Writing Lives

Notes about the Authors

vii Notes about the Authors Lawrence Hoba was born in 1983 in Masvingo. He is an entrepreneur, literacy promoter and author who studied Tourism and Hospitality Management at the University of Zimbabwe. Hoba’s short stories and poetry have appeared in a number of publications including Zimbablog, a journal of the Budding Writers Association of Zimbabwe, the Warwick Review (2009), Writing Now (2005) and Laughing Now (2007). His anthology, The Trek and Other Stories (2009) was nominated for the NAMA, 2010 and went on to win the ZBPA award for Best Literature in English. Tendai Huchu is the author of The Hairdresser of Harare, which is now translated into German, French and Italian. In 2013 he was awarded a Hawthornden Fellowship and a Sacatar Fellowship in Bahia. His short fiction has appeared in various journals and anthologies around the world. He is currently working on his next novel. Tendai Machingaidze was born in Harare. She attended Syracuse University in New York, where she obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry, Magna cum Laude. She also holds an MA in Christian Education and a Master of Divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Texas. Her hobbies include dance, travel, and writing. Nevanji Madanhire, born in 1961, has worked as a journalist since 1990. In 1996 he became Editor-in-Chief of what was then Zimbabwe’s only independent newspaper, The Financial Gazette. In 1998, he was part of the team that founded The Daily News. In 2002, he became the founding editor of The Business Tribune, which quickly grew its readership and circulation because of its fierce independence. It was banned in 2004. He then became the country editor of a London-based NGO, the Institute for War and Peace Reporting. There, he built up a team of ten journalists, which gave the world fresh insights into the Zimbabwean crisis. Since January 2010, he has been editor of the weekly Sunday newspaper, The viii Standard. He has published two books, Goatsmell, (1993) and If the Wind Blew, (1995). He has published short stories in anthologies such as Writing Still (2003), All Creatures Great and Small (2006) and Mazambuko (2011). He hopes to become a full-time writer when circumstances allow. Daniel Mandishona is an architect. He was born in Harare in 1959 and brought up by his maternal grandparents in Mbare (then known as Harari township). In 1976 he was expelled from Goromonzi Secondary School. He lived in London from 1977-92. He first studied Graphic Design, then Architecture at the Bartlett School, University College, London. He now has his own practice in Harare. His first short story, ‘A Wasted Land’ was published in Contemporary African Short Stories (1992). A collection of his short stories, White Gods Black Demons, was published in 2009. Christopher Mlalazi is currently Guest Writer of the City of Hanover in Germany, the latest in a series of writing fellowships. In 2012, he was a fellow at the Iowa International Writing Program, USA; in 2011, he was Guest Writer at the Nordic Africa Institute in Sweden; and, in 2010, Guest Writer at Villa Aurora, in Los Angeles, USA. Prolific as a prose writer and playwright, in 2008 he was the co-winner of the Oxfam Novib PEN Freedom of Expression Award at the Hague for theatre. In 2009, he was given a NAMA award for his short story collection, Dancing With Life: Tales From the Township. He was nominated for another NAMA for his novel Many Rivers (2009). In 2010 he won a NAMA for his play Election Day. He is is currently working on a new novel, They Are Coming, which was longlisted for the 2013 Kwani Manuscript Project award. Blessing Musariri wishes she could dance like the contestants on, ‘So You Think You Can Dance’, but she has no memory for routines. So, failing that, she hopes she writes even half as well as she wishes she could dance. It is her dream to write a multi-award-winning work of fiction that will be made into a major motion picture. Chiedza Musengezi has co-edited compilations of women’s voices in: Women of Resilience (2000), Women Writing Africa: The Southern Region (2003) and A Tragedy of Lives: Women in Prison in Zimbabwe (2003). Her short stories and poetry have been anthologised locally and internationally. She taught in Ireland and she currently works for the Legal Resources Foundation in Harare. Chiedza was published in Writing Still (2003), Writing [3.142.12.240...