“These poems represent some of Eppel’s best work and we were particularly keen to bring Muzanenhamo’s poetry to the attention of the local audience, as his two previous collections of poetry had been published in the UK,” said publisher Brian Jones.
The launch events will take place on March 19 at Christian Brothers College at 5.30pm and on March 20 at the Indaba Book Café at 5.30pm. Both poets will read from Textures at both events. “We hope that the Bulawayo public will come out to enjoy these two evenings of words. Textures is also available outside of Africa through the African Books Collective, through Mega Books in South Africa and in many outlets across Zimbabwe,” said Jones.
John Eppel is a prolific writer, publishing his first poems in the 1960s, and many since in numerous anthologies and online. He has had four collections published, the first winning the prestigious Ingrid Jonker Prize for Poetry. Recently he has worked with the late Julius Chingono and with Philani Nyoni to produce the collaborations Together and Hewn from the Rock. Togara Muzanenhamo has had two collections of his work published as well as individual poems in many anthologies, magazines and online. In 2012, he was the Zimbabwe representative at Poetry Parnassus, the greatest gathering of poets in history, held during the London Olympics.