ebooks in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe has an online ebook shop - Mazwi - which will feature most 'amaBooks titles. At present, the site is undergoing testing, but a sample of ebooks can be bought online - by Ecocash. Telecash, Visa or Zimswitch Debit/Credit card.

The books can be read on any Adobe Digital Editions compatible reading app for your Apple, Windows or Android device.

Please take a look at: 

http://shop.mazwi.co

To start with, these are the 'amaBooks titles available on Mazwi

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.

'amaBooks as e-books through the African Books Collective

The African Books Collective now sell 'amaBooks e-books on their website http://www.africanbookscollective.com/publishers/amabooks

Dancing with Life: Tales from the Township

Hatchings

Intwasa Poetry

Long Time Coming: Short Writings from Zimbabwe

Short Writings from Bulawayo

Short Writings from Bulawayo II

Short Writings from Bulawayo III

Silent Cry: Echoes of Young Zimbabwe Voices

White Man Crawling

Zimbabwe's Cultural Heritage

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.

Barbara Mhangami reviews Chris Mlalazi's Dancing with Life

Chris Mlalazi describes a Bulawayo of which I only recognized tiny remnants. Having left Zimbabwe, Bulawayo in 1990, and only returning for very short periods since then, the Bulawayo he describes was unfamiliar, frightening and in cases quite repulsive. I do not recall ever having such feelings about Bulawayo even on my last visit there in 2002. Clearly, there has been a decay and a degradation which Mlalazi captures in his vivid descriptions. This is not only experienced in the portrayal of the external environment, but it is apparent in the nature of the interactions among people, a sense that “Ubunthu”, “I am well if you are well”, does not exist anymore. One gets the sense that one is in the wild and it is survival of the fittest. In the story “dancing with life” a scene which captures both environmental and human debauchery reads thus: “Virginia hates Mxolisi. She also wishes him ill. Two weeks back, he had been intimate with her in the public toilet behind Figa Sports bar, and, afterwards, in the faeces smelling darkness, had given her a roll of money.” Then poor Virginia finds out later that she has been given counterfeit notes and so basically she has not been paid for services rendered. Fine, so the trade she is in is not exactly an orthodox and legitimate business, however one would have thought that even in the world of the illicit, there is a sense of “Ubunthu”. The total cold lack of remorse by Mxolisi and the stench of faeces bring home to me that the hardships people have experienced and are still experiencing can kill compassion for the other. Throughout his stories Mlalazi depicts a mean spiritedness and a lack of conscience in most of his characters so that by the time I was done with the book, I felt a little queasy. I was compelled to read it because if this is the ugly truth about Bulawayo then I would rather know, despite the agony this knowing induces.

From the ‘On Becoming Barbara’ blog

http://onbarbsbookswriting.blogspot.com/2010/09/bulawayo-city-that-raised-me-and-its.html

Two 'amaBooks titles available as ebooks

Long Time Coming: Short Writings from Zimbabwe and Christopher Mlalazi's Dancing with Life: Tales from the Township have just become available as ebooks through the website www.into-ebooks.com.

Long Time Coming and Bryony Rheam's This September Sun are already available as ebooks in the USA through www.scribd.com.

Christopher Mlalazi's Election Day at Theatre in the Park

Christopher Mlalazi's play Election Day is to run at Harare's Theatre in the Park from 10 to 27 November at 5.30pm and at 7.30pm each day, except Sundays and Mondays. The short story Election Day on which the play is based appears in Chris' award-winning collection Dancing with Life: Tale from the Township. The book is available in many outlets in Bulawayo and Harare, including just across Harare Gardens from the theatre at the National Gallery, for $8.

Outside of Zimbabwe, the book is available through many online outlets and can be read as an ebook in the USA through www.scribd.com.

"It is election time. His Excellency, Poka Oka Ndiseng’s ruling party is losing by a very wide margin in the polls. His wife, Samantha, and his personal advisor, Twenty, have both panicked and they are urging Ndiseng to flee the country, but an adamant Ndiseng tells them he is not going anywhere..."

The photograph is of the play's director Eunice Tava, twice winner of a National Arts Merit Award for Outstanding Actress.

The Zimbo Jam article about the play can be found at http://www.zimbojam.com/film-tv-a-theatre/theatrically-speaking/1927-christopher-mlalazi-play-premieres-at-theatre-in-the-park.html

amaBooks e-books in the USA

Three of amaBooks titles are now available in the USA as e-books: This September Sun, Long Time Coming: Short Writings from Zimbabwe and Dancing with Life: Tales from the Township.

They are all priced at $9.99, through http://www.scribd.com/document_collections/2622695

Chenjerai Hove comments on Chris Mlalazi's Dancing with Life

Chenjerai Hove comments in a letter to Christopher Mlalazi about his Dancing with Life: Tales from the Township (with permission from Chenjerai and Chris):

I got your short story collection and have already finished reading it. I enjoyed tremendously the ‘chase of the week’. I was laughing alone in my place like a mad man. I think the story captures the real atmosphere of a township, and the vagaries of living there. I must say my favourite story, though, is the last one, ‘A Heart in my Hole’. I enjoyed the filmic technique or the kind of montage you make of the various shots in the life of the young man. And some of the images are fantastic, just magic:

‘Next to uncle’s stool, also enjoying the cool shade, and in domestic harmony, a chick sits on the cat’s back. The cat is dozing between the legs of Bamba, uncle’s biggest and fiercest dog, that keeps nibbling lazily at an irritation on his left haunch. The hen and the rest of the noisy brood are nowhere in sight.’

That is great cinematographic stuff, a beautiful image almost beyond words.

Also I enjoyed the way the old man and the young man are in such harmonious discord in their views of the world, at least they agree on the use of condoms, and on having sex with the German woman, with and without condoms.

But the tragedy of the young man who can only manage a distinction in isindebele and nothing else borders between humour and deep sorrow. At least he takes it in its stride: life goes on with or without all the subjects taught in English.

As I read your stories, I could not help but think of an American writer, Ambrose Bierce, of a century ago, in the way he saw life’s coincidences. Bierce has become very popular again in the last decade or so. Look for his short story collection and I am sure you will see what I mean. He wrote also ‘The Devil’s Dictionary’, in which he gives words his own meanings which are not usually socially accepted in conventional dictionaries.

Well, thanks for writing the book, and I look forward to many more from such a sharp pen.

Wealth of Ideas blog discusses This September Sun and Dancing with Life

"I just finished and am ready to review Bryony Rheam's "This September Sun" and Chris Mlalazi's "Dancing with Life". Mine are more like reflections and comments about what I liked, what I call key moments. These are usually the parts of the stories that I found intriguing, or ones that caught my attention for one thing or another. For instance, while reading "This September Sun", I noted up to 35 places I wanted to revisit and say something about. I find this focus on key moments better than an evaluative review. The more I write my own work, the harder it becomes for me to take mere reviewing seriously...so much goes into writing that critics tend to take for granted; so I am slowly drifting towards friendly reviews, and beyond that, I will end up just stating what I liked and, perhaps, disliked...

Rheam and Mlalazi's books were published by amaBooks (Bulawayo), one of the publishing initiatives that have kept Zimbabwean literature alive in difficult times. Reading the new stories from Zimbabwe, stories about events I didn't witness, a life I didn't live, but the pain of which I felt, because it affected those close to me, I always find them fascinating, very enlightening, and I read with a sense of gratitude, for the courage of the writers, for the hard work of both the authors and the publishers. There is a freshness in the stories which helps keep me believing that the Zimbabwean experience is a rich resource for literature, a context unique enough to illuminate readers on important aspects of the human experience. "

Election Day sold out at HIFA

Christopher Mlalazi's Election Day, adapted from the short story of the same name in his award-winning collection Dancing with Life:Tales from the Township, played to a full house at each of its three performances at Reps Theatre during HIFA.

The play depicts the reactions of an African leader, his wife and his political advisor to the release of election results, which appear to be leading to a clear victory to the opposition.

The play was very well received by the audience at the performance we attended, and several copies of the book were sold afterwards. The director, Eunice Tava, told us that she hoped the play would move after HIFA to other venues around Zimbabwe.

Election Day was part of the HIFA Direct project, organised by British Council, Zimbabwe. Chris Mlalazi is a graduate of the British Council's Crossing Borders Project, a mentoring scheme for writers. Other Crossing Borders writers who have contributed to 'amaBooks publications include Bryony Rheam, Tinashe Mushakavanhu, Mzana Mthimkhulu, Chaltone Tshabangu, Raisedon Baya. Farai Mpofu and Fungai Machirori.

'amaBooks publications are available in Harare at the National Gallery, Book Cafe, the Art Mart at the Doon Estate, Delta Gallery, Pages Bookshop in Newlands, Avondale Bookshop, the Bookshelf at Arundel, and other Innov8 bookshops. In Bulawayo the books are in the Indaba Book Cafe, the National Gallery, Induna Arts, Z&N, Vignes, Afrodizziac, Book&Bean, Innov8 and Zero Suppliers. In South Africa they are in Clarkes of Cape Town, Xarra of Jo'burg, Protea of Pretoria and Adams of Durban. Elsewhere from www.africanbookscollective.com or www.booksofzimbabwe.com.

Christopher Mlalazi Interview on 'Conversations with Writers'

Christopher Mlalazi's interview with Ambrose Musiyiwa has been posted on the Conversations with Writers blog. The interview concentrates on his award-winning collection of short stories, Dancing with Life: Tales from the Township, and also on his collaboration with Raisedon Baya, which resulted in the banned play The Crocodile of Zambezi, as well as others.

In the interview, Christopher describes Dancing with Life, published by 'amaBooks in 2008,  as 'a reflection of the struggles and suffering of Zimbabwean people living in a disintegrating society with its farm invasions and our economy taking a nose-dive. I regard this short story collection as a series of snap shots of this trying period and I try to be as honest as I can in my depictions so as not to misinform readers. I try to be as near to the truth as I can get in the hope that this will leave people asking themselves deep mind-changing questions.'

The complete interview can be viewed via the link below.

http://conversationswithwriters.blogspot.com/2010/01/interview-christopher-mlalazi.html