“Through Multiculturalism We Become Better Humans”: A Conversation with Vonani Bila, by Ming Di

“Through Multiculturalism We Become Better Humans”: A Conversation with Vonani Bila, by Ming Di Interviews [email protected] Thu, 06/13/2024 - 15:21 Vonani Bila with his mother and his son. Courtesy of Mark Waller, 2010.Vonani Bila (b. 1972) grew up in Shirley Village, Limpopo province, South Africa, from where he used to walk fourteen kilometers daily to Lemana High School in Elim. He is a poet, essayist, cultural activist, founding editor of the poetry journal Timbila, publisher of Timbila Books, curator of the Vhembe International Poetry festival, and founder of Timbila Writers’ Village, a rural retreat center for writers. He has been instrumental in promoting marginalized poets and has become an iconic figure among the poets of his generation in South Africa. His poetry continues the tradition of South African resistance poetry of the 1970s and 1980s, blended with postmodernist experiments. He is the author of eight storybooks in English, Northern Sotho, and Xitsonga for newly literate adult readers; two children’s books; co-compiler of a Xitsonga monolingual dictionary with M. M. Marhanele, Tihlùngù ta Rixaka (2016); and is currently a lecturer in English at the University of Limpopo. He holds an MFA in creative writing (cum laude) from Rhodes University and is currently a PhD candidate (creative writing) at Wits University. His poetry books include No Free Sleeping (1998) (with Donald Parenzee and Alan Finlay); In the... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'

[ World Literature Today | 2024-06-13 20:21:36 UTC ]

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A Queer Reading List from LGBTQ-Identified Authors at the PDX Book Festival

THIS NOVEMBER, the PDX Book Festival took place in Portland, Oregon. The annual one-day event always includes some of the best contemporary writers, and many of the best contemporary writers are queer. (We are good artists.) This year, the festival included over 100 authors participating in... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books

[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2019-12-22 20:00:19 UTC ]
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Apple TV+ will drop every episode of ‘Little America’ on January 17th

Little America, the anthology series based on true stories about immigrants in the US, arrives on Apple TV+ on January 17th. Apple will release all of season one's episodes at once, rather than weekly as it's done with other shows, and more than a mo... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2019-12-12 23:19:00 UTC ]
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De’Shawn Charles Winslow wins 2019 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize.

Huge congratulations to De’Shawn Charles Winslow, who last night took home the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize for his acclaimed debut In West Mills. Winslow was presented with the prestigious prize—which has in previous years been awarded to Junot Diaz, Tiphanie Yanique, Viet Thanh Nguyen,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2019-12-11 17:00:27 UTC ]
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5 Goals for Making Your Anthology the Best That It Can Be

Marika Lindholm, co-editor of the new book We Got This: Solo Mom Stories of Grit, Heart, and Humor offers 5 tips to creating a more appealing and successful anthology. The post 5 Goals for Making Your Anthology the Best That It Can Be by Marika Lindholm appeared first on Writer's Digest. Continue reading at Writer's Digest

[ Writer's Digest | 2019-12-11 10:00:21 UTC ]
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Bob Geldof anthology snapped up by Faber

Faber will publish a book from Bob Geldof, Tales of Boomtown Glory, which it describes as “the musical life and times of one of our most powerful singer songwriters” Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-12-10 12:26:27 UTC ]
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How Journalism Made a Poet Out of Me

In 1977––just three years after the publication of Tom Wolfe’s The New Journalism, a landmark, incendiary anthology that declared journalists using fictional technique had erased the novel as literature’s dominant form—I was fresh out of college and had just landed my first job as a journalist.... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2019-12-06 09:48:12 UTC ]
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Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year - meet the shortlist

Raymond AntrobusWho/ What inspired you to start writing? I never started writing poetry with the intention of writing books until publishers approached me. I was happy to write poems and travel and read the poems for audiences. I live poem by poem. The idea of a book of poems doesn’t really... Continue reading at British Council global

[ British Council global | 2019-12-05 12:09:15 UTC ]
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Harvill Secker wins Elaine Feeney's first novel at auction

Irish poet Elaine Feeney’s "dazzlingly inventive" debut novel As You Were will be published by Harvill Secker following an auction. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-12-02 15:33:42 UTC ]
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Lit Hub Daily: December 2, 2019

What was the first book you fell in love with? The Center for Fiction’s 2019 First Novel Prize authors weigh in. | Lit Hub “Disagree with my argument, beliefs, and my politics, but hands off my syntax!” Lore Segal’s love letter to editors. | Lit Hub “Among Larry’s many strengths as a writer,... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2019-12-02 11:30:22 UTC ]
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What Was the First Book You Fell in Love With?

We asked this year’s Center for Fiction First Novel Prize finalists about their earliest love affairs with reading. Meet them all at the Finalist Reading and Fête on December 9 at The Center for Fiction. * Chia-Chia Lin, author of The Unpassing on The Elves and the Shoemaker, Fran Hunia and... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2019-12-02 09:49:11 UTC ]
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Nikesh Shukla and Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers to appear at first Paisley Book Festival

Author Nikesh Shukla will join broadcaster Kirsty Wark to headline the inaugural Paisley Book Festival in February 2020, with contributions also coming from Emma Jane Unsworth and the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-11-26 15:25:12 UTC ]
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Why All Americans Should Read “Celestial Bodies”

Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi won the Man Booker International Prize this year for its beautifully rendered portrayal of a family’s tangled history in the village of al-Awafi in Oman. The novel was the first book translated from Arabic to win the prize, and more surprisingly, it was the... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2019-11-26 11:59:00 UTC ]
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Hodder to publish Veronica Roth's first novel for adults

Hodder & Stoughton is publishing Veronica Roth's first novel for adults, Chosen Ones, after striking a two-book deal. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-11-20 08:51:10 UTC ]
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Starry Lite: Isaac Asimov’s Space Ranger

In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle reads the first novel in Isaac Asimov’s juvenile science fiction series Science fiction set in our own solar system arguably began with Lucian, the classical author whose short satirical piece True History paved the way for... Continue reading at Interesting Literature

[ Interesting Literature | 2019-11-15 15:00:55 UTC ]
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The Woman Who Brought Dostoevsky and Chekhov to English Readers

My first publication was a translation, not something I wrote myself. It was an essay in Greek about the poet C.P. Cavafy for a literary anthology of that kind of thing. Before taking up Modern Greek I had spent thousands of hours of my youth translating Homer for my studies—probably too many... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2019-11-12 09:50:58 UTC ]
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Fanny Burney, Grandmother of the English Novel

Her first novel first novel came out in 1778, when she was twenty-five, and made her famous. Continue reading at The Paris Review

[ The Paris Review | 2019-11-06 14:00:37 UTC ]
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Netflix's 'Heartstrings' trailer reimagines Dolly Parton songs as dramas

Netflix is turning eight Dolly Parton songs into an anthology series, Dolly Parton's Heartstrings. The first trailer arrived today, and it gives us a glimpse of the dramas based on iconic songs like "Two Doors Down," "JJ Sneed" -- and of course, "Jol... Continue reading at Engadget

[ Engadget | 2019-11-06 03:18:00 UTC ]
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Unbound launches Irish working class writers anthology

Unbound is launching an anthology of working class writers from across Ireland, featuring original pieces by Roddy Doyle and Lisa McInerney alongside lesser known authors and edited by Paul McVeigh. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-11-04 02:04:57 UTC ]
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Eve L. Ewing’s debut poetry collection is being adapted for TV.

I have no idea how one goes about adapting a poetry collection into a TV series, but it looks like I’ll find out soon—AMC Studios is creating an Afrofuturistic anthology series based on Eve L. Ewing’s debut collection Electric Arches. According to Shadow and Act, “The Electric Arches anthology... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2019-10-31 17:27:27 UTC ]
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What We're Reading – October 2019

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine EvaristoSince studying Lara as a student, I have been a fan of Bernardine Evaristo’s work, and am delighted to see her win the Booker Prize this year. Girl, Woman, Other follows the lives of twelve black characters with different backgrounds and experiences, most... Continue reading at British Council global

[ British Council global | 2019-10-30 09:49:28 UTC ]
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