As much as I want to be partial to West Africa, East Africa has a lot to offer especially when it comes to poetry and that’s how I travelled to Zimbabwe (via social media of course to ) to Blessing Musariri who is not only an accomplished poet in her own right with works like ‘Popular Fiction’ and ‘Holding On’ which was her first international publication in Granta’s New Writing Vol. 14 in 2006. in 2008, three of her poems were featured in Poetry International Vol. 12 (San Diego State University Press). This publication included the poem ‘Pandemic’, which went on to win a special prize in the 2009 Susie Smith Memorial Prize.
She is also an award-winning author of children’s books as well as writing genre novels for adults and powerful short stories. In summary, she has been everywhere and is famous across the continent but here’s the exciting news she was born and bred in Harare.
When another famous Botswana writer, Laura Lubuitsile (thoughtsfrombotswana.blogspot.com) asked her what she prefers to be called since in her bios she is sometimes called a poet, other times a children’s writer. She said, “I prefer ‘writer’ because that is what I am, and that is what I do, I write. It doesn’t matter what it is, if I feel an inspiration, I write. I’m not limited to one genre. I just like working with words.”
Culled from http://www.poetryinternationalweb.net
thoughtsfrombotswana.blogspot.com
Image Credit: Irene Staunton