Irene Sabatini

Irene Sabatini is an author from Zimbabwe who writes fiction. She earned the Orange Award for New Writers (part of the Women's Prize for Fiction) in 2010 for her first novel, The Boy Next Door, a love story set against the backdrop of racism and political turmoil of 1980s Zimbabwe. Her second novel, Peace and Conflict, covers family and political history through the eyes of a ten-year-old boy.

Background

Sabatini was born in Hwange, Zimbabwe, and grew up in Bulawayo, the country's second-largest city.

Education

She attended Catholic school in Bulawayo and was educated by nuns. She attended the University of Zimbabwe in Harare, where she was introduced to feminism and political action during her degree in philosophy. Sabatini later earned a master's degree in child development from the Institute of Education at University College London. She has also done work and research in Bogotá and Barbados and currently resides in Geneva, Switzerland.

Career

She spent many hours in the fabulous Bulawayo Public Library's basement of the children's section devouring everything from Enid Blyton to Shane by Jack Schaefer, one of her favourite books. She then left for Harare to attend university and after university she went to Colombia where she lived for four years working as a teacher and studying for her masters.^[1]

Soon after that she started writing. The writing seemed to just spiral out of her and if she had to pick a time when she really started this journey it would be that wonderful quiet morning on a verandah so many years ago in the Colombian countryside. Irene is the author of three novels; her debut novel, The Boy Next Door, won the 2010 Orange Award for New Writers, Peace and Conflict and the latest release An Act of Defiance. She divides her time between New York, Geneva and Bulawayo.