Throughout the years, some Malawian women have beat the odds and managed to get some of their creative work published. Below is a list of female Malawian writers and their publications. Please feel free to contact us if we have left anyone out. We will be happy to update the list.
Stella Chipasula, The Heinemann Book of African Women’s Poetry (Heinemann: 1995). A poet in her own right, Chipasula edited the book along with her husband, poet Frank Chipasula.
Walije Gondwe. Malawi’s first female novelist. Works include Love’s Dilemma (Macmillan: 1986), Love Match, Imperfect Partners (Macmillan: 1989), Guitar Wizard (Mackracks: 1991), I Still Miss Him (Heinemann Heartbeats: 1994)
Cecilia Hasha. The Ants: Short Stories from Malawi. (Authorhouse:2011). This is a collection of short stories by Vincent Chiwamba and Cecilia Hasha.
Hasha’s poems were also published in the anthology, Operations and Tears, edited by Anthony Nazombe (Kachere Series:2005) and in WASI literary magazine.
Gertrude Kabwazi. Golden Stick (Likhula Publications:2003).
Catherine M’bawa, ‘Patching His Patches’in The Haunting Wind: New Poetry from Malawi, anthology, edited by Anthony Nazombe (Dzuka Publishing:1990). Her poetry has also been published in Akoma Akagonera (Dzuka: 1981). She also published Orama’s Fish (Junior African Writers’ Series :1996) writing as Catherine Howse-Chisale.
Emily Mkamanga. The Night Stop (Christian Literature Association in Malawi: 1994).
Hannah Nkunga. Insanity Resides on Facebook (CreateSpace Independent Publishing:2011).
Nancy Phiri. Chiombankhanga ndi Nthano Zina (National Library Service and Worldreader: 2013). Phiri is also well-known for her skill in narrating the folktale (nthano).
Priscilla Semphere. Ekari Leaves Malawi (PenAfrica: 2013).
Rhoda Zulu. ‘Flight to Success’ in The Bachelor of Chikanda, anthology (Malawi Writers Union: 2009),‘The Knife Pleat Skirt’ in the anthology Summoning the Rains: Third Femrite Regional Residency for African Women Writers, (Femrite Publications :2012) edited by Hilda Twongyeirwe and Ellen Banda-Aaku.
In our next series of Daughters Past and Present, we will also focus on an analysis of the following anthologies:
This Small World: An Anthology of Malawi Women Writers (Malawi Writers Union: 2003)
Winning Stories from the Malawian Girls Short Story Competition (2009). This anthology was derived from a short story school jointly organised by Malawi Writers Union and Stephanie Santana for secondary school girls in Malawi.