And In The Best Fiction Category… The Winner Is …
Many have solicited my views with regards the nomination for my first work of fiction-The Judas Files under the Best Fiction nomination at the National Arts Merit Awards (NAMA) and what I think my chances are.
The questions have been even more intense from those who have bought the book and fallen in love with my artistry especially following a half-an-hour interview that was held by CapitalkFM yesterday as we are almost just one day away from the announcement of the winner.
“Will you win?” has been the major question I have been getting and I have a very short answer to that very prying question. A question that calls into perspective my powers of clairvoyance if at all I have any.And that answer is precise and one I will never have to review.
“Yes!”
By Robert Mukondiwa
In fact, it may seem cliché to explain that the mere nomination, especially of a product that is my debut to such an esteemed awards ceremony’s list is tantamount to a win as many have fallen by the wayside as mere entries even in their second or third attempts at storytelling.
“That is what every nominated person says,” some will argue.
Perhaps.
But add to that, I cannot recount in recent times when a book has attracted so much attention both positive and negative as has The Judas Files especially in recent times.
It has appeared all over the world in little journals, online articles and newspapers some of which are domiciled here at home in Zimbabwe for its cutting edge discussions and the excitement it elicits. The mixed feelings people get when they read it and the overwhelming agreement amongst many that it is indeed a work that has pleased them
The curious blackout it has received from other sections of the media as well shows how powerful it is as a work of literary art because sometimes a silence and a nonexistence can translate to a very big statement. It has intimidated the prejudiced and bigoted so much that they have closed off their controlled avenues of information and pretended that it doesn’t exist.
And that is the win I am declaring. In the modern world there are a million ears and a million and one ways to reach them. And the Judas Files has reached the world without the help of so called big names in media and literature because that is what a good product does, it speaks for itself and breaks down barriers.
It is an inconvenient work of art and perfection like the Donald Trump campaign that in spite of being suffocated carried the election.
The Judas Files will not win. It already has. It has because getting adoring people writing back after reading it from every continent of the world and people requesting that they republish it in languages so alien to my continent is a sign that we have arrived my book and I.
To see an excited interviewers at CapitalkFM ask informed questions of the book as a stakeholder and lover of the work as opposed to a detached person at work warmed my heart and showed me that there still are people in the media who are not biased against a person or product but have an open and honest appreciation of all things great.
Lastly, The Judas Files has won because for my mother to get off her bed and start dressing up as she fights a cancer that has claimed her breast so that she can be by my side is something only a NAMA nomination can do. It is an opportunity for me to fight a scourge of breast cancer and other illnesses while doing something I love to do the most-writing!
And who is the ultimate winner? Literature!
“That is what every nominated person says,” some will argue.
Perhaps.
But add to that, I cannot recount in recent times when a book has attracted so much attention both positive and negative as has The Judas Files especially in recent times.
It has appeared all over the world in little journals, online articles and newspapers some of which are domiciled here at home in Zimbabwe for its cutting edge discussions and the excitement it elicits. The mixed feelings people get when they read it and the overwhelming agreement amongst many that it is indeed a work that has pleased them
The curious blackout it has received from other sections of the media as well shows how powerful it is as a work of literary art because sometimes a silence and a nonexistence can translate to a very big statement. It has intimidated the prejudiced and bigoted so much that they have closed off their controlled avenues of information and pretended that it doesn’t exist.
And that is the win I am declaring. In the modern world there are a million ears and a million and one ways to reach them. And the Judas Files has reached the world without the help of so called big names in media and literature because that is what a good product does, it speaks for itself and breaks down barriers.
It is an inconvenient work of art and perfection like the Donald Trump campaign that in spite of being suffocated carried the election.
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| And In The Best Fiction Category… The Winner Is … |
To see an excited interviewers at CapitalkFM ask informed questions of the book as a stakeholder and lover of the work as opposed to a detached person at work warmed my heart and showed me that there still are people in the media who are not biased against a person or product but have an open and honest appreciation of all things great.
Lastly, The Judas Files has won because for my mother to get off her bed and start dressing up as she fights a cancer that has claimed her breast so that she can be by my side is something only a NAMA nomination can do. It is an opportunity for me to fight a scourge of breast cancer and other illnesses while doing something I love to do the most-writing!
And who is the ultimate winner? Literature!
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