The Sunday News
A YOUNG Zimbabwean playwright and poet has been shortlisted for one of the oldest and prestigious international playwriting awards for female playwrights in the United States of America.
Zodwa Nyoni, a scriptwriter and poet who is currently the BBC Channel 4 Writer-in-Residence at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in the United Kingdom, had her first full-length play; Boi Boi is Dead, being nominated for the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn Prize.
She is part of a shortlist of 12 nominees chosen from over 150 nominated plays.
The winner of the prize will be named on 2 March in New York City and is set to receive $25 000 and a signed print by renowned artist Willem de Kooning, created especially for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Each of the additional finalists will also receive an award of $5 000.
The England-based Nyoni started writing with Leeds Young Authors in 2005. With the group, she was part of the slam team that competed at the Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Festival in New York, 2006.
Her poetry has been performed at the Venezuela Embassy, British Museum, Ilkely Literature Festival, Bridlington Literature Festival, Southbank Centre and Nuyorican Poets Café (New York City). Her poetry is featured in the Crocus Books Love Anthology (2013), The Warehouse Magazine (Canada, 2009 and 2010), Aesthetica Magazine’s Creative Works Annual (2009), Sable Lit Magazine (2009) and Suitcase Book of Love Poems (2008).
She’s led poetry workshops in primary and high schools, community centres, festivals, churches and youth groups in Yorkshire, Lancashire and East Anglian.
Her theatre credits include: Nine Lives (2014), directed by Alex Chisholm as a part of A Play; a Pie and a Pint, a co-production with Oron Mor and the West Yorkshire Playhouse.
It’s Not the Sound (2013) was commissioned by Paines Plough as part of Come To Where I’m From. It showcased at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. The Market (2013) was co-written with Aisha Khan and Eamon Rooney. This was commissioned by the West broadwayworld. The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize reflects the values and interests of Susan Smith Blackburn, noted American actress and writer who lived in London during the last 15 years of her life.
She died in 1977 at the age of 42.
Over 350 plays have been honoured as finalists since the prize was instituted in 1977.
