BY AGATHA CHUMA CHINA-BASED Zimbabwean author Ashton Bvute is over the moon after scooping the Pride of Africa Asia Pacific Young Author award last Friday in Guangzhou, China.
Most of Bvute’s writings major on social, cultural and political contemporary issues affecting Africans, Zimbabweans, in particular.
The elated Bvute said the award meant a lot to him as an author.
“Winning the Young Author Award was a fantastic experience and it has reinvigorated the zeal to work on other publications,” he said.
Bvute is optimistic that the award will help to expose his previous projects and even draw more readers to his future projects.
“I believe this award will also build my credibility as an author and also inspire other budding authors to work hard. They are people or organisations out there who can recognise and appreciate our work. The feeling of challenging myself and to add my voice to the concerns of humanity forced me to be a purposeful person who tried to put a mark on this generation through writing,” he said.
As an author in a foreign land, Bvute said among the challenges he faces included fear and lack of time.
“My greatest challenge was fear; it lived in me from day one. I was not sure if my content and ideas would be acceptable to the audience. Through building self-confidence, having relatives and friends who kept encouraging me, I eventually outclassed the monster which could have wiped out my gift,” he explained.
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Pointing out that writing is time demanding he added: “To think, pen drafts and research are quite difficult to balance with work and family so, as a result, projects take long to take shape. I have, however, developed a timetable to have a slot for reading or researching weekly and with this I manage to balance my time.”
Bvute developed interest in writing after university through penning short stories in 2014 before working on his first book titled The Contested Diamond in 2015.
The book was, however, published five years later after he moved to China.
Apart from books, Bvute also writes articles on social and cultural dynamics.
His also has the Zimbabwe Achievers Award 2022 in his kitty.
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