Well known Malawian writer Professor Steve Bernard Miles Chimombo will be laid to rest on Tuesday at his home village, Naisi, Traditional Authority Malemia in Zomba.

Chimombo, 70 died of stroke on Friday last week at Mwaiwathu Private Hospital in the commercial capital Blantyre.

His nephew, George Chimombo confirmed of the development in an interview, saying vigil is being held at 33 Old Naisi in Zomba.

Malawi Writers Union (Mawu) president Sambalikagwa Mvona has described Chimombo’s death as a great loss to the nation.

Chimombo, a Poet, fiction writer, playwright, and children’s author was born in 1945 in the old capital Zomba.

Chimombo went to Zomba Catholic Secondary School, then at the University of Malawi where he earned Batchers of Art and the University of Wales, the University of Leeds, and Columbia University.

At Columbia University in the United States, he was awarded his M.A. and Ph.D. in teaching.

He was a professor of English at Chancellor College in Malawi and is considered one of the nation’s leading writers.

In 1988 his Napolo Poems gained him honorable mention for the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa.