’amaBooks launches poetry anthology

BULAWAYO PUBLISHERS ’amaBooks are today set to launch a poetry anthology “Textures” containing poems from Togara Muzanenhamo and John Eppel.

BULAWAYO PUBLISHERS ’amaBooks are today set to launch a poetry anthology “Textures” containing poems from Togara Muzanenhamo and John Eppel.

SHARON SIBINDI OWN CORRESPONDENT

The publishers held an event at Christian Brothers College (CBC) yesterday where Eppel launched his poems and will end with another launch at Indaba Book Café this evening. Eppel is a teacher at CBC.

Speaking to the Woza Weekend, ’amaBooks co-ordinator Brian Jones said this evening’s launch would replace the poetry session held at Indaba Book Café on Fridays and everyone is welcome to attend.

Eppel needs no introduction to Zimbabwe poetry lovers as he has been writing poems since the 1960s. Eppel has had four collections of poems published, with the first winning the prestigious Ingrid Jonker Prize for Poetry.

He recently worked with the late Julius Chingono and Philani Nyoni to produce the collaborations Together and Hewn from the Rock respectively.

Muzanenhamo, from Norton, has had two collections of his works published in the United Kingdom.

In 2012, Muzanenhamo was Zimbabwe’s representative at Poetry Parnassus, the biggest gathering of poets in history held during the London Olympics, and has participated in several international literary festivals.

Jones said: “We are very pleased to be launching this collection of poetry by two of Zimbabwe’s foremost poets. We had previously published both prose and poetry by Bulawayo-based Eppel and were very keen to bring Muzanenhamo’s poetry to the attention of a Zimbabwean audience as his two previous collections of poetry had been published by the UK publisher, Carcanet. Both poets are accomplished wordsmiths and we think this collection will be a valuable addition to the Zimbabwe canon.”

A reviewer, Fred Simpson, recently wrote this about the collection: “The two poets’ differences are obvious: One poet, grounded in Bulawayo, generally writes short, evocative, personal and structured poems to probe the subconscious and unearth, in heart-breaking beauty, penetrating truths; while the other, a citizen of the world, crafts longer narratives gathered from everywhere, and delivers them in spell-bounding voice and imagery.

Stepping back, however, we see a pattern emerging, a collaboration that spurns the pettiness of competing poetry schools and prescribed content; we see a portrait of love which takes our breath away.

Robert Graves stated that his poetic intension was ‘to mesmerise time with stored magic’. Textures achieves this.”