In Zimbabwe, a small publisher that helped launch big voices shuts down

In 25 years, the couple-run Harare-based Weaver Press published hundreds of Zimbabwean fiction and nonfiction titles.

Harare, Zimbabwe – In 2006, a small but supportive publisher helped Zimbabwean author Valerie Tagwira make the transition from doctor to published author, picking up her first novel, The Uncertainty of Hope.

Then based in the United Kingdom, Tagwira had sent out her manuscript to UK and Australian publishers and received 13 rejections. Two years after it was published by Weaver Press, it won one of Zimbabwe’s National Arts Merit Awards, the country’s highest recognition in arts and culture.

Today, she remains grateful to that publisher, Weaver Press.

“When nobody else would, Weaver Press gave a voice to the stories that I felt compelled to tell as a novice writer,” Tagwira told Al Jazeera, paying tribute to Irene Staunton, the publishing house’s publisher and editor. “Irene’s patience and expertise as an editor inspired me and brought to fruition my long-held dream of becoming a published writer.”

But now, after a quarter of a century of operation, the Harare-based independent publisher will close its doors at the end of this year, signalling a bleaker literary landscape for the southern African nation.