Writings from Bulawayo I, II and III, and Pathisa Nyathi's Zimbabwe's Cultural Heritage. All are priced at E12.00.

Please look at http://www.into-ebooks.com/books_by_publisher/amabooks_publishers/