The common question or discourse around ZW literature nowadays is: where are the male writers? This is because the literary landscape is now dominated by women. However, I would like to present the answer to this question in the new emerging male voice of Farai Mudzingwa @mudzingwafarai @dangurangu . His debut novel, Avenues by Train, dropped in September this year and is published by Cassava Republic. The novel is set in the Avenues, a residential belt in Harare on the periphery of the Central Business District. Farai says the inspiration behind the title emerged while he was living there. Initially the book began as a non-fictional narrative as he observed the evolution of the place but later evolved into a fictional narrative. In this book we are introduced to the main protagonist, Jerry, first as a young boy and later as the adult “Jedza”. It is through this character, who is trying to escape a traumatic incident in his past by moving from Miner’s Drift to the Avenues that Farai explores African spirituality. He juxtaposes this with the “Christian nation” mantra that Zimbabweans love to wear. So while Jedza tries to progress in life, he is held back by this tug-of-war with spiritual forces. African spirituality has become a feature of many contemporary African novels. The novel interrogates how we try to reconcile culture and modernity. Through Jedza, Farai also writes about a microcosm of Zimbabwean society as it serves as a mirror to the metamorphosis of the country as a whole.

While Avenues by Train is his debut novel, Farai is not a newbie to the literary scene. He authored Green Shadows in the Kiya Kiya Republic (2021) which he describes as a long short story or novella. In 2019 he was shortlisted for the Miles Morland Foundation Writing Scholarship. His work has been  published in Weaver Press anthologies, Kwani?, Short Story Day Africa, New Frame, Chimurenga Chronic and Mail & Guardian. He is represented by Laxfield Literary Associates. Farai follows live jazz performances and art exhibitions around Johannesburg.

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#ZimbabweLitMonth is curated by novelist Sue Nyathi. She is a published Zimbabwean author of four fiction titles: The Polygamist (2012), The Gold Diggers (2018), A Family Affair (2020), and An Angel’s Demise (2022). She also edited a nonfiction anthology titled When Secrets Become Stories, Women Speak Out (2021). You can visit her website here and follow her on Twitter at @SueNyathi.