Petina Gappah
(Zimbabwe, 1971) debuted in 2009 with the short-story collection An Elegy for Easterly, followed by her first novel The Book of Memory (2015) and another story collection, Rotten Row (2016). Her new book Out of Darkness, Shining Light tells the story of the perilous, months-long trek made in 1873 by 69 workers to transport the body of the explorer David Livinstone from central Africa to the Zanzibar coast, so it could eventually be buried in England. "I write the history of the black people of Zimbabwe, those about whom nobody ever speaks." Gappah studied law in Zimbabwe and Cambridge, worked as a lawyer, and lives in Berlin as artist-in-residence. She has won many international prizes for her work.
Past events
Free at Last: A Day of Decolonised Life
Are these fairy tales or is this finally a decolonised world? Writers Unlimited asked eight authors to sum up a day of colonisation-free existence in poetry or prose. Eight days of liberation, each in their own way.
Fifty Ways to Free Your Language
How do writers relate to decolonizing language and literature, not only in their subject matter but also in the form of their poetry and stories?
Books Unlimited: Petina Gappah & Asmaa Azaizeh
Zimbabwean writer Petina Gappah talks about her latest novel Out of Darkness, Shining Light and Palestinian poet Asmaa Azaizeh about her new poetry collection Do Not Believe Me When I Talk to You About War.
Where Can You Hide?
Four innocent young women looking for refuge. Forgotten (Agualusa) tells the story of Ludo, who locks herself in her home on the eve of Angola's independence. The Book of Memory (Gappah) gives voice to an emprisoned girl who was abused by her white adoptive father. In Dark, almost Night (Bator) Alicja tries to uncover her deceased sister's secret in the abandoned house on the Polish-German border. And thirteen year old Emma in Fire Stack (Dragomá) is picked up from an orphanage in the middle of the Romanian revolution.
Seven Deadly Sins
Pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, anger and sloth: the festival asked seven authors to each choose one and write a fresh text about it. Tonight you’ll hear sinful stories with music by Dick van der Harst.
Decisive rules
Literature which comforts, confuses, points the way or disorders: lines which for ever changed the lives of Jonathan Safran Foer, Tash Aw, Ramsey Nasr, Joke van Leeuwen and Petina Gappah. In English
The need for chaos
Writing about a chaotic society from an overly regulated environment. Petina Gappah and Vamba Sherif talk to Joris Luyendijk. ENG
