Novuyo Rosa Tshuma is a Zimbabwe-born writer who spent her time writing instead of studying at university during one of the most turbulent times in the country’s history. She talks to Georgina Godwin about her childhood, the start of her writing career and her latest novel, “Digging Stars”, which probes the emotional universes of love, friendship, family and nationhood. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hello, this is Meet the Writers.
I'm Georgina Godwin.
My guest today is a Zimbabwean author who was recognized as one of the 39 most promising writers from Africa under the age of 40.
She received the Rockefeller Foundation's prestigious Bellagio Centre Literary Arts Residency Award for her work in 2017.
Her previous novel, House of Stone, was long listed for the 2019 Rathbones Folio Prize and shortlisted for the 2019 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction.
She's won other countless awards and been nominated for many more.
Her new book is Digging Stars.
I am so pleased to welcome Nauvooya Rosa Cuma.
Welcome to Meet the Writers.
It's such an honor, Georgina.
Thank you for having me.
It's lovely to see you again.
It's lovely to be in London talking to.
Well, and it's so great for me to have a compatriot in the studio.
I mean, it's been great to reminisce old times and dream Zimbabwe in the short time we've been together.
Absolutely.
We last met in Washington, of course, where we were both participating in a festival at Georgetown University.
Yes.
And that was a lovely gathering.
It was great to connect with you, then later on to be able to connect with you again here.