Cities of Refuge North America was founded by writers, some of whom have been persecuted in their own home countries - including Salman Rushdie and Wole Soyinka - Cities of Refuge North America aids imperiled writers across the globe by finding them homes in North American cities; places where they may write openly and free of censorship and repression.

International Cities of Refuge (ICORN) have partnered with the Florida Center for the Literary Arts at Miami Dade College and the City of Miami to host the first Miami: City of Refuge writer, Chenjerai Hove of Zimbabwe whose life is in peril due to the political climate in his native country.

Chenjerai Hove, writer from Zimbabwe and inaugural Miami: City of Refuge writer-in-residence at the Florida Center for the Literary Arts at Miami Dade College will bring his politically and culturally rich stories of exile, injustice and ultimate hope to students and the Miami community for two years beginning January 2010.

Born in 1956, Hove has catapulted into one of Africa's leading literary minds. A novelist, poet, essayist, journalist and playwright who writes in English and in his native Shona, Hove_s work has been translated into eight languages. In exile since 2001, Hove has worked as a columnist, translator and university lecturer. He has fearlessly been in the frontline of resistance to the kinds of injustices and abuses that precipitate wars and conflicts, writing to provide a voice to the voiceless in his beloved homeland.

The government of Zimbabwe first noticed Hove for his political novel Masimba Avanhu? (Is This the People's Power?) and for his play Sister Sing Again Someday, which both address the situation of women in Zimbabwe. Hove's home was subsequently burglarized and his unpublished writings were stolen by the national police. After constant surveillance and threats to his family, he left Zimbabwe in 2001 leaving his wife and youngest child behind. Most recently, he has lived in exile in Stavanger, Norway.

His work is political and heart breaking, but, as the Amazon Book Editorial Review writes, Hove's work Òis angry and sad, but it is not bitter. In Hove's world there is still hope, there is still love, there is still emotion. There is potential for a better world where the human soul can be released to fly like a bird."

Mr. Hove's visit is made possible by the generous support of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.