This Mournable Body is a novel by Tsitsi Dangarembga which was published by Faber and Faber on 16 January 2020. [1]
This Mournable Body was described by Alexandra Fuller of The New York Times as "another masterpiece," [7] and by Novuyo Rosa Tshuma of The Guardian as "magnificent ... another classic". [8] It has been reviewed by Kirkus Reviews, [9] Red Pepper, [10] The Times, [11] The Masters Review, [12] The Times Literary Supplement, [13] The Daily Telegraph, [14] Literary Review, [15] Verve, [16] Washington Independent Review of Books, [17] Star Tribune, [18] Radio New Zealand, [19] Tydskrif vir Letterkunde, [20] World Literature Today, [21] The Straits Times, [22] The Michigan Daily, [23] Chicago Tribune, [24] The Irish Times, [25] Daily Trust, [26] The Wire, [27] The New Yorker, [28] Zyzzyva, [29] Publishers Weekly [30] and The Gazette. [31]
Sir Ben Golden Emuobowho Okri is a Nigerian-born British poet and novelist. Okri is considered one of the foremost African authors in the post-modern and post-colonial traditions, and has been compared favourably to authors such as Salman Rushdie and Gabriel García Márquez. In 1991, Okri won the Booker Prize with his novel The Famished Road. He received a knighthood in the 2023 Birthday Honours for services to literature.
Tsitsi Dangarembga is a Zimbabwean novelist, playwright and filmmaker. Her debut novel, Nervous Conditions (1988), which was the first to be published in English by a Black woman from Zimbabwe, was named by the BBC in 2018 as one of the top 100 books that have shaped the world. She has won other literary honours, including the Commonwealth Writers' Prize and the PEN Pinter Prize. In 2020, her novel This Mournable Body was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. In 2022, Dangarembga was convicted in a Zimbabwe court of inciting public violence, by displaying, on a public road, a placard asking for reform.
Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels is an international peace prize awarded annually by the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels, which runs the Frankfurt Book Fair. The award ceremony is held in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt. The prize has been awarded since 1950. The recipient is remunerated with €25,000.
Nervous Conditions is a novel by Zimbabwean author Tsitsi Dangarembga, first published in the United Kingdom in 1988. It was the first book published by a black woman from Zimbabwe in English. Nervous Conditions won Best Book of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize in 1989.
Kubi Chaza Indi is a Zimbabwean development activist and businesswoman. Under her maiden name, Kubi Chaza, she was an actress in the United Kingdom, appearing in Live and Let Die in 1973 as a sales clerk serving James Bond. After returning to Zimbabwe, she and actor husband John Indi started a company making beauty products.
The Book of Not is a novel by Zimbabwean author Tsitsi Dangarembga, published in 2006. The novel is semi-autobiographical, set in colonial Rhodesia. The story is told from the perspective of Tambudzai as she attends a convent boarding school in Rhodesia. In The Book of Not, Tambu's story continues from when it previously left off in the prequel, Nervous Conditions (1988). In May 2018, the BBC named Nervous Conditions as one of the top 100 books that have shaped the world, listing the novel at number 66.
The St. Francis College Literary Prize is a biennial literary award inaugurated in 2009. The prize of US$50,000 is presented to a mid-career author in honor of a third to fifth book of fiction. The winner is selected by a jury and invited to St. Francis College in Brooklyn, New York, for a speech. The SFC Literary Prize is meant to offer encouragement and significant financial support to a mid-career writer. The winner of the prize is announced from a whittled down shortlist during the Brooklyn Book Festival every other year in September.
The PEN Pinter Prize and the Pinter International Writer of Courage Award both comprise an annual literary award launched in 2009 by English PEN in honour of the late Nobel Literature Prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter, who had been a Vice President of English PEN and an active member of the International PEN Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC). The award is given to "a British writer or a writer resident in Britain of outstanding literary merit who, in the words of Pinter’s Nobel speech ['Art, Truth and Politics'], casts an 'unflinching, unswerving' gaze upon the world and shows 'a fierce, intellectual determination … to define the real truth of our lives and our societies'." The Prize is shared with an "International Writer of Courage," defined as "someone who has been persecuted for speaking out about [his or her] beliefs," selected by English PEN's Writers at Risk Committee in consultation with the annual Prize winner, and announced during an award ceremony held at the British Library, on or around 10 October, the anniversary of Pinter's birth.
Reza de Wet was a South African playwright.
The Aké Arts and Book Festival is a literary and artistic event held annually in Nigeria. It was founded in 2013 by Lola Shoneyin, a Nigerian writer and poet, in Abeokuta. It features new and established writers from across the world, and its primary focus has been to promote, develop, and celebrate the creativity of African writers, poets, and artists. The Aké Arts and Book Festival has been described as the African continent's biggest annual gathering of literary writers, editors, critics, and readers. The festival has an official website and a dedicated magazine, known as the Aké Review.
Novuyo Rosa Tshuma is a Zimbabwean writer and professor of creative writing. She is the author of Shadows, a novella and House of Stone, a novel.
Tydskrif vir Letterkunde is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering African literature. The editor-in-chief is Hein Willemse.
Lily G. N. Mabura is a Kenyan writer known for her short story How Shall We Kill the Bishop, which was shortlisted for the Caine Prize in 2010.
Panashe Chigumadzi is a Zimbabwean-born journalist, essayist and novelist, who was raised in South Africa.
The Zimbabwe cricket team toured Bangladesh in February and March 2020 to play one Test match, three One Day International (ODI) and two Twenty20 International (T20I) matches. On 26 January 2020, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) confirmed the itinerary for the tour. It was the first time that a tour between the two sides featured a one-off Test match. Zimbabwe last toured Bangladesh in October and November 2018, and last won a series in the country during their tour in November 2001. On 9 February, the BCB moved the three ODI matches from Chittagong to the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium, to give the venue more exposure and international attention. The one-off Test match was the 100th international match to be played between the two sides.
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 2020.
Harold (Harry) Kalmer was a South African novelist, essayist and playwright both in English and his home language Afrikaans.
Claire Armitstead FRSL is a British journalist and author. She is Associate Editor (Culture) at The Guardian, where she has worked since 1992. She is also a cultural commentator on literature and the arts, and makes appearances on radio and television, as well as leading workshops and chairing literary events in the UK and at international festivals. She has judged literary competitions including the Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books, the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, the PEN Pinter Prize and the Scotiabank Giller Prize.
Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu is a Zimbabwe-born novelist and filmmaker.
Antoinette Tidjani Alou is a Jamaican-Nigerien academic, film-maker and writer, whose work focuses on the constructions of Sahelian identity in written and oral literature, as well as women in Sahelian identities. She published a novel On m'appelle Nina in 2016 and a collection of poems with a memoir Tina shot me between the eyes and other stories in 2017. She is a lecturer in Comparative Literature and in 2016 was appointed Coordinator of the Arts and Culture Department at Abdou Moumouni University in Niger.