THE Book Café will tonight celebrate female writers at an event dubbed In Celebration of Female Literature.
Entertainment Reporter
The celebration features performances and readings from Zimbabwe’s sensational young poet Cynthia Marangwanda, who brought the house down at Poetry Africa last year and has performed in the Netherlands, Namibia and South Africa.
Fast-rising mbira-player and vocalist Pauline Gundidza is expected to spice up the readings with background music.
There would also be a reading from Zimbabwe’s very own doyenne of women writers, Barbara Nkala.
Organisers of the event said the celebrations would honour this year’s Zimbabwe International Book Fair (ZIBF) which is currently underway in Harare until Saturday.
“A discussion platform on the theme: ‘How are female figures represented in contemporary Zimbabwean fiction?’ will be led by writer and media consultant Tinashe Mushakavanhu and writer Isabel Bandason,” noted the organisers in a statement.
Mushakavanhu holds a PhD in English from University of Kent and degrees from Welsh and Zimbabwean universities.
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He has co-edited four books including State of the Nation: Contemporary Zimbabwean Poetry (2009) and Visa Stories: Experiences Between Law and Migration (2013).
Creative writer and businesswoman Bandason is a passionate exponent of positive images of African women in literature and has been a member of Zimbabwe Women Writers (ZWW) since 1992. Moderator of the discussion would be Ruby Magosvongwe, who is a ZWW, ZIBF board member and lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Zimbabwe.
The event would double as a launch for a literary competition that focuses on women writers in the country.
“Entrants would be required to write a 300-word essay under the topic: ‘The female writer (or a novel or story written by a female) that changed my life and perception’. The competition is open to all Zimbabweans and prizes would be announced soon,” the organisers noted.
