NoViolet Bulawayo

Baylee Brits (University of New South Wales)
Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Tweet Report an Error

NoViolet Bulawayo, the pen name of Elizabeth Zandile Tshele, is a novelist of Zimbabwean origin, now based in California. She has written one novel, We Need New Names, and published award winning short stories. Bulwayo decided to adopt a pseudonym for several reasons, not least because, while growing up, she was not often called Elizabeth and never fully identified with the name (Bulawayo and Kohler, 2016, n.pag.). The name “NoViolet Bulwayo” is a way for the author to honour her origins:

NoViolet is my mother’s name, she died when I was 18 months old. I have no memory of her and she wasn’t spoken about when I was growing up, so that kind of messed me up as a kid and I’ve …

2634 words

Citation: Brits, Baylee. "NoViolet Bulawayo". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 15 December 2016 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=13747, accessed 28 March 2024.]

13747 NoViolet Bulawayo 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.