Children’s book author up for a Nama

Langalakhe Mabena

After successfully publishing his first book titled When The Sun Sets, China-based author and composer Nqobizwe Malinga is nominated at this year’s National Arts Merit Awards (Nama), the first major nomination in his career.

The book, which is a children’s story that tries to introduce the concept of death and dealing with loss and fear to young readers from middle childhood to early adolescence, is nominated for Outstanding Children’s book.

Other nominees in the category are Valentine Nyagweta for Let’s enjoy Village Tales with Mbuya maDishi and Costa Chayambuka for Sloba and the Chameleonaire.

The 21st edition of the Namas will be held on February 25 in Harare and the theme for this year is Unlocking Dreams.

The Cowdray Park bred wordsmith, who is a student at Shanghai University, said he feels honoured for being nominated and is confident that Zimbabwe’s literary industry is on the right track. 

“Having my name appear in a premier award we grew up seeing only on TV feels like a dream. It’s also a testament to the great work we put into the publication and how it undoubtedly changed the face of Zimbabwean Children’s literature for the bottom half of 2022,” said Malinga.

“After seeing my works in so many anthologies, for me, the book (When The Sun Sets) was a perfect introduction to the brand I have always wanted to create for myself as a writer, and more recently, as an active ambassador of juvenile literature.”

Apart from the nomination, Malinga said the book has been successful in addressing and meeting its course in different parts of the world and in Zimbabwe at large.

“The book has been highly successful, with its current presence in six countries as well as receiving great returns made in the related merchandise that we have sold. It undoubtedly was amongst Zimbabwe’s bestsellers for the bottom half of 2022,” said Malinga.

He said he was glad that the book was feeding into academia.

“One such example is the When The Sun Sets young readers workshop that we held in Gwanda at St Christopher’s school in November last year. Pre-teens from different schools around the town got an opportunity to receive both the book and the students’ workbook as a donation from Education Foundation Trust and spent the day in training for reading and writing under the supervision of qualified teachers,” said Malinga.