Zim poet makes it into African Poetry Prize finals

Ntombiyolwandle Ndlovu, Sunday Leisure Reporter
PROLIFIC Zimbabwean poet Togara Muzanenhamo’s book has made it to the final three paperbacks for the 2015 Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry.

The Pan-African poetry prize is funded by literary philanthropist and poet Glenna Luschei and is the only one of its kind in the world.

The awards were established with the aim to promote African poetry written in English or in translation and each year it recognises the best poetry book by an African poetry.

This year, entries came from Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Nigeria and South Africa.

The Glenna Luschei Prize is worth $5 000 and the winner will be announced on 18 January, 2016.

The three selected books include Gumiguru by Muzanenhamo, South Africa’s Kobus Moolman for A Book of Rooms and, again from South Africa, Joan Metererkamp for Now the World Takes These Breaths.

Gumiguru, published by Carcanet Press in the United Kingdom, is Muzanenhamo’s second collection.

Muzanenhamo’s most recent works are a joint venture with John Eppel.

Muzanenhamo was recently announced as a finalist for this year’s Artists In Residency (AIR) programme and was a featured poet at the 2015 Poetry International Festival in Rotterdam and at the UK’s Ledbury Poetry Festival.

Born in 1975, Muzanenhamo studied Business Administration in the Netherlands and in France. He has worked as a journalist and a film script editor.

His poems have appeared widely in international magazines, journals and anthologies. In 2006 his debut collection of poems, Spirit Brides, was published by Carcanet Press and shortlisted for the Jerwood Aldeburgh First Collection Prize.

Moolman, University of KwaZulu-Natal academic and playwright, was a finalist in the inaugural Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry and was also the winner of the 2013 Sol Plaatje European Union Award.

Each year, an internationally-renowned poet judges the prize. Now in its second year, the number of entries has more than doubled, and the quality and diversity of books received provided the judge, South African poet Gabeba Baderoon, with a challenging yet enjoyable task.

Baderoon is the author of a number of poetry collections including The Dream in the Next Body and A Hundred Silences.

She received the Daimler Chrysler Award for South African Poetry in 2005, and is Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and African Studies at Pennsylvania State University in the United States.

“I read these books and many of the poems again and again. The (finalist books) feel thoughtfully shaped, rivetingly intelligent and superbly crafted. I found them a pleasure and an education to read. Indeed, my horizons were vastly expanded by the extraordinarily well-realised poems in these collections,” says Baderoon.