NoViolet Bulawayo

Baylee Brits (University of New South Wales)

Ed. by Helen Rachel Cousins, Birmingham Newman University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

Born 10 Dec 1981
Activity 2013-ongoing

Places

Born in Zimbabwe
Active in United States; Zimbabwe

Activities

Primary

Novelist

Resources

Bulawayo's Works

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NoViolet Bulawayo, the pen name of Elizabeth Zandile Tshele, is a novelist of Zimbabwean origin, now based in California. She has written one novel,

We Need New Names

, and published award winning short stories. Bulwayo decided to adopt a pseudonym for several reasons, not least because, while growing up, she was not often called Elizabeth and never fully identified with the name (Bulawayo and Kohler, 2016, n.pag.). The name “NoViolet Bulwayo” is a way for the author to honour her origins:

NoViolet is my mother’s name, she died when I was 18 months old. I have no memory of her and she wasn’t spoken about when I was growing up, so that kind of messed me up as a kid and I’ve always felt like there was something missing, so I decided to use her memory, her name, just to honour her.

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2634 words

Citation: Brits, Baylee. "NoViolet Bulawayo". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 15 December 2016 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=13747, accessed 21 November 2024.]