MORE than 30 exhibitors have confirmed participation at the Bulawayo Book Fair — an annual literary exhibition — which kicks off today and ends tomorrow at the National Art Gallery in the city, a senior official has announced.
Report by Khulani Nkabinde
Musaemura Zimunya, the Zimbabwe International Book Fair (ZIBF) executive chairman, told NewsDay yesterday that the fair would be held under the theme: “ZIBF@30: Enabling Creativity, Writing, Publishing and Reading for Africa’s Growth”.
“We would like to restate that The Bulawayo Book Fair programme will run along the usual exhibitions incorporating the children’s reading tent and the live literature centre, not to mention the writers, publishers, librarians and booksellers’ workshop. In addition, however, ZIBF are introducing a new item — The Bulawayo Literary Evening,” Zimunya said.
He said the workshop would be held today at the gallery.
“We have identified some of the leading lights from the literary, publishing, librarian and bookselling sectors to make presentations on some of the abiding thorny challenges to the book sector,” he said.
“We have in addition found room for contributions to Ministry of Home Affairs, through the Police Department, to address the much vexed problem of piracy and share with the public what they see from where they stand.
“Other presentations target developmental issues such as the role of language and material cultures in the identity of people; the impact of electronic media on children’s reading culture; how books become schools set textbooks and digital tools for writing and marketing for authors and the role of intellectual copyright in the book sector.”
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He said ZIBF had been mulling the idea of The Bulawayo Literary Evening for a while “in recognition of Bulawayo as a thriving epicentre of the arts and, in particular, the literary sector”.
“As ZIBF, we have never wavered in our convictions nor shirked our responsibility to contribute to the success of the book and literary sectors of Bulawayo except when funding did not permit,” Zimunya added.
“We are, therefore, delighted to provide a platform for writers — poets, novelists and short story writers to the public — to read and or perform their works.
“We hope authors take up the opportunity while members of the public respond positively to make the event a big success.”
