More on Nokuthula Mazibuko and the World Literature Residency
GW’s Fourth Annual World Literature Residency is now underway, with Nokuthula Mazibuko of South Africa in residence at George Washington University for a month, thanks to collaboration between Columbian College of Arts and Sciences and the South African Embassy.
Writer and director of documentary films, including The Spirit of No Surrender, Lady Was a Mshoza and The Gift of Song, Nokuthula Mazibuko also directed and produced news and inserts for the BBC’s Africa Bureau. Her two youth novellas, In the Fast Lane and A Mozambican Summer, were part of the New Africa Books Siyagruya Series. Mazibuko has directed documentary films on South African writers for the series Mantswe a Bonono. She is also the author of a work of non-fiction, Spring Offensive, and short fiction, Love Songs for Nheti and Other Tales, and has recently completed her dissertation (on Zakes Mda) for a PhD in African Literature at the University of Witwatersrand. She lives in Pretoria (Tswane), with her husband.
The World Literature Residency is designed to bring new ideas and writers from around the world to GW to develop a deeper awareness of the contemporary mission and accomplishments of literature in a global context. The links between GW and the embassies promotes understanding, not only by bringing a writer to students at GW but also by making that writer available in the Washington community at large. World Literature Residency Fellows are encouraged to visit public and private schools and other universities, and to take part in programs of the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution. GW students pursuing creative writing, English and other literatures, and international affairs benefit from class visits and of course from the free public programs held on campus.
Nokuthula Mazibuko has given a talk (“Life Stories and Narratives of Exile: Memory and Memory-Making in South Africa,” Feb. 15), will be showing a documentary film (The Spirit of No Surrender, Feb. 20, 8 PM, Marvin Center Continental Ballroom), and will be reading from her writing (Mar. 1, 8 PM, Marvin Center Amphitheatre). All these events are free and open to the public. The Marvin Center is located at 800 21st St. NW.
Previous World Literature Residency Fellows have been Githa Hariharan (India, 2004), Witi Ihimaera (New Zealand, 2005), and Diana Bellessi (Argentina, 2006).
