Chenjerai Hove, former ICORN Guest Writer of Stavanger City of Refuge, was a senior literary editor with Zimbabwe Publishing House and a journalist. He writes poems and novels in both English and Shona.
Hove studied literature and education in South Africa and Zimbabwe. He was president of the Zimbabwe Writers Union from 1984 to 1989, President of PEN Zimbabwe from 1990 to 2007, and a founding member of the Board of Directors of Zimbabwe Human Rights Association from 1990 to 2000.
His novel Bones has won several international awards. Among these, "Best in Zimbabwe" Zimbabwe Literary Award in 1988, and the NOMA award in 1989.It was voted among the 100 Best Books of Africa in the last 100 years in 2002, and among the 10 Best Books of Zimbabwe in the last 100 years in 2003.
His novel Ancestors won Second Prize from the Zimbabwe Literary Awards in 1997.
In 2001, Chenjerai Hove was awarded the German-Africa Prize for Freedom of Expression and Thought from the German Africa Foundation. As a result of his criticism of Mugabe's current policy, he now lives in exile. Once a Guest Writer in France and Norway, he has later helped others to gain from his experiences as the Writers' Representative of the ICORN Advisory Group.
In 2007, the play Travel News was selected to be performed by Norwegian Theaters for Youth. In 2009, Hove co-edited Writers, Writing on Conflict in Africa with Okey Ndibe.
To read Chenjerai Hove's short story "Sacrifice", go here. To read "A Letter to my Mother", go here, and for an extended biography go here. You can also listen to Chenjerai Hove read "Changamire" in his native tongue Shona here.
Hove recently received a stipend from the The Norwegian Non-fiction Writers And Translators Association (NFF). He is working on a memoir where he interconnects his own personal journey with the political developments in Zimbabwe since 1980.
