Elieshi Lema

Elieshi Lema (born 1949) is a Tanzanian writer and publisher, also active in Tanzania's civil society.

Elieshi Lema
Born	1949 (age 71–72) Tanzania
Occupation	Writer, editor
Genre	Poetry, novel, children's literature

She was born in the village of Nronga and grew up there.[1] She studied library science and worked at the national library. She continued her education by studying English literature at the University of Dar es Salaam and creative writing at San Francisco State University.[2]

Lema began writing poetry and then children's books[2] in Swahili, before writing her first novel Parched Earth in English in 2001.[1] This novel has been translated into Swedish and French and received honourable mention for the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa. Another of her books for young adults In the Belly of Dar es Salaam was on the short list for the Burt Award for African Literature.

Lema is co-owner of the publishing house E&D Vision Publishing,[3] which also operates a book café.[2] E&D Vision Publishing mainly has published children's books, textbooks and titles about African history, both in Swahili as well as in English. In 1998, they published the first booklet for young readers on the history of the dinosaurs of Tendaguru, which is currently out of print.

She was a founding director for the Tanzania Cultural Trust Fund. Lema has served on the board for the African Publishers Network, HakiElimu, the Tanzania Gender Networking Programme, the Tanzania Media Fund and on the executive board for the Publishers Association of Tanzania[2] as well as the Children's Book Network.[4]