This programme invites writers to share their cartography of becoming, how their writing empowered identity evaluations, supported the discovery of new possibilities of participation and dissent. A collaboration of the The Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre (JHGC) and the Sylt Foundation.
Zimbabwean novelist and short story writer NoViolet Bulaway and Nigerian-born author Chika Unigwe will explore ‘The Written and Spoken Word’ under the Abantu Festival theme ‘Our Stories’.
Chika Unigwe was born in Enugu, Enugu State, Nigeria. She is the author of four novels, including On Black Sisters Street (2009, 2011 Jonathan Cape, UK and Random House NY) and Night Dancer (Jonathan Cape, 2012). Her short stories and essays have appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian, Guernica, Aeon and many other journals. Her works have been translated into several languages. A recipient of several awards and fellowships, she is the 2016- 2017 Bonderman Assistant Professor of Literary Arts at Brown University, Rhode Island. In 2013 Chika Unigwe won the Sylt Foundation African Writer’s Residency Award.
NoViolet Bulawayo’s debut novel, We Need New Names, was recognized with the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, the Pen/Hemingway Award, the LA Times Book Prize Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, the Etisalat Prize for Literature, and shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, among others. NoViolet earned her MFA at Cornell University, and now teaches at Stanford University as a Jones Lecturer in Fiction. She lives in Oakland, California. Chika Unigwe was born in Enugu, Enugu State, Nigeria. She is the author of four novels, including On Black Sisters Street (2009, 2011 Jonathan Cape, UK and Random House NY) and Night Dancer (Jonathan Cape, 2012). Her short stories and essays have appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian, Guernica, Aeon and many other journals. Her works have been translated into several languages. A recipient of several awards and fellowships, she now lives and works in the USA.
This edition of Literary Crossroads will take placed at Soweto Theatre as part of the Abantu Book Festival.
Literary Crossroads is a series of talks where South African writers meet colleagues from all over the continent and from the African diaspora to discuss trends, topics and themes prevalent in their literatures today. The series is curated by Indra Wussow, in cooperation with previous guests of Literary Crossroads.
