Intwasa Short Story Competition 2014

CALL FOR SHORT STORY ENTRIES

INTWASA SHORT STORY COMPETITION 2014

The Intwasa Short Story competition enters its 10^th year this year, 2014. The competition was inaugurated in the first year of the festival and is an annual literary event seeking to promote original creative writing talent in English. The competition also seeks to promote Zimbabwean narratives from Zimbabwean writers, be they in Zimbabwe or living in the diaspora. In 2011 the award for the winner was renamed the Yvonne Vera Award, after the late Dr. Yvonne Vera. Dr. Vera was a literary genius whose works include Why Don’t We Carve Other Animals?, Nehanda, Without a Name, and Butterfly Burning. The Yvonne Vera award carries a $500 cash prize.

The rules of the competition are as follows:

- There is no particular theme

- Entries must be written in English

- Entries should be previously unpublished

- Only one entry per person

- All work must be original

- Entries must be typed.

- Maximum words are 3000 words.

- The competition is open to all Zimbabwe citizens and residents

- Entries must be submitted by June 30, 2014

- Late entries will not be accepted.

- Only the short-listed candidates will be personally notified 

The Intwasa Short Story Competition is one of the very few literary writing competitions in Zimbabwe and continues to encourage and promote the original Zimbabwean narrative. Last year the competition was won by Bulawayo resident, Sipho Mpofu, with his story A Balance of Power.

Previous winners of competition:

Thabisani Ndlovu was the first winner of the competition. At the time Thabisani was a literature teacher at Falcon College. He describes the effects of his story Cold Careless Hands winning the competition as ‘reviving my interest in creative writing and being a challenge to produce even better work.’

Since winning the competition, Dr. Ndlovu has been awarded a PhD in African Literature in English from Witwatersrand University and has held the post of Deputy Director of the International Humans Rights Exchange there.

Bryony Rheam won the competition in 2006 with her story The Reunion, which concerns a woman who is consumed with jealousy at a party where she thinks she sees someone she went to school with who appears to be more successful and beautiful. Winning Intwasa, ‘gave me the confidence to carry on writing. I enjoy writing short stories and it’s great to know that others might also enjoy them.

Bryony has had short stories in many Zimbabwean anthologies and her first novel The September Sun, published by amaBooks in Zimbabwe and Parthian Books in the United Kingdom, won Best First Book at the 2010 Zimbabwe Book Publishers Association Awards and the e-book recently topped the ‘Best Seller’ list for books sold in the United Kingdom on Amazon. Bryony has a BA and MA in English, and presently works as a teacher of English in Zambia.

Novuyo Rosa Tshuma won the competition in 2009, which had then been renamed the Yvonne Vera Award, with You in Paradise, about the peculiarities of being an immigrant in Johannesburg. The story is also featured in her novella and short story collection, Shadows, which was recently published by Kwela in South Africa She comments, ‘Winning the Yvonne Vera Award was a major boost to my writing confidence. I was young – 21 – and still in the process of formulating my writing vice. It motivated me to see where the story goes.’ She is presently a Maytag Fellow pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Iowa.

Violette Kee-Tui won with her story Tattered Cloth. The story explored interracial relationships and had the judges singing her praises, especially about her use of language and imagery. Violette Kee-Tui is a former editor of the Edgars Store’s Club Magazine. As well as being a teacher of English, Violette writes articles for a number of magazines.

Mbonisi Pilani Ncube took the award in 2012 with his story Chanting Shadows. Mbonisi Pilani Ncube lives and writes from South Africa.

The other winners are Chaltone Tshabangu, the only writer to have won the short story competition twice, and Bongani Ncube.

Writers are invited to submit their stories to:

403 LAPF House

Jason Moyo Street

8^th Avenue

Bulawayo

Email: Info.intwasa@gmail.com or info@intwasa.org

           

Publishing and The Writer workshop at Intwasa

Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo, British Council Zimbabwe and amaBooks Publishers invite you to the workshop

Publishing and The Writer

Thursday 26 September 11.00- 13.00

Selborne Hotel, Bulawayo

An informal meeting of writers to discuss writing and publishing options, particularly in the light of new technologies. The meeting will include sharing of experiences and will be facilitated by Jane Morris and Brian Jones of amaBooks Publishers. 

All welcome.

A busy week for literary Bulawayo

NoViolet Bulawayo at the Indaba Book Cafe in Bulawayo

The big event of the week is the hometown launch of NoViolet Bulawayo’s debut novel ‘We Need New Names’, at 5.30pm on Tuesday 17 September in the courtyard of the National Gallery in Bulawayo. The book has been long-listed for the Guardian First Book Award and short-listed for the Man Booker Prize. NoViolet is the first Zimbabwean, and the first Black African woman, to be shortlisted for the Man Booker, which has been one of the most prestigious literary awards for 42 years. The event, open to all, will feature readings by NoViolet as well as a conversation between NoViolet and Dr Drew Shaw of the National University of Science and Technology. The event is supported by amaBooks, British Council Zimbabwe, Bulawayo Agenda and Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo.

Earlier that day, NoViolet will facilitate a workshop for promising Bulawayo writers. The participants have been selected from those who have entered the Intwasa Short Story competition for the Yvonne Vera Award.

The next day, on Wednesday 18 September, there will be another literary event, at 5.30pm in the John Knight Cinema at the National Gallery. This time it will be a slide show presentation by Dr Drew Shaw, titled 'Looking back / Looking forward: Zimbabwean literature of the GNU period, 2009-2013', to be followed by discussion about whether or not we can see discernible trends in the national literature and critical studies of it in the last four years. As the title suggests, some literature casts its gaze back to earlier times, while other writing considers the contemporary situation or 'Where to Now?' (which is the title of one short story collection under discussion, published by amaBooks). On 29th June, Dr Shaw gave this presentation at the Britain Zimbabwe Society's 'Culture Without Borders' Research Day in Oxford and got interesting responses from Zimbabweans in the Diaspora. Now the idea is to get Zimbabwe-based perspectives as we continue the discussion.

At the same time on Wednesday, Susan Hubert will be launching her novel ‘Sabi Star’ at Déjà vu.

On Friday 20 September, at 5.30pm in the National Gallery, Styx Mhlanga will launch ‘Acting Exercises & Games for Drama Plays in Schools & Colleges’.

NoViolet Bulawayo comes home

NoViolet Bulawayo comes home to Bulawayo to launch her debut novel We Need New Names.
The launch will take place on Tuesday 17 September at 5.30pm at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo. The event has been organised and supported by 'amaBooks Publishers, British Council Zimbabwe, Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo and Bulawayo Agenda. All are welcome to attend the launch, there is no admission charge. The book has been longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and has just been shortlisted for the prestigious Man Booker Prize. We Need New Names is published in Zimbabwe by Weaver Press and distributed in Bulawayo by 'amaBooks.
NoViolet was in Bulawayo a couple of weeks ago, meeting with Jane Morris and Brian Jones of 'amaBooks to discuss arrangements for her launch and other activities to promote an interest in literature in Bulawayo. Before the launch, NoViolet is to facilitate a workshop for promising writers from the city.
Her short story, Snapshots, was published in 2011 by 'amaBooks in the anthology Where to Now? Short Stories from Zimbabwe. The anthology was co-published with Parthian Books in the UK. The collection is being translated into isiNdebele and will be published by 'amaBooks later this year.
NoViolet is a past winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing and, for the last two years, 'amaBooks have published the Caine Prize anthology in Zimbabwe.

Where are they now? - some winners of the Intwasa Short Story Competition

Reproduced, with permission, from the Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo Newsletter July 2013

https://docs.google.com/file/d/1-O6cSLtg9P_YfZfh0o_5dPJoSI_eSQ64Lcn0UGH-t5AfBFBesMjr93NxL2EE/edit

No place quite like Bulawayo, by Bongani Ncube-Zikhali

Bongani Ncube-Zikhali is a writer, poet, youth activist and a fan of Dr Sheldon Cooper. He is passionate about the written word and has been published in two anthologies by Amabooks. In 2010 he was awarded the Dr Yvonne Vera Award by the Zimbabwean Intwasa Arts Festival. He currently lives in Paris where he is studying computer science.

Bongani's stories are available outside of Zimbabwe in print or as an e-book in Silent Cry: Echoes of Young Zimbabwe Voices through www.africanbookscollective.com/publishers/amabooks

-----------------------------

        Street life in Bulawayo. (Flickr/Julien Lagarde

     

It's been four years since I last lived in Zimbabwe, four long years during which I strolled along the Mediterranean beaches in Algiers, ate Middle Eastern food, danced to Rai music and, like the rest of the world, observed the country of my birth from the other side of the looking glass. We are a country not exactly famous for positive headlines and I admit that I too have been sucked into negativity. Perhaps that explains the little pang of regret I feel as the bus crosses the Limpopo river and approaches the Beitbridge border post.

The differences are almost immediate when you enter Zimbabwean territory. The lights, for one, seem dimmer this side, the buildings older, the flag that stands at the entrance of the border post seems to be reminding itself of better days when its edges were less tattered. For a moment I wonder why I am going back when it seems so many are ignoring crocodiles, electric fences and the oh-so-insignificant fact that they don't have passports to go in the opposite direction. But it is time: the bus stops and we descend to begin the appeasement of the bureaucratic god that lies in wait at every border post. It hits me almost as soon as I step out into the crisp morning air. Perhaps it's the freshness of the air, the excited buzz of passengers as they contemplate that their journey is almost at its end. I don't know what it is but almost at once I feel glad to have arrived back home. It's an amazing feeling to walk into a passport office and have the crest on your passport match the one on the Ministry of Home Affairs logo, to not have to explain where you are going and how long you are going to stay there. It's an even greater feeling to hear the hawkers selling Buddie airtime, their voices insistent, belying the fact that they've probably been up all night. The bureaucratic god is appeased with a cursory glance at my passport. He bangs a stamp on it and we board the bus again, waiting to depart. After a five-hour delay at customs, which I am assured is not that bad a wait, we are on our way. The people around me have become livelier. The relative calm is punctuated by occasional snoring. Some men behind me are talking about a man in Makokoba who has taken his mother for his lover. The woman next to me shows me photos of her children. She is working so that she can buy a house for her family. She likes living in South Africa, she says, but she misses home terribly. She asks me what I do.  I lie and say I am a student at Wits. I have discovered that is the best way to avoid barrages of questions about the Middle East, Islam and why on earth I would go and study there in the first place. (When I was offered a scholarship to study French and computer science there four years ago, my main thought back then had been that the journey would involve a plane.) Five long hours later the bus finally arrives in the former capital of the Ndebele Kingdom, a city built by a king fleeing the murderous wrath of another king and named after the slaughter that occurred there so many decades before I was an idea in God's mind. None of that is evident as I look out the window. All I see are scenes that had once been part of my every day, scenes I had taken for granted as I went on my way to school or to church. The tree-lined avenues of Bulawayo that will come October burst into a purple glory matched by few other cities; the vendors selling airtime at the robots; the kombis dodging through traffic, filled almost to bursting point with people on their way to work. Life had continued while I was away but for the most part the city is the same as it was when I left it. And it seems the headlines have not touched Bulawayo's heart; forget them all. There is nothing like being where you know you will always belong. There is nothing like being able to speak in your mother tongue without having to resort to English-accented French or stuttering Arabic. Even my English can return to its default setting – here a traffic light is a robot, any soft drink is Coca-Cola, all toothpastes are Colgate and names like Priority are as commonplace as Matthew and Jacob. Here I can walk down the street with absolutely no fear of being stopped to show my ID, a practice that annoyed me in Algeria as much as it did in South Africa. And even when the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority demonstrates its loose definition of the word 'supply', it can be a calming thing to sit in the candle light and talk about anything and everything under the sun. And some things never change. The wind is (kombi conductors) still hang half their bodies out of their vehicles; they stand at taxi ranks screaming at the top of their lungs for passengers. The old ladies still sit in the flea markets waiting to convince customers that their vegetables are the freshest and the cheapest. Youth still loiter on the streets during the day, dressed to the nines in the latest offerings of the Jo'burg and New York fashion world. I come to realise that people have lived out their lives through a water supply crisis, an infamous economic collapse and a notorious Government of National Unity. The sun has risen and set on the townships and suburbs of Bulawayo all these years and people have gone about their days with smiles still reaching the sides of their faces, enduring the harsh, dark realities with bittersweet stoicism. From afar the news headlines may have been accurate but they never told the full story. I realise that you can never be right whilst standing on the other side of the looking glass; you have to step through as I did and realise, as I did, that there is no place like home.

From Bulawayo24,   http://bulawayo24.com/index-id-opinion-sc-columnist-byo-29862.html

The Intwasa Short Story Competition 2013

  

The Intwasa Short Story Competition 2013

The Intwasa Short Story Competition enters its ninth year this year, 2013. The competition, which was inaugurated in the first year of the festival, is an annual literary event seeking to promote original creative writing talent in English. In 2011 the award for the winner was named the Yvonne Vera Award, after the late Dr. Yvonne Vera, a literary genius whose works include Why Don’t We Carve Other Animals, Nehanda, Without a Name, Stone Virgins, and Butterfly Burning. The Yvonne Vera award carries a $500 cash prize.

The rules of the competition are as follows:

- There is no particular theme

- Entries must be written in English

- Entries should be previously unpublished

- Only one entry per person

- All work must be original

- Entries must be typed

- Maximum 3000 words

- The competition is open to all Zimbabwe citizens and residents

- Entries must be submitted by June 30, 2013

- Late entries will not be accepted

- Only the short-listed candidates will be personally notified

The competition has developed to become one of the leading writing competitions in Zimbabwe, continuing to encourage and promote the original Zimbabwean narrative. Last year the competition was won by Violette Kee-Tui with her story Tattered Cloth. The story explored interracial relationships and had the judges praising its use of language and imagery. Violette Kee-Tui is a former editor of the Edgars  Club Magazine.

Sipho Mpofu’s A Congenial Man and Nixon Nembaware’s The Rain God of Nyatanga Hill were among the top three stories of 2012.  Each year the standard of writing continues to improve.

Writers are invited to start submitting their stories to:

Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo

403 LAPF HOUSE

Jason Moyo Street

8^th Avenue

Bulawayo

Email: info@intwasa.org  or Info.intwasa@gmail.com

The 9^th edition of Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo is set for 24 -29 September 2013. The festival will be held under the theme Cultural Diversity – The Common Heritage of Humanity. 

Violette Kee-Tui wins Yvonne Vera Award at Intwasa 2012

Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo has announced this year’s winner of The Yvonne Vera Award for short story writing. This year’s winner is Violette Kee-Tui with her short story Tattered Cloth. The short story was adjudged the best out of 81 short stories submitted this year. The Intwasa Short Story Competition is an annually event organised by Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo. Violette Kee-Tui’s Tattered Cloth faced stiff competition from Sipho Mpofu’s A Congenial Man and Nixon Nembaware’s The Rain God of Nyatanga Hill.  For her efforts Violette Kee –Tui won $500. The Yvonne Vera award is supported by Hivos and the Norwegian Embassy and seeks to promote and honour creative writing, particularly short story writing in Zimbabwe.

In short Tattered Cloth is the story of forbidden love, and a relationship that is doomed from the beginning. It is well told and almost seamless. The judges fell in love with the story and heaped praise upon praise on Violette Kee-Tui’s narrative skills. 

Previous winners of the Intwasa Short Story Competition, which has developed into Zimbabwe's leading writing competition, include 'amaBooks writers Thabisani Ndlovu, Bryony Rheam, Chaltone Tshabangu, Novuyo Rosa Tshuma and Bongani Ncube.

The Business of Writing workshop at Intwasa 2012

Over 50 writers, both established and emerging, attended the Business of Writing workshop on Saturday 22 September in the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo. The workshop was part of the Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo and was supported by the British Council. It was facilitated by Jane Morris and Brian Jones of 'amaBooks, with Mgcini Nyoni of Poetry Bulawayo and writer Naison Tfwala.

Mgcini concentrated on online publishing and Naison on the advantages and disadvantages of self-publishing. Brian and Jane led discussion on the relationship between writers and publishers. Among subjects touched on were the changing world of publishing with the growth of self-publishing and the introduction of ebooks and digital printing. Opportunities for writers looked at included joining writers' groups, attendance at workshops, entering competitions, residencies and submitting work to poetry and story websites and blogs. The role of publishers in developing the skills of writers through constructive feedback on their submissions was an area of debate. It was great to see so many writers coming to the workshop and we hope to run more in the future.

Photograph courtesy of Batsirai Chigama

amaBooks at the Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo 2012

Thursday 20 September at 5.30pm at the National Gallery in Bulawayo

Opening of the Intwasa Visual Arts Exhibition, where copies of African Violet, the Caine Prize 2012 anthology, will be available. 'amaBooks will also be involved in the launch of Shadows, Novuyo Rosa Tshuma's debut novel, during the opening. Free admission.

Friday 21 September at 2.30pm at the Bulawayo Large City Hall

Song of the Carnivores, composed and arranged by Richard Sisson, features choirs of schoolchildren from across Bulawayo, with poetry readings and talks about the five large endangered carnivores: lion, leopard, wild dog, hyena and cheetah. Free admission.

Friday 21 September at 5.00pm at the National Gallery in Bulawayo

Announcement of the winners of the Yvonne Vera Award - the Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo Short Story Award, which has developed into one of Zimbabwe's leading writings prizes. The announcement will take place during the launch of Ericah Gwetai's book Embracing the Cactus. Free admission.

Saturday 22 September at 10.00am at the National Gallery in Bulawayo

The Business of Writing. The workshop targets writers, dealing with the whole process of writing from creation, editing, publishing and marketing of literary works. 'amaBooks, together with two self-published writers, Mgcini Nyoni and Naison Tfwala, will facilitate the workshop. Free admission, but please register beforehand with the Intwasa office, 403 LAPF House, 8th Ave, Bulawayo, info@intwasa.org or (09)63928.

Intwasa shortlists 10 stories for the Yvonne Vera Award

10 short stories have been shortlisted for the Intwasa Short Story Competition (Yvonne Vera Award) with eight from Bulawayo and the remaining two from Harare. This year there were 81 short stories submitted for the competition, a 26 percent drop from last year’s number of 110. There were 60 males and 21 females who entered the competition.

The competition was inaugurated in the first year of the festival and is an annual literary event seeking to promote original creative writing talent in English.

In 2011 the award was named the Yvonne Vera Award and carries a $500 cash prize.

He said as organisers they were impressed by the quality of stories submitted.

“Forty-four per cent of the entries were from Bulawayo, seventeen per cent from Harare with the rest coming from across Zimbabwe, with one entry from South Africa and one from Algeria. Sixty submissions were from males and twenty-one from females,” said Baya.

He said there were a variety of short stories that were submitted, from love stories to stories about rural life.

It was encouraging to see a wide variety of subject areas in the stories, from teenage love stories to stories of traditional rural life. The judges were also pleased to see the use of humour, which enlivened many of the submissions, and, generally, the good command of language,” said Baya.
However, he said some plots were too complex and the characters were poorly developed.

“There was an overuse of descriptive passages at the expense of moving the story forward. In good fiction a writer will ‘show and not tell’. In several of the stories there were too long descriptions of the main character’s state of mind and emotions,” said Baya. “Several of the plots were overly complex and the characters poorly developed. The endings of many of the stories were unconvincing.”

“Writers do also need to check the spelling, punctuation and general grammar before submitting their work, whether to a competition or to a publisher,” said Baya.

The shortlist will be trimmed to five nominees on 7 September. Intwasa Arts Festival KoBulawayo will run from 18 to 22 September under the theme Bulawayo Blooming.

Below is the list of the 10 writers whose short stories have been shortlisted:

Blessing Hungwe    Coming Out
Violette Kee-Tui    Tattered Cloth   
Mandla Khumalo-    Fading Memories   
Sipho Mpofu    A Congenial Man   
Mahluli Ndlovu    It's Not a Man's World   
Nixon Nembaware    The Rain God of Nyatanga Hill   
Babusi Nyoni    Foolishness
Mgcini Nyoni    Crying Still       
Khotso Sibanda    Not Guilty as Charged   
Chaltone Tshabangu     Scheherazade of a Sort

Three of the shortlisted writers have been previously published by 'amaBooks: Babusi Nyoni in Silent Cry: Echoes of Young Zimbabwe Voices, Mgcini Nyoni in Intwasa Poetry and Chaltone Tshabangu in Long Time Coming: Short Writings from Zimbabwe.

(from www.chronicle.co.zw)

New Bulawayo Arts Magazine

The first two issues of a new Bulawayo arts magazine are now available through Scribd.

Please click on the links below to find out what's happening in the arts in Bulawayo.

Kwanthuthu Arts Magazine June 2012

Kwanthunthu Arts Magazine July 2012

Intwasa Short Story Competition 2012

INTWASA SHORT STORY COMPETITION 2012

Put your writing talent to test.

Write a short story and have the chance of winning $500

The Intwasa Short Story Competition is an annual literary event seeking to promote original creative writing talent in English. The winning story will be awarded the Yvonne Vera Award which carries a $500 cash prize.
Rules:
v There is no particular theme
v Entries must be written in English
v Entries should be previously unpublished
v Only one entry per person
v All work must be original
v Entries must be typed.
v Maximum 3000 words.
v The competition is open to all Zimbabwe citizens and residents
v Entries must be submitted by July 31, 2012
v Late entries will not be accepted.
v Only the short-listed candidates will be personally notified

Send stories to Intwasa Short Story Competition, Office 403, 4th Floor, LAPF House, Bulawayo or info.intwasa@gmail.com or info@intwasa.org


                                WRITERS, GET WRITING! !

Please forward this info to your contacts.

For enquiries, do not hesitate to call or email us.

Regards,

Runyararo Cynthia Mutandi
Festival Administrator
Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo
Office 403, 4th Floor
LAPF House
8th Ave & J. Moyo St.
Bulawayo
Zimbabwe
Tel/Fax: +263 9 63928
Cell: +263 772 814 185
Website: www.intwasa.org
Email: info@intwasa.org
Alt. Email: info.intwasa@gmail.com
Blog: www.intwasa.blogspot.com
Skype: runyararo.cynthia.mutandi
                  
                            "Bulawayo Blooming"

'amaBooks at the Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo 2011

'amaBooks will be part of several events during Intwasa 2011. Our major commitment is to launch Where to Now? Short Stories from Zimbabwe at the National Gallery in Bulawayo on the last night of the festival - at 5pm on Saturday 24 September. The launch will feature readings from John Eppel, Christopher Mlalazi and Raisedon Baya. A special feature of the launch will be Owen Maseko painting his interpretation of a scene from NoViolet Bulawayo's story while the excerpt is being read.

'amaBooks appreciates the support that is being given to this project, for the launch from Alliance Francaise de Bulawayo, the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo and Intwasa, for the publication from the Beit Trust, The Association of Little Presses and Alliance Francaise de Bulawayo.

We are also involved in the Song of the Carnivores lyric writing competition, and the winner will be announced at the Gallery at 5 pm on Tuesday 20 September. The aim of the project is to raise awareness of the value of, and the vulnerability of, five carnivores of Africa - lion, cheetah, leopard, hyena and wild dog. There have been some superb entries to the competition, from Zimbabweans throughout the world. Entrants who have confirmed they will be attending and will read from their work include author Peggy Lendrum and comedian Edgar Langeveldt. A medley of other entries will be performed by local poets Tswarelo Mothobe and Siphosethu Mpofu.

On Wednesday 21 September, between 3 and 5pm, a workshop/discussion session on Writing and Publishing in Zimbabwe will be facilitated by 'amaBooks. All writers are welcome to attend.

The winners of the Intwasa Short Story Competitions - the Yvonne Vera Award, the N.S. Sigogo Award and those for youth - will be announced at the Gallery on Saturday 24 September at 12pm.

Liilian Dube wins Writing with Light poetry competition

Lillian Dube's poem Jazz has won the Writing with Light competition, the results of which were announced at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo on February 17.

The competition, which involved poets interpreting the photographs of Resta Nyamwanza, was praised by the judges, Brian Jones and Jane Morris of 'amaBooks. The work submitted was of a high standard, as were the photographs, and the impressive attendance demonstrated the interest in the arts in Bulawayo. Such competitions play an important role in encouraging creativity. There had been events in Bulawayo in the past that involved cooperation between literary and visual arts - the Poetic Brush and the launch of Short Writings from Bulawayo III, but these involved visual artists interpreting poetry or short stories.

In second place was Babusi Nyoni's poem Between A and B, and in third place Sammantha G Ndlovu's Women - Uhuru. All three were given money prizes as well as copies of 'amaBooks poetry collections Intwasa Poetry and Sonatas.

The event was supported by several organisations: Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo, Multi-Media Box, Sound Kalcha, HIVOS, Poetry Bulawayo, Coalition Against Censorship Zimbabwe, the National Gallery in Bulawayo, Lekker Juice and 'amaBooks.

Jazz by Lilian Dube

I met jazz in a dream

Down by the river

Leaning against an amarula tree

Playing the pennywhistle

To the sound of my heartbeat

& the smell of the last rains

She made love to my senses

Drowned my soul

I can’t breathe, can’t let go.

Novuyo Tshuma wins Intwasa Short Story Competition

(from www.zimbojam.com)

Novuyo Rosa Tshuma is the winner of the 2009 Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo Short Story Competition. Her heartrending story You in Paradise won the judges hearts and beat a strong list of contenders for this year's prize.

The second prize went to Fungai Tichawangana and third prize was won by Violette Kee-Tui.

Novuyo’s You in Paradise tells of a young Zimbabwean woman’s experiences in South Africa, with the police, with xenophobia, and with Obi, the Nigerian with ‘diamonds drooping from his ears’. Novuyo has been published before, with four of her short stories in the ’amaBooks collection Silent Cry: Echoes of Young Voices and has had stories accepted in two other collections.

Fungai Tichawangana’s story, entitled Ting! Ta-ling! Ta-ling!, is a humorous piece about a bus journey where the ‘fat lady in the front seat would not stop talking’. Eventually, she faints and cannot be awoken, but then her cell-phone rings, from inside her bra...

Violette Kee-Tu’s piece is a powerful account of the relationship between two sisters, as one of them develops a brain tumour.

The other writers shortlisted for the competition were Memory Chirere, Melusi Mkandla, Farai Mpofu, Urayayi Msarire, Thamsanqa Ncube, Babusi
Nyoni and Mgcini Nyoni

The judges commented: "The overall standard of the stories submitted was very high, with entries from across Zimbabwe and from both well known and budding writers. The entries were varied, some being topical, some humorous and others emotionally charged. It was a hard task judging the competition with little between those short-listed. It is encouraging to see such good writing in Zimbabwe and it bodes well for the future."

Previous winners of the competition were Thabisani Ndlovu, who has short stories published in the ’amaBooks Short Writings collections and is presently studying for a PhD in South Africa, Bryony Rheam, whose short stories have appeared in many Zimbabwean anthologies and whose first novel This September Sun has just been published by ’amaBooks, and Chaltone Tshabangu, who has a short story in Long Time Coming: Short Writings from Zimbabwe.