Chronicle Editor
Yvonne Ncube, Showbiz Reporter
RENOWNED authors in Bulawayo will on Saturday hold a book fair to sell books and engage with the audience.
The meet and greet interaction which will be held at Zonk’Izizwe shopping centre in Bradfield, will feature six well-known authors.
Bryony Rheam, a fiction writer, is among the host scribes as are Dot Bekker, an Africa travel adventure memoirist and Susan Hubert, an education, drama and historical fiction author. Historian and author of local guide books Rob Burret, Philani A Nyoni, a poet and award-winning screenwriter and Pathisa Nyathi, poet, historian, award-winning author and cultural leader complete the list of authors participating.
In an interview, Dot Bekker said selling books and engaging with the audience has become challenging hence the decision to hold the fair.
“We’re a group of independent authors from Bulawayo who decided to initiate this event upon realising that it’s quite hard to sell books in Bulawayo and even to meet people. We’ve reached audiences at individual events and book launches but we thought it would be fun to collaborate as authors and reach out to audiences.
People often have questions about writing or our writing process and also about the contents of our books. So we thought it would be a wonderful opportunity to speak to people who know us, people who’ve bought our books, or those who’d like to buy our books,” said Bekker.
She said the event will be rich in history, poetry as well as writing skills.
“We have a great wealth of historical information in Pathisa Nyathi and Rob Burret. We have poetry in Philani Nyoni and Pathisa again.
We have great fiction writers in Bryony Rheam and Susan Hubert. I’m sort of the odd one out here because my book is about my journey as I decided to drive home to Bulawayo from Europe. I bought my car in the United Kingdom (UK) and drove through West Africa so the book is about my drive home.
“I only have one book to sell, but a lot of people often want to ask me questions so this is an opportunity for them. People also have questions to ask the other authors.”
Those passionate about writing books, Bekker said, must attend the event as they will learn a lot. – @SeehYvonne
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