The Ordeal of the African Writer

In broad terms, The Ordeal of the African Writer grew out of author Charles R. Larson's (The Emergence of African Fiction) dedication to confronting the problems facing African writers problems of finding a publisher, an audience either at home or aboard and the means to support themselves. (On the surface, these matters will sound familiar to the struggling American writer; they are, however, exponentially more complicated in Zimbabwe.) More specifically, the book grew out of a questionnaire Larson put to African writers both published and unpublished. Using their responses and his own research, Larson presents a careful consideration of the challenges of African authorship, complete with moving testimonials by the writers themselves.