Zakes Mda , legally Zanemvula Kizito Gatyeni Mda , is a South African novelist, poet and playwright. He has won major South African and British literary awards for his novels and plays. Zanemvula Mda was born in Herschel, South Africa in 1948. He studied in South Africa, Lesotho and the United Kingdom. He worked in these countries as well. When he started publishing, he adopted the pen name of Zakes Mda. In addition to writing novels and plays, he has taught English and creative writing in South Africa and the United Kingdom. Most recently, he came to the United States, where he became a... professor in the English Department at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. He has been a visiting professor at Yale and the University of Vermont. Zakes Mda is a founding member and currently serves on the advisory board of African Writers Trust, "a non-profit entity which seeks to coordinate and bring together African writers in the Diaspora and writers on the continent to promote sharing of skills and other resources, and to foster knowledge and learning between the two groups.
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