Shimmer Chinodya

Shimmer
Chinodya was born in 1957 in Gweru, the second child in a large, happy
family. He studied English Literature and Education at the University of
Zimbabwe. After a spell teaching and with curriculum development, he
earned an MA in Creative Writing at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop (USA).
His first novel, Dew in the Morning, was published in 1982. This was
followed by Farai’s Girls (1984), Child of War (under the pen name B.
Chirasha, 1986), Harvest of Thorns (1989), Can We Talk and other
stories (1998), Tale of Tamari (2004), Chairman of Fools (2005), Strife
(2006), Tindo’s Quest (2011), Chioniso and other stories (2012) and
Harvest of Thorns Classic: A Play (2016). His work appears in numerous
anthologies. He has also written educational texts, training manuals,
radio and film scripts, including the script for the feature film,
Everyone’s Child. He has won many awards for his work, including the
Commonwealth Writers Prize (Africa Region) for Harvest of Thorns, a
Caine Prize shortlist for Can we Talk and the NOMA award for publishing
in Africa for Strife. He has won awards on many occasions from ZIWU,
ZBPA and NAMA. He has also received many fellowships abroad and from
1995 to 1997 was Distinguished Dana Professor in Creative Writing and
African Literature at the University of St Lawrence in upstate New York.