OVER the last two years, the literary segment of the National Arts Merit Awards (Nama) has been dominated by writers working as professional journalists or stringers for media houses, NewsDay has established.
BY TINASHE MUCHURI
The 2017 edition of the awards, set to be held tomorrow night, will see NewsDay Features and Lifestyle editor, Phillip Chidavaenzi fighting it out with Zimpapers’ Robert Mukondiwa — and Benjamin Sibanda in the Outstanding Fiction category, with their works The Latter Rain, The Judas Files and Whose Land is It Anyway, respectively.
The Outstanding Children’s Book category will also see, Ignatius Mabasa and Farai Nyandoro — who are both journalists by profession — tussling for the gong. Mabasa wrote the book, My Son, together with Albert Nyathi. The other nominee in the category is Chellie Conlon with A Magical Adventure in Chewore.
In 2017, Chidavaenzi’s second novel, The Ties that Bind, was nominated again in the Outstanding Fiction category, while Daniel Mutendi, a stringer for the Jewel magazine, was nominated in the Outstanding Children’s Book Award and went on to scoop the it with Tsuro naGudo: Misi Haifanani.
