'amaBooks

24/07/2025

Mapenzi, translated into English by J. Tsitsi Mutiti as The Mad, available from 29 July in the UK and soon afterwards in Zimbabwe.

One of Zimbabwe’s most iconic novels is coming to English-language readers. Mapenzi is the Shona-language classic by Zimbabwean academic Ignatius T. Mabasa and has been translated into English as The Mad by J. Tsitsi Mutiti, with cover art by Lovemore Kambudzi. The translation is the first title i...

15/07/2025

The Mad is here

We’re excited to reveal the cover of ‘The Mad’, Ignatius T. Mabasa’s acclaimed novel ‘Mapenzi’, now beautifully translated from ChiShona to English by J. Tsitsi Mutiti, co-published with 'amaBooks!

Available for presale now, releasing July 29 2025:
https://amzn.eu/d/8hP1FFl

Available in Zimbabwe from first week of August.

Huge congratulations to Ignatius!

Stunning cover art by Lovemore Kambudzi

🎊🧡📚

20/11/2024

Reproduced from South Africa's Litnet (https://www.litnet.co.za/from-mapenzi-to-madmen-a-conversation-with-ignatius-mabasa/) From Mapenzi...

20/08/2024

Bryony Rheam’s latest collection of short stories is a striking book. Whatever Happened to Rick Astley? shows just how prolific Rheam has become. This is her third book after This September Sun and All Come to Dust, and is a valiant attempting at understanding Zimbabwe. In her fiction, Rheam is u

13/03/2024

Britain Zimbabwe Society’s 2024 Zimbabwean Book Festival: I Write, Therefore I am

Two sessions: Thursday 14 March in person at Royal Holloway, University of London and
Online on Saturday 16 March - virtual registration link
https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/the-bzs-2024-zimbabwean-book-festival-2950659

The Britain Zimbabwe Society is hosting its second Zimbabwean Book Festival on Thursday 14 March and Saturday 16 March 2024. Following the success of the first BZS Book Festival in March 2023, the 2024 Festival will again be a forum for interaction with novelists, short story writers, poets, dramatists, publishers, academics and creatives.
The two day Festival will be held face to face on Thursday 14 March and online on Saturday 16 March. It will be a space for discussion, ideas, storytelling, celebration and sharing of in-country and diasporan Zimbabwean and African writing; and an opportunity to see and hear new voices alongside established talent.
This free event is an opportunity for everyone to be part of a creative indaba and dare. From fiction to non-fiction; realism and magic realism; oral and written story- telling; detective stories, sci-fi and comic books; arts and crafts; the panoramas of language and languages- all this and more will be explored.

Details of the programme for each of the days can be accessed through the Eventbrite link given above. amaBooks will be participating in the online event on 24 March.

09/02/2024

Congratulations to all the nominees in the Outstanding Fiction Book category in the 22nd National Arts Merit Awards.

19/12/2023

Thanks to Eluned Gramich and Wales Arts Review for this glowing review of Bryony Rheam's short story collection 'Whatever Happened to Rick Astley?'.

Reproduced from https://www.walesartsreview.org/whatever-happened-to-rick-astley-by-bryony-rheam/ Eluned Gramich reviews a vibrant new colle...

19/12/2023

Thanks to Eluned Gramich and Wales Arts Review for this glowing review of Bryony Rheam's short story collection 'Whatever Happened to Rick Astley?'.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO RICK ASTLEY? BY BRYONY RHEAM Reproduced from https://www.walesartsreview.org/whatever-happened-to-rick-astley-by-bry...

18/12/2023

Thanks to Derek Workman and The Kalahari Review for this great review of Bryony Rheam’s collection of short stories, Whatever Happened to Rick Astley?.

"a stunning group of stories that shows the Zimbabwean writer’s range and formidable control of language and tone."

A look at Bryony Rheam’s new collection of short fiction Derek Workman Reproduced from The Kalahari Review (https://kalaharireview.com) Br...

17/10/2023

'This is a very important voice in Zimbabwean literature... She writes Africa in a sensitive manner – yes, like Doris Lessing.'

Reproduced from NewsHawks (thenewshawks.com), 6 October 2023 p.52, https://anyflip.com/ylrqu/jknb/ Title: Whatever Happened to Rick Astley...

02/08/2023

Step into the vivid world of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, through Bryony Rheam's intriguing short stories in Whatever Happened To Rick Astley?