The Epicenter: NoVioloet Bulawayo and Sarah Ladipo Manyika May 21, 2013

Litquake is thrilled to introduce Zimbabwean debut novelist NoViolet Bulawayo at May's Epicenter. Bulawayo's novel, "We Need New Names" is one of the most highly anticipated launches of the year. She'll be in conversation with Sarah Ladipo Manyika, who is the author of "In Dependence" and teaches literature at San Francisco State University.

"We Need New Names" focuses on Darling, only ten years old but navigating a fragile and violent world. In Zimbabwe, Darling and her friends steal guavas, try to get the baby out of young Chipo's belly, and grasp at memories of Before. Before their homes were destroyed by soldiers, before the fathers left for dangerous jobs abroad.

But Darling has a chance to escape: she has an aunt in America. She travels to this new land in search of America's famous abundance only to find that her options as an immigrant are perilously few. NoViolet Bulawayo's debut calls to mind the great storytellers of displacement and arrival who have come before her-from Junot Diaz to Zadie Smith to J.M. Coetzee-while she tells a vivid, raw story all her own. Bulawayo is the winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing, is a current Stegner Fellow at Stanford, and is working on her next novel. Parts of "We Need New Names" were excerpted in the March 2013 issue of "Granta."

Official Website: http://www.litquake.org/calendar-of-events/noviolet-bulawayo