NoViolet Bulawayo
Who was NoViolet Bulawayo?
Award-winning author whose debut novel 'We Need New Names' was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and won the 2013 PEN/Hemingway Award.
Biographical data adapted from Wikipedia’s article on NoViolet Bulawayo (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Biography
NoViolet Bulawayo, the pen name of Elizabeth Zandile Tshele, is a Zimbabwean author born on 12 October 1981 in Tsholotsho District, Zimbabwe. She's considered one of the leading African authors in today's literary fiction scene. Her work often explores themes of displacement, identity, and the experiences of Zimbabweans dealing with political unrest and immigration challenges. The name 'NoViolet' honors her late mother, Violet.
Bulawayo studied at several top universities in the United States. She did her undergraduate work at Southern Methodist University and continued her graduate studies at Cornell University, Texas A&M University, and Stanford University, where she was a Wallace Stegner Fellow. These experiences influenced her writing and connected her with established writers early in her career.
Her short story 'Hitting Budapest', which became the first chapter of her debut novel, won the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2011. It introduced her as a powerful and original writer. The story is about children from a Zimbabwean shantytown called Heavenway stealing guavas from a wealthier area, using vivid child narration and subtle social commentary. Winning the Caine Prize brought her significant attention in African literary circles and hinted at the widespread success her novel would later achieve.
Her debut novel, We Need New Names, released in 2013, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award in 2014, along with the Etisalat Prize for Literature in 2013. The novel tells the story of Darling, a young girl from a Zimbabwean shantytown, and her move to the United States. It received acclaim for its lyrical writing and honest depiction of Zimbabwe's political and economic turmoil, as well as the isolation of immigrant life in the US. In 2012, before the novel came out, the National Book Foundation named Bulawayo one of its '5 Under 35' honorees.
Her second novel, Glory, published in 2022, uses an allegorical style similar to George Orwell's Animal Farm, portraying the fall of Zimbabwe's long-time leader Robert Mugabe with animal characters. The novel was shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize, making Bulawayo the first Black African woman to be shortlisted twice for this prize. In 2014, New African magazine listed her among the Top 100 most influential Africans. In 2025, she won the Caine Prize for African Writing again, highlighting her ongoing success and unique contributions to literature.
Before Fame
Elizabeth Zandile Tshele grew up in Tsholotsho District, a rural area in Zimbabwe's Matabeleland North province. Her childhood coincided with a time of major political and economic turmoil in Zimbabwe after independence, including the Gukurahundi massacres in Matabeleland during the 1980s and the ongoing crisis under Robert Mugabe's government in later years. These early experiences in a country going through major changes often appear in her writing.
She later moved to the United States, working her way through school and eventually getting into top creative writing programs. Her time as a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University was particularly important for developing her literary style. Before gaining wide recognition, she published short fiction shared among African literary circles. It was her story 'Hitting Budapest' that gained her international fame when it won the Caine Prize in 2011.
Key Achievements
- Won the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2011 for the short story 'Hitting Budapest', and again in 2025
- Debut novel We Need New Names shortlisted for the 2013 Booker Prize and awarded the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award in 2014
- Second novel Glory shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize, making her the first Black African woman shortlisted for the prize twice
- Named a National Book Foundation '5 Under 35' honoree in 2012
- Won the Etisalat Prize for Literature in 2013 and was listed among the Top 100 most influential Africans by New African magazine in 2014
Did You Know?
- 01.Her pen name NoViolet was chosen to honor her late mother, whose name was Violet, with the 'No' prefix being a common Ndebele naming convention meaning 'mother of' or used as a form of tribute.
- 02.Her short story 'Hitting Budapest' was written while she was a student and later became the opening chapter of her debut novel We Need New Names.
- 03.She is the first Black African woman to be shortlisted for the Booker Prize on two separate occasions, for We Need New Names in 2013 and Glory in 2022.
- 04.Her second novel Glory uses an allegorical animal fable structure, directly invoking George Orwell's Animal Farm, to address the fall of Robert Mugabe and the rise of Emmerson Mnangagwa in Zimbabwe.
- 05.She won the Caine Prize for African Writing twice, in 2011 and again in 2025, a distinction held by very few writers in the prize's history.
Awards & Honors
| Award | Year | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Caine Prize | 2011 | — |
| Etisalat Prize for Literature | 2013 | — |
| Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award | 2014 | — |
| Caine Prize | 2025 | — |