Petina Gappah was born in Zambia and raised in Zimbabwe. A novelist and playwright with an accomplished career in international trade law and diplomacy, she is the acclaimed author of two story collections, "An Elegy for Easterly" and "Rotten Row" and two novels "The Book of Memory" and "Out of Darkness, Shining Light." Petina is most proud of her work with the Harare City Library in Zimbabwe, where the children’s library is now named after her, and with the David Livingstone Birthplace in Blantyre, Scotland where she was assigned a permanent gallery in the museum to retell the story of the Africans that Dr. Livingstone met on his travels.
Her memoir "Heaven Is A Library", and "This Dream Called Zimbabwe," an essay collection, will be published in 2024.