[Interview_2] John Eppel

John Eppel is a teacher, an award-winning poet, short story writer and novelist.

His books include the poetry collections, Spoils of War (The Carrefour Press, 1989) and Songs My Country Taught Me (Weaver Press, 2005) as well as the novels, Hatchings (amaBooks, 2006) and Absent: The English Teacher (Weaver Press, 2009).

In this interview, John Eppel talks about Together (amaBooks, 2011), his latest book:

How would you describe Together?

My latest book, Together, is a joint affair, combining poems and short stories by Julius Chingono and me; so it’s our latest book – a poignant phrase since Julius did not live to see it in print.

I wrote my portion of the book in 2008. Since I was earning almost nothing as a teacher, I applied for a year’s leave, and wrote three books: a novel, Absent: the English Teacher, a collection of short stories, White Man Walking, and a collection of poems, Landlocked. I sent them to Weaver Press who accepted the novel but rejected the poems and short stories. It was from these rejected items that my contribution to Together was made.

I sent Landlocked to three other publishers, Snailpress (Cape Town), Bloodaxe (UK), Carcanet Press (UK), all of whom rejected it.

Then Julius and I met with Brian Jones and Jane Morris of amaBooks, and we decided to bring out a joint volume. The title was suggested by Brian, and the project was generously supported by the Zimbabwe Culture Fund Trust. Dr Drew Shaw of Midlands State University agreed to write an introduction, and it wasn’t long before the University of New Orleans Press and the University of Kwazulu-Natal Press agreed to co-publish.

What advantages and/or disadvantages has your choice of publishers presented?

amaBooks of Bulawayo would have been my first choice for all my books, but they seldom have the wherewithal to finance a publication; that is largely because they have the commitment (and courage) to promote new Zimbabwean writing, including poetry, which almost nobody buys. Indeed, more people write poetry than read it!

An obvious disadvantage with a small, underfunded publisher like amaBooks, is distribution; and the sort of promotion you get with big publishers, like book-signings at major retail outlets, appearances on radio and television etc.

A huge advantage for a writer like me, who has a tiny readership, is that small publishers, who are more committed to promoting literature than to profiteering, will accept my books. My most recent, still unpublished novel, The Boy Who Loved Camping, spent more than seven months with Penguin South Africa before it was rejected on the grounds that the publishers did not think they could make a commercial success of it.

One significant way amaBooks has dealt with these problems, in the case of Together, has been to persuade publishers from two other countries to co-publish. That can only benefit the distribution and the promotion of the book.

Which aspects of the work you put into the book did you find most difficult?

I didn’t find anything difficult. The publishers, on the other hand, were particularly disturbed by one of my stories, “Of the Fist”, set during the run-up to the 2008 Presidential elections, which they asked me to omit. It’s a very violent story about political rape and murder, based on a real incident. Come to think of it, most of my stories and poems in this anthology are based on real incidents. We replaced “Of the Fist” with a harmless satirical sketch called “The CWM”.

For most of my writing life, I have thought of my predicament as someone who is neither African nor European to be a disadvantage; as if, somehow, I had slipped through a crack; but now that my years as a Zimbabwean have caught up with my years as a Rhodesian, the crack has metamorphosed into a threshold, a magical place where opposites merge, where contradictions become paradoxes. Now I don’t have the bitter thought that I am neither African nor European; I have the sweet sensation that I am African and European. And it is this aspect of my work that I have enjoyed most. I can imagine cutting-edge experts in postcolonial literature snorting at these sentiments, but I’m too old now to care.

What sets Together apart from other things you've written?

The potent symbolism of two elderly Zimbabweans from different cultures, races, regions… coming together and sealing a fissure. It’s a pity one of us isn’t a woman!

In what way is it similar to the others?

It is steeped in irony, which can so easily be misread.

It is frequently funny in the way that a cartoon is funny. When Ranka Primorac said, in an essay entitled “Poised for Literature’s Last Laugh”, that “There is remarkably little laughter resonating across the history of Zimbabwean literature”, she swept Julius Chingono and me under the carpet.

How many books have you written so far?

• Spoils of War, 1989 (The Carrefour Press, Cape town), poetry.
• DGG Berry’s The Great North Road, 1992 (The Carrefour Press, Cape Town and Hippogriff, Johannesburg), novel.
• Hatchings, 1993 (The Carrefour Press, Cape Town), novel. [re-published by amaBooks in 2006]
• The Giraffe Man, 1994 (Queillerie, Pretoria), novel
• Sonata for Matabeleland, 1995 (Snailpress, Cape Town and Baobab, Harare), poetry.
• Selected Poems 1965-1995, 2001 (Childline).
• The Curse of the Ripe Tomato, 2001 (amaBooks, Bulawayo), novel.
• The Holy Innocents, 2002 (amaBooks, Bulawayo), novel
• The Caruso of Colleen Bawn, 2004 (amaBooks, Bulawayo), poems and short stories.
• Songs My Country Taught Me, 2005 (Weaver Press, Harare), poetry.
• White Man Crawling, 2007 (amaBooks, Bulawayo), poems and short stories.
• The Boy Who Loved Camping, 2008 [awaiting a publisher], novel.
• Absent: The English Teacher, 2009 (Weaver Press, Harare and Jacana, Johannesburg) novel.
• Together, with Julius Chingono, 2011 (amaBooks, Bulawayo and UNO, New Orleans and UKZN, Durban), poems and short stories.

What would you say has been your most significant achievement as a writer?

I think, the way I have learned to fuse, mainly through parody, prosody with socio-political commentary.

In my poems in Together, you will find examples of the Blues, the sestina, the haiku, the ballad, the sonnet, the Sapphic, vers libre, dramatic monologue, pure lyric... I even invented a new form, which I (no longer secretly) call duodecadina. It is called “Yet another Flower Poem” and it consists of two ten-line stanzas. Each line consists of fifteen syllables, and the end words of the first stanza are repeated exactly in the end words of the second stanza. If you don’t notice all these details when you read it (with enjoyment!) it succeeds. It is an attempt at the art which conceals art. Of course, a lot of this has to do with healthy self-mockery.

Do you write every day?

I write during school holidays and occasionally over the weekends.

With poetry I get an image or a rhythmic cluster of words, almost never an idea. The moment of inspiration is passive, like a flower awaiting pollination. With prose (most of the time), it’s the other way round, a bee looking for a flower to pollinate.

In a sense, my writing never ends - it stops.

Photo credit: Ben Williams, Books LIVE

Related books:

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Related articles:

• John Eppel [Interview_1], Conversations with Writers, September 12, 2007
• Poets' diaries: John Eppel, Poetry International Web, August 18, 2005
• Together By Julius Chingono & John Eppel [Book Review], By Sibusiso Tshuma, Panorama Magazine

[Interview] Tendai Huchu

Podiatrist and author, Tendai Huchu was born in 1982, in Bindura, Zimbabwe.

He attended Churchill High School in Harare and currently lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.

The Hairdresser of Harare (Weaver Press, 2010)  is his first published novel.

In this interview, Tendai Huchu talks about his writing:

When did you start writing?

I have been writing since I was in school. I was sub-editor of The Churchill Times, my school newspaper. I even won a couple of national essay contests. But that was mainly articles. I started writing fiction when I was 23 because I felt I had a story to tell.

I wanted to express myself and share ideas with other people.

I knew I wanted to get published round about the time I started writing ... so ... I wrote and pitched to publishers ... four years later, here I am.

How would you describe your writing?

I hope it is literary fiction ... I come from an oral tradition ... so I am mainly a storyteller.

I enjoy a good plot with great characters and dynamic set pieces and I hope these things are reflected in my work.

Who is your target audience?

I don’t have a specific target demographic or anything like that.

I might write for my readers but, remember, the first reader of my stories is me. If I like a tale I've come up with then I think maybe, just maybe, others will too.

In the writing you are doing, which authors influenced you most?

Dostoevsky, Dostoevsky, Dostoevsky ... this man and his thinking dominated my early 20s. I still love the depth of his ideas. Reading his book Crime and Punishment for the first time was like being in the middle of an 18 megaton thermonuclear explosion.

I also like other authors like Amin Maalouf, John Grisham, Alexandre Dumas, Orwell and a whole raft of other great storytellers.

Each author I read helps me improve my craft and gives me incredible pleasure in the process.

How have your personal experiences influenced your writing?

Perhaps at a subconscious level they have.

Different sub-personalities of me are probably floating about in the text but I have never actively sought to insert aspects of my personal experience directly into my work.

What are your main concerns as a writer?

Having a roof over my head and at least one square meal a day.

Do you write every day?

I don’t write every day. I wish I could but, between trying to earn a living and having an active social life, there are simply not enough hours in the day.

I write in fits and starts.

There are periods when I am extremely creative and focused. During these periods I close myself off from the world and do nothing but write, eat, sleep. I work very quickly with the door locked in case debt collectors or the landlord show up. These sessions sometimes end when I have a workable draft of a novel but quite often I come away with nothing but red eyes and sore wrists.

How long did it take you to write The Hairdresser of Harare?

The Hairdresser of Harare is about Vimbai, a young single mother who is trying to make a life for herself amidst Zimbabwe’s political and economic chaos. She falls in love with a dashing young man who turns out to be something we all didn’t quite expect.

I started writing the novel Christmas day 2009 and 14 days later I was finished with the first draft. I wrote quickly because the narrator had a distinct voice and I was afraid if I stopped I might lose it.

The novel was published this August 2010 by Weaver Press who I choose because they had formidable authors in their stable that I had read and enjoyed.

The main advantage of working with Weaver Press for this book is that my editor was based in Harare and had intimate knowledge of the locations and types of characters who were in the book. Because I live in Scotland, we couldn’t have face-to-face meetings but we still managed to build a good working relationship and I enjoyed the process immensely.

Which were the most difficult aspects of the work you put into the novel?

I struggled to let my characters roam free and live the story out according to their own personalities. Every writer enjoys playing God ... so when you see your characters living their lives outside of the rigid pre-planned plot priorities you had set for them ... it can be difficult to let go. What I usually do is to call the characters by a litany of obscene names and let them go off to do their own thing.

Which aspects of the work did you enjoy most?

I enjoy how everything in The Hairdresser of Harare comes together in the end ... how certain things that happen in the first chapters only make sense towards the end ... the subliminal links in the text that even I, as the author, only discover with each re-reading ...

What would you say has been your most significant achievement as a writer?

Staying the course. Not giving up even when I thought no one would ever read my work.

Related articles:

• An Interview with Tendai Huchu, author of The Hairdresser of Harare, by Nana Fredua-Agyeman, ImageNation, August 18, 2010
• Life in Zimbabwe [Book Review], by Margaret von Klemperer, The Witness, October 6, 2010
• Latest Reviews, Weaver Press

[Interview] Jane Morris

Jane Morris is one of the founding members of 'amaBooks, an awarding-winning publishing house based in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.

In this interview, Morris talks about the state of publishing in Zimbabwe:

What motivated the formation of amaBooks?

’amaBooks was started in 2001.

We started publishing a year before that -- a book of poems by John Eppel, all proceeds of which went to the Bulawayo charity, Childline.

Childline was just starting in Bulawayo at that time and I, in my work as a social worker and trainer, was helping with the training of the first volunteers and the organisation was in need of funds.

John Eppel kindly stepped forward and donated a collection of his poems, which became Selected Poems: 1965-1995.

The book sold out very quickly, which was particularly heartening for a book of poetry.

We enjoyed the process of getting the book published and a group of five of us, who had been involved in this first publication, decided to start a publishing company and ’amaBooks was born.

I was excited at the prospect of being involved in a publishing venture as I’d always had in the back of my mind that it would be something I’d like to do.

Our launch pad was the publication of two short novels that had already been written by John Eppel. At that point we had little idea of what we were getting into.

Who was involved in the publishing house's formation and what role did they play in it?

The five people involved in the Childline book who initially formed ’amaBooks were involved in different capacities -- with sales, promotion, origination and distribution. However, two pulled out in the early days because of other commitments, leaving John Eppel, Brian Jones and myself.

John is a well-known writer across Southern Africa, having won both the Ingrid Jonker Award for poetry and the M-Net Prize for Fiction. Although no longer a director, John writes prolifically and maintains his interest in 'amaBooks and we continue to publish some of his works. At the moment we are working on a collection of poems and short stories written by John and Julius Chingono that will be titled Together.

So ’amaBooks is left with two owner-directors, myself and Brian Jones.

We’ve tended to learn the job of publishing as we’ve gone along and it’s been quite a steep learning curve.

Having studied literature at university, the task of editing falls largely to me, and Brian, who is a mathematician, tends to concentrate on origination, sales, marketing and distribution, though our roles are not rigid so we both do whatever needs to be done.

Which was the first set of books that you published? And, is it still in print?

As I mentioned earlier, we were very fortunate in having two books ready to publish, so we started with these two short satirical novels of John Eppel, The Curse of the Ripe Tomato and The Holy Innocents.

The main reason we chose to publish them as our first books was the quality of John's writing, which we believed would be a good beginning for ’amaBooks. Pleased by the success of the poetry collection, we felt that the Zimbabwe reading public would be receptive to more of John's work, which proved to be the case. These books are no longer in print.

In all, how many books has amaBooks published so far?

To date, we have published 23 books, the majority being fiction.

We have also published several books of poetry and a few titles focusing on local history and culture.

Our books have been well received but unfortunately we started out at a very difficult time, with the economic climate in Zimbabwe not being very favourable to the sale of books, particularly books that are not set books in schools.

We are members of the African Books Collective who distribute our books in the USA and Europe, where they continue to get good reviews.

Among the books you've published so far, are there titles that have been received better than others?

The four books in the Short Writings series -- Short Writings from Bulawayo I, II and III and Long Time Coming: Short Writings from Zimbabwe -- have continued to remain favourites.

Several commentators on Zimbabwean literature have remarked that short stories are ideally suited to the ever changing Zimbabwean scene as they offer snapshots of the situation at that time and have served as a form of truth telling.

In our case, the short story format also presented an opportunity for a variety of voices to be heard from the different communities that make up Zimbabwe, the stories invite the reader into the different realities of the writers.

We were keen to publish new writers, alongside more established writers and the Short Writings series allowed us to do this.

People, both within and outside Zimbabwe, have enjoyed the series and the latest in the collection, Long Time Coming, continues to receive good reviews. The New Internationalist magazine choose the book as one of their two best books of 2009, out of those they had reviewed.

The titles of John Eppel’s that we have brought out continue to be popular with the book buying public and there is a continuing interest in his work in academia.

Our last publication, the mystery/romance This September Sun by Bryony Rheam, was a bit of a departure from our usual publications but has sold very well.

Bryony now lives in Zambia so has launched the book there as well.

The novel has been particularly popular amongst women in Zimbabwe, perhaps because they identify with some of the main characters in the book, the narrator Ellie and her grandmother Evelyn.

The book covers the period just after the Second World War, up to recent times.

As publishers, what are the biggest challenges that you face?

The economic situation here over the last few years has made survival as a publisher very difficult -- buying a book, particularly one that is not a set school book, is always going to be a low priority for someone struggling to find enough money for food for their family.

When there was rampant inflation any payments received from the few bookshops that functioned were worthless by the time we received them.

The only way we have been able to survive has been through the support of donors, who have helped with printing costs and the purchase of equipment, when that has been necessary.

When we first started we were able to fund the printing of a book from the sales of the previous one but this became impossible with the economic decline.

With dollarization the situation has improved, though there is still little money around for people in Zimbabwe to buy books of creative writing.

Another challenge facing the publishing industry as a whole is that of the introduction of e-books and not knowing what the impact of that will be. Some of our books are available as e-books through the African Books Collective.

Are there any challenges around sales outside of Zimbabwe?

The challenges we face with sales outside of the country are mainly due to cost. Printing is not cheap in Zimbabwe, partly because low demand means we have to print small numbers of books, and distribution to other countries is expensive.

Getting books into large chains, such as Exclusive Books, is very difficult, so our titles are mostly sold in independent bookshops.

Our books are available internationally online through outlets such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble and the African Books Collective.

As publishers, what would you say has been your greatest achievement?

Apart from simply surviving, not an easy task given the problems of the last few years, I would say the publication of new writers; we’ve published 102 writers so far.

Several of those we published first in the Short Writings from Bulawayo series have gone on to be published elsewhere and to have books of their own published. Chris Mlalazi and Bryony Rheam are the first ones to come to mind, but we are also looking forward to others pushing their way to the top; there are always one or two new exciting writers in each of the collections.

What do you enjoy most about publishing?

There are many things I enjoy about publishing.

There is a lot of variety with no two days being the same.

I enjoy the independence and the flexibility and doing something I love.

Working with writers and discovering new talent can be exciting. There is always that feeling of anticipation when opening up a new manuscript that it will be the ‘great Zimbabwean novel’. It’s very satisfying when you read a really good piece and have the pleasure of telling the writer you want to publish it.

Publishing has opened new doors and created new experiences for us -- book launches and working with young writers, it’s certainly very different from my previous work experience.

We’ve also been involved with other work connected with writing.

My involvement with the literary arts sector at the Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo has given me the opportunity to work with writers from outside Zimbabwe such as Owen Sheers and Veronique Tadjo.

A project has started in Bulawayo that we’re very excited about; where groups of young people have been given copies of our books to read and discuss -- we’re hoping that this will stimulate an interest in literature amongst those who wouldn’t have the chance otherwise.

Another opportunity has come through invitations by various organisations to talk about the work we do in publishing.

What are your plans for the future?

There are a few projects we’re working on, including a short story collection jointly with a UK publisher and the collection of short stories and poems by Julius Chingono and John Eppel.

Short term plans include attending the Cape Town and Jozi Book Fairs which will give us the opportunity of meeting publishers from outside Zimbabwe.

What are some of the things you have in common with other publishers in Zimbabwe who are doing work that is similar to what 'amaBooks is doing?

Weaver Press in Harare also publish creative writing but are more established than ourselves.

Weaver also publish more non-fiction -- history, politics, environment.

In general, what would you say are the biggest challenges that Zimbabwean publishers, as a group, are facing? And, what can or should be done about these challenges?

As with other businesses in Zimbabwe the biggest challenge has been the state of the economy. People want to read books but don’t have the money to buy them as they are considered a luxury.

Publishers that produce books that are on school syllabi have fared better, particularly of late, as there has been donor money to purchase school texts. Money is needed to stock both school and other libraries so that children and adults can read for pleasure.

Among the books you've published, are there any that have been nominated or awarded prizes, either locally, regionally or internationally?

Awards we've received include:

• the Zimbabwe Book Publishers Association Award's first prize for Literature in English which went to Short Writings from Bulawayo;
• the Best First Book prize which went to Erina by Wim Boswinkel;
• the Best Non-fiction prize which went to Zimbabwe's Cultural Heritage by Pathisa Nyathi, and
• the Best Fiction (Poetry and Drama) which went to Sonatas by Deon Marcus.

Marcus' Sonatas and Chris Mlalazi's Dancing with Life also received First Prizes in the Outstanding First Creative Published Book category of the Zimbabwe National Arts Merit Awards (NAMA) while Echoes of Young Voices received a nomination in the Outstanding First Creative Published Book category.

Similarly, Short Writings from Bulawayo III; Long Time Coming: Short Writings from Zimbabwe and John Eppel's White Man Crawling received nominations in the NAMA Best Fiction category.

Chris Mlalazi's Dancing with Life also received Honourable Mention in Noma Award for Publishing in Africa while Long Time Coming: Short Writings from Zimbabwe was chosen by New Internationalist as one of their two Best Books of 2009.

Possibly related books:

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Related articles:

• Road Trip, By Owen Sheers, Granta Issue 111: Going Back, Summer 2010
• Bryony Rheam [Interview], Conversations with Writers, June 19, 2010
• Cape Town Book Fair and the Joburg Bed Launch, By Lauri Kubuitsile, Thoughts from Botswana, August 9, 2010

[Interview] Bryony Rheam

Bryony Rheam is a Zimbabwean writer.

Her short stories have been featured in anthologies that include Short Writings from Bulawayo I, II and III; Long Time Coming: Short Writings from Zimbabwe (‘amaBooks, 2008); Laughing Now (Weaver Press, 2007), and Women Writing Zimbabwe (Weaver Press, 2008).

Her first novel, This September Sun was released from 'amaBooks in 2009.

In this interview, Bryony Ream talks about her writing:

How would you describe your novel, This September Sun?

This September Sun is a mystery/romance novel. It may have a deeper meaning and could be read as having post-colonial undercurrents, but that was not the main reason why I wrote it.

It's about a young girl growing up in Zimbabwe who longs for a more exciting life elsewhere. She returns to Zimbabwe from the UK when her grandmother is murdered and is forced to face some hard truths about her family history.

The novel begins on the day Zimbabwe gets its Independence from Britain and it charts the changes, both good and bad in Zimbabwe over the next 25 or so years.

The main character, Ellie, struggles to find an identity for herself in a country where she feels increasingly sidelined. She never really feels she fits in in Britain either.

What would you say was the aim behind your writing the novel?

To tell a story.

Perhaps also to express something of myself. I'm very much like Ellie - I don't feel I fit in anywhere in particular.

Who is your target audience?

I suppose it would be Zimbabweans of my age group, but it seems to have appealed to a wide range of people of varying age groups and racial backgrounds.

I do feel my own age group and those younger than me don't really have a 'voice' which represents us. A lot of Zimbabwean writing has centred on the war, but if you were born within the last 35 years, the war doesn't have so much relevance.

For people of my generation, we tended to be brought up on stories of the war and I feel the older generation want to hang on to the bitterness and loss associated with it ... It holds you back from looking forward and living in a present which isn't weighed down with racial politics ... I think my generation would like to live 'normal' lives, not worrying about the legacy of the past.

How have your personal experiences influenced your writing?

Many people think that This September Sun is a true story, but it isn't.

I do draw on personal experience, but can quite honestly say that no event is absolutely true in the novel and no character is a true copy of someone I have met in real life.

Which authors influenced you most?

I think Graham Greene and Virginia Woolf.

I love the way Greene writes a story that indirectly raises lots of philosophical questions. I like the stream of consciousness style of writing of Woolf's and how the smallest things have the greatest significance.

What are your main concerns as a writer?

My main concern is to tell a good story, one that makes you think and one that you get so involved in, that the characters live on beyond the closed book. I don't want to get bogged down with delivering a specific message.

I really enjoy writing and feel such a sense of accomplishment when I have finished something.

What are the biggest challenges that you face?

At the moment, I have a full-time job and two young children. There isn't much time for writing in my life!

I also feel that the western publishing world is suspicious of white fiction writers from Africa. It would be easier for me to write my memoirs!

I think that western publishers feel that white writers cannot possibly give an 'authentic' view of Africa. The West tends to see famine, wars and AIDS as 'Africa' and feel uncomfortable about publishing stories of middle class people who are not struggling to survive.

I think this is because the West still carries the 'white man's guilt'. They also have a certain idea of Africa and want that image to be fulfilled.

I actually find African readers and publishers far more sympathetic. I have been really pleased to receive so many positive comments about my writing from black readers.

When did you start writing?

Ever since I was a child I've been writing something.

I stilll have a little book of stories that I wrote when I was about 11 about a dog called Merlin. I always dreamed of being published and used to send stories off to various publishing houses which, of course, were turned down at that stage.

I started writing short stories in my early 20s. At the end of 2002, I saw 'amaBooks' advert looking for short stories for their first anthology, Short Writings from Bulawayo, and I sent off "The Queue", a story I had started writing a couple of years earlier.

"The Queue" is about an elderly white woman who cannot cope with the circumstances in which she is living. She has to deal with petrol queues, rapid inflation and just the general difficulty of living in Zimbabwe if you have little money. She thinks back on her life and tries to come to terms with her loneliness - her son lives in Australia and her husband is in a home as he has Alzheimer's. The story ends with the woman's death.

Do you write everyday?

I wish I did!

I write very erratically.

I lack discipline, I'm afraid!

What motivated you to start and keep working on This September Sun?

I was in London having a conversation with two friends. One of them happened to mention that at Independence, the British flag was burned at Brady Barracks. Thus, the first line was born!

After that I joined a writing group. It was great having a weekly deadline to meet. I am not very disciplined on my own though and after I left Singapore, which is where I had joined the writing group, I became lazy and wouldn't write as often.

It was only when my daughter was born that I began to write again - every time she went to sleep! I did a lot then and then I had a couple of weeks when I was by myself and I used to sit for hours and write. I was determined to finish it.

It took me about 10 years to write the novel.

The parts of the novel which are set in the 1940s and 50s were the hardest to write as I had to get all the historical details correct. I did a lot of research to get them right.

I actually enjoyed the research the most as I really loved hearing all the interesting stories people had to tell. I learnt a lot - like the fact that you could buy wonderful ice cream in Abyssinia during the Second World War!

The novel was published in Bulawayo at the end of 2009. I knew Jane and Brian of 'amaBooks as they had published my short stories previously.

What sets the novel apart from other things you've written?

My short stories deal more directly with the political situation in Zimbabwe, whereas the political situation is more in the background in my novel.

The novel is similar to the short stories in that it's about relationships between people and how we are all products of our environment.

How would you compare writing short stories to writing novels? Is the process the same?

It's completely different, although I still have to manage to write a short short story - I tend to write rather long ones!

It's easier to write the short stories because you can get to 'the point' more easily.

What will your next book be about?

It's going to be a murder, also set in Bulawayo, but this time it's a murder that will have to be investigated and the murderer discovered.

How many books have you written so far?

Just the one book, This September Sun, published by 'amaBooks in 2009.

I've also had short stories published in the following anthologies:

• Short Writings from Bulawayo ('amaBooks, 2003);
• Short Writings from Bulawayo II ('amaBooks, 2005);
• Short Writings from Bulawayo III ('amaBooks, 2006);
• Long Time Coming: Short Writings from Zimbabwe ('amaBooks, 2008);
• Laughing Now (Weaver Press, 2007), and
• Women Writing Zimbabwe (Weaver Press, 2008).

What would you say has been your most significant achievement as a writer?

Having This September Sun published. It was a major achievement for me!

Possibly related books:

,,

Related articles:

• A Conversation With Alexander McCall Smith, by Jennie Rothenberg Gritz, The Atlantic, June 12, 2010
• In Conversation: Irene Sabatini, by Belinda Otas, Belindaotas.com, June 10, 2010
• Lawrence Hoba [Interview], Conversations with Writers, February 6, 2010

[Interview] Lawrence Hoba

Lawrence Hoba was born in 1983 in Masvingo, Zimbabwe.

His debut short story collection, The Trek and Other Stories was shortlisted in the 2010 Zimbabwean National Arts Merit Awards (NAMA).

His short stories and poems have also appeared in the Mirror; the magazine of the Budding Writers Association of Zimbabwe, and in anthologies that include Writing Now (Weaver Press, 2005) and Laughing Now (Weaver Press, 2007).

In this interview, Lawrence Hoba talks about his writing:

When did you start writing?

I started writing before I went to school. (I always enjoy this response from many artists.) I started writing fiction as a pastime around 1999.

The decision to become a published writer came much later on, around 2002, when I became a serious member of the Budding Writers Association of Zimbabwe (BWAZ), under the Chiredzi Chapter, where I attended writing skills workshops and met other aspiring and established writers who helped fuel the motivation to get published.

Getting to meet people like Charles Mungoshi in 2001 and Memory Chirere in 2002 made me begin to realise that nothing was impossible. Suddenly I wanted to get my name there among them and other writers.

How would you describe your writing?

Difficult question. I have never really understood the technical stuff critics and scholars use to describe writings so don’t expect any technical words from me.

I write short stories that I hope make people laugh, cry, smile and, at the end, learn a thing or two about other people.

Who is your target audience?

I write for the adult audience. I think it takes much more to be able to communicate effectively with children. The choice was never made deliberately but it became apparent from story to story that the way I expressed myself was more for the adult audience than for children.

Which authors influenced you most?

I have always liked Ernest Hemingway, D. H. Lawrence, Charles Mungoshi, Shimmer Chinodya, Gabriel Marquez, Ines Arredondo, Maxim Gorky, Carribean, Russian and African literature. The list is almost endless starting and includes the Bigglesworth Series which I read when I was nine.

I read almost everything that came my way but I liked those stories in which the basics of humanity were the core detail of the story. And my stories try to do that. Explore all aspects of human life.

Do you write everyday?

I don't write everyday. I do read everyday.

When I am writing, I always start with about a paragraph or so to get the ideas on paper. But then sometimes I hit blanks and I just leave it all. I get back to the story when it wants to write itself. Then, I usually finish the story in one sitting.

I can write at any time of the day, but I prefer to write when I am alone because this enables me to listen to each character speak and argue their case.

How many books have you written so far?

The Trek and other Stories (Weaver Press, 2009) is my first complete work. These are ten short stories which focus on the experiences of the ordinary people who went onto the farms hoping to make their lives better, only sometimes to find that things were not as rosy as they thought they would be. They are stories about the people’s successes and failures as new farmers.

I have also appeared in two Weaver Press short story anthologies edited by Irene Staunton: Writing Now (2005) and Laughing Now (2007).

Another of my stories was published in Exploding the Myths about Zimbabwe’s Land Reform, a journal by the Budding Writers Association of Zimbabwe in 2004. In addition to that, a number of my stories have also been published in the now defunct Mirror newspaper.

How long did it take you to write the stories that appear in The Trek?

The Trek and Other Stories is about the experiences of the people on the farms during the early days of land invasions. The stories in the book span from around 2003 to 2009. That makes it about six years. The short story collection was published in Harare, Zimbabwe in 2009.

Having been in a largely farming community in Chiredzi, Zimbabwe during the time of the early land invasions around 2001 meant that I got to experience things first hand. I was also lucky to have been assigned as a relief teacher in 2003 to a farm school where the new Black farmers were living side by side with a white farmer. I witnessed the despair, anger, humanity, stupidity and so on that came as a result of the tensions brought about by their co-existence, which, at the time, was a most awkward arrangement. It was these experiences that influenced the short story collection.

It almost became natural that I would choose Weaver Press for the project since they had had confidence in my work before. Besides, I admire their work ethics and thoroughness. The relationship with my publisher is superb. I am happy. They have excellent marketing outside the country and you are guaranteed that your book will at least be heard about outside the country. So far, The Trek has been submitted for consideration in the Zimbabwean National Arts Merit Awards (NAMA) and, as I write this, I am listening to the news and hear that it has made it onto the NAMA shortlist. The short story collection has also had a lot of international exposure.

Which were the most difficult aspects of the work you put into the book?

Trying to get the stories which were written separately and at different times to link with each other and read like one complete story was very difficult. I almost gave up. But I soldiered on.

This may sound crazy, but then I haven't claimed to be sane ... but the things that gave me the most problems were the same things that gave me the most joy. I enjoyed the way the stories could all read like one whole story and yet have each story stand on its own feet.

What sets The Trek apart from other things you've written?

The book is not different from the other things I have written. It contains most of the things I have written.

The next project, which I am currently working on, contains snippets of a child’s recollections of their childhood growing up in a new democracy just coming out of a war. It will all be short stories again, and hopefully with a bit of poetry.

What would you say has been your most significant achievement as a writer?

Getting published while still a young author, age-wise, and then within two months have the book generate so much interest in the country and beyond.

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Related Interview:

[Interview] Christopher Mlalazi, Conversations with Writers, January 13, 2010

[Interview] Joan Metelerkamp

Award-winning South African poet, Joan Metelerkamp's poetry collections include Towing The Line (Carrefour, 1992); Stone No More (Gecko, 1995) and Into the Day Breaking (Gecko, 2000).

She is also the author of Floating Islands (Mokoro, 2001); Requiem (Deep South, 2003); Carrying the Fire (substancebooks, 2005) and Burnt Offering (Modjaji, 2009).

In this interview, Joan Metelerkamp talks, among other things, about the vacuum that exists on the South Africa poetry scene:

Do you write everyday?

For periods I have written every day, but not recently. In theory, I’ve wanted to. But I tell myself that fallow periods, periods of waiting, also happen. I don’t like it, and also I think the more out of a rhythm I get the worse the not-writing becomes. I lose heart in my own process, and doubt my own task. (My own poems remind me of this tension between simply “being” and “making”). The less energy I have, the less I seem to generate.

It’s not only that I’m impatient but I like rhythm and structure… of course I like most the ecstatic moments of “fine delight that fathers thought” and find it hard to be “the widow of an insight lost”.

In the past, writing has begun at any time on scraps of paper or notes… it’s sometimes proceeded by sitting down at my table, usually after breakfast, and giving up by lunch time.

How many books have you written so far?

I’ve written seven.

• Burnt Offering, 2009, Modjaji.
• Carrying the Fire, 2005, substancebooks. It’s a three part sequence of poems, followed by a fourth, prose, short-story like, part. It’s about love, desire, art, poems… it’s like Jacob wrestling with the angel, or (the image of the last section) a mutual seduction between Mary and the angel…
• Requiem, 2003, Deep South. This sequence is structured by the requiem mass -- I had in mind the many musical versions, not just the liturgical. It was written after my mother’s suicide.
• Floating Islands, 2001, Mokoro. This is a long narrative but also dramatic sequence of poems; each poem written from the perspective of one of three main characters -- a 60 something mother living in Knysna, and her two grown daughters: one a potter living in Bristol, and one an English academic teaching in Durban. It’s also something of an essay or discussion about Ruth Miller and Dorothy Wordsworth. It’s an experiment in forms since many of the single poems take specific fixed-form shape.
• Into the Day Breaking, 2000, Gecko. A collection of lyrical and discursive poems, some quite long, some short; most written after our move from Durban to this area in the Southern Cape.
• Stone No More, 1995, Gecko. poems
• Towing The Line, 1992, Carrefour. poems

How long did it take you to write Burnt Offering?

My latest book, Burnt Offering, took four years to write. It has a central sequence of poems based on the work of the alchemists, the various stages or processes in their chemical experiments. I take that Jungian view of alchemy being a metaphor for work on the psyche, so also a metaphor for any “task”: the task of becoming what one chooses and works at becoming.

It was published this June by Modjaji Books in Cape Town. I didn’t really choose the publisher, it was more a question of what was possible. Modjaji is a new independent publisher of women’s writing, and fortunately Colleen Higgs agreed to publish my manuscript. She’s taken the risk on poetry which few publishers are prepared to do.

Which were the most difficult aspects of the work you put into the book?

Finding the structure for the middle section was difficult; throwing away reams of material that came to nothing was also hard; working through the humiliation and despair the central section starts with was difficult… the anxiety that the whole book might not see the light of day, or that, like Carrying the Fire, it wouldn’t be distributed was the next difficulty.

I dealt with the difficulties by dealing with them -- I haven’t got an answer to this!

Which aspects of the work did you enjoy most?

I liked writing the last twenty-page poem the most; by then I had a commitment from Colleen Higgs to publish the book, so although I was faintly anxious she might not want to include it, as it developed I became more certain that it was the appropriate end poem for the volume.

The poem involved going away with my daughter for two weeks to the low-veld, just outside the Kruger Park. She worked on a philosophy thesis and I began the poem -- it was a marvelous time and, at the risk of sounding pretentious, something of a transformative experience -- the writing and the journey and the writing afterwards.

What sets Burnt Offering apart from other things you've written?

The second poem is a long meditation on poetry called “points on poems”. It’s a playful, sometimes silly, sometimes catty, essay -- it does shift tone from point to point; I think it stands out as something new for me.

What would you say has been your most significant achievement as a writer?

Keeping going; believing I may be a poet.

When did you start writing?

Like most poets, no doubt, I started writing soon after I could physically do cursive writing -- which is to say I wrote the first “verse” (or one I still have a vague memory of) when I was about nine years old.

I wrote off and on through my school years, but I only decided that poetry was my calling after I had already been at university for four years and then had had a short-lived three year career as an actor; and also after I had accumulated 10 unpublished short stories. (I didn’t ever try to have these stories published though I did read some of them to various members of my family -- my brothers and my mother).

It was only after I had done some stints of teaching at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) and the University of the Western Cape (UWC), and was married, and had two young children, and was in the last re-writing of a master’s thesis on the poetry of Ruth Miller, that I began to re-shape and put together what would become my first volume of poems.

What happened was that I saw an advertisement for the SANLAM literary award -- which in the 90’s were prizes given every three years for volumes of poetry: one of which was for a debut collection. (I don’t know if these prizes still exist).

I decided it was worth entering the competition simply because it was an incentive to get the poems together into what I hoped might be publishable shape. (I had read the occasional poem at an English department conference before this, and had had at least one poem published in a feminist journal called Stir, and one in Lionel Abrahams’ journal Sesame, but I hadn’t had the courage really to send my work out).

Very fortunately I was a joint winner of the prize and my first collection was published, together with the collections of the other two winners by the long-since defunct Carrefour Press. So it wasn’t really an independent first “book”; but it was enough to boost my confidence hugely, and from then on I started sending out new poems, particularly to New Coin.

How would you describe the writing you are doing?

At the moment, I’m really struggling to write anything at all. I’m waiting for the next poems: I’ve got some vague ideas about them, I’ve got hundreds of jottings, I’ve got two full note-books, but I’m a bit lost.

I’ve just told you about winning that first prize, and, to continue the story, I was lucky enough to win the Sydney Clouts prize for the central poem in my second volume. That helped to affirm the sense that I hadn’t just published a one-off first book.

I needed a sense of external validation to write more; but after a while, and as the years passed and I’d been the editor of New Coin, and then a judge of precisely such prizes (I’ve judged the Ingird Jonker and DALRO prizes), and I began to get more sense of how the networks and politics of this tiny group of poets and readers of poems functions in South Africa, I began to have a quite different feeling about recognition and affirmation.

What we lack completely in this country is any critique of poetry: even within the institutions which supposedly support it (like universities -- admittedly I’ve been out of an academic world for twelve years, but even in the late 90s poetry was being squashed right out of English department syllabi and from what I gather it’s not better now). The press is ridiculous when it comes to careful and considered critique, and to get someone to write a review for a poetry journal is an up-hill struggle second to none. I’ve tried!

So South Africa is not a country which fosters or cares for the kind of poetry I’m interested in: in that asphyxiating atmosphere it’s very difficult to keep going: in a vacuum of any debate about poetry or poetics. If “form” is spoken about at all, it is spoken about as opposed to “free verse” or “performance” poetry… There is almost no published discussion on the hows and whys of what makes specific poems or specific bodies of poetry in specific places work. So it’s difficult to feel that you’re developing or reaching anyone.

Which brings me to:

Who is your target audience?

I’m in total contradiction about this: I could say paradox if I were kinder to myself, perhaps.

On the one hand, I think it’s impossible to write for an audience -- as soon as you do that (remember [W. B.] Yeats?) you write rhetoric instead of poetry.

On the other hand, without any sense of connection with an audience, without some sense that there are anonymous readers or listeners out there, I find it extremely hard to write at all. Without the sense that one’s poems are somehow collective, what is the impetus to keep making artifacts? Even though I lead a fairly hermit-like life, I’m not a Jesuit priest (I’m thinking of [Gerard Manley] Hopkins who chose not to publish) nor do I have the extraordinary and constantly developing sense of self, nor the technical proficiency, nor the strength and faith in posthumous publication, of Emily Dickinson.

I wish for my work to be meaningful for, to resonate with, someone else -- who that is, I don’t know! I have to remind myself how similar our dreams are -- I’m speaking literally, our literal night-time dreams, so, since poems come from a similar place why shouldn’t they find resonance with someone.

Which authors influenced you most?

At the moment I’m reading contemporary American poetry, so I suppose this will have an influence… this year I’ve read the most amazing works -- Campbell Mcgrath, C. D. Wright, Sharon Olds, W. S. Merwin…

but the old influences are still there.

There’ve been different influences at different times, all of which have something to do with what writing I’m doing (or not doing!). [Percy Bysshe] Shelley, [Samuel Taylor] Coleridge, [John] Keats…

[Walt] Whitman, [Thomas] Hardy, Hopkins, Yeats, [D. H.] Lawrence...

Stevie Smith; Dorothy Wordsworth; Ruth Miller…

then local contemporary poets: Lesego Rampolokeng (for the clamour of his music and extraordinary bending of language to his own needs), Mxolisi Nyezwa (for the other-end-of the-scale kind of music: his dream-like images, his vison), Robert Berold (for his precision, the intense narrative within image, the way metaphor explodes -- expands and contracts: now you see it, now you don’t)…

[Elizabeth] Bishop, [Muriel] Rukeyser, [Amy] Clampitt, [Adrienne Cecile] Rich…

and on to contemporary American poets I’m exploring now.

How have your personal experiences influenced your writing?

I write from myself, and I also have, though this might change, always written about the immediate: the process of writing itself has often been part of the “subject”.

I don’t know how I would write if not from personal crisis or self questioning.

What are your main concerns as a writer?

If by “concerns” you mean issues that I tackle in the poems themselves, I would say: existential questions. Balancing futility and simply being; the choice of a life task and the sense that it has been given; fear of meaninglessness and the attempt to make meaning; who I am, am I on the “right” path, where I fit in in my country and its history, my family, the world!

… how I deal with these concerns is as the specifics dictate! I don’t know -- I ask the questions, I look for the answers, the poem sometimes shows me I’m asking something else, really, and most often that I can’t find any answer…

What are the biggest challenges that you face?

The challenge is to keep going. What will be (Yeats again) “the singing master of my soul”?

My challenge is real conversation about poems; but also to silence the real critical voices (and I’m not here talking about careful poetic critique) which have urged me not to publish, or have said that my poems give back nothing to “South Africa”, or that the real value is in meditative silence and acceptance rather than wrestling through language, or that my work is too convoluted, involuted, self-in-turning…

In fact the only challenge that matters is the recurrent one -- what form will the next poem find, how will I do it? The challenge is to stop asking “why” and to find an answer to “how… this exact issue comes up in a poem in my last collection.

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Ulysses Chuka Kibuuka [Interview], Conversations with Writers, October 28, 2009

[Interview] Ulysses Chuka Kibuuka

Ugandan writer, Ulysses Chuka Kibuuka has written and published three books: a thriller, For the Fairest (Fountain Publishers, 1991); a collection of short stories, Pale Souls Abroad (Fountain Publishers, 2004); and a novel, Saints and Scarecrows (Fountain Publishers, 2007).

His first novel, For the Fairest, won the 1993 Uganda Publishers and Booksellers Association (UPABA) Award for best fiction and was reviewed by The New Vision and Radio Uganda, among others.

In this interview, Ulysses Kibuuka talks about religion, writing and the state of publishing in Uganda:

When did you start writing?

I started writing when I was a kid in p4 (Uganda) but first got published 1991 even though I had written For the Fairest in 1980.

Uganda had a real hell of a time and education and all that goes with it went to the dogs -- hence the deficit in publishers or enthusiasts. The difference is not much today -- not in terms of security but in terms of respect for literature, writing, etc.

With the coming of the current administration into state power -- I was part of the guerrilla detail that captured the city Kampala and still serve in the armed forces aged 56! -- it was relatively easy to get a publisher. Fountain Publishers are new having began in 1990. I am their first (fiction) published writer.

What are the biggest challenges that you face?

The challenges a writer in Uganda must face are poverty -- inability to afford paper or, worse still, a computer. The worst is that our publishers, very well and perhaps rightly knowing the difficulty in marketing fiction, only encourage us to write as long as we don't expect them to handle our manuscripts with any iota of urgency.

I wrote Fairest in 1981 and only got it published in 1991 after a lot of beseeching and cajoling the publishers. I am sure the print run of nearly 2,000 copies isn't sold out so many years down the road!

Who is your target audience?

I never targeted any specific audience. All readers of books were in my mind as I penned down my words.

I -- wrongly, of course -- believed there were many readers in Uganda and that there was money to be made from writing a thriller.

Because I loved what I wrote, I believe it would be loved by everybody, it was almost as if I expected them to know my book was sweet even before they opened it!

Who influenced you most?

I was influenced by early books I read as a child in primary school.

Henry Rider Haggard's Montezuma's Daughter, The Black Arrow and Treasure Island by R. L. Stevenson, Typee by Herman Melville and much later Alistair MacLean's and Mickey Spillane's thrillers helped sharpen my whodunit sense of the thriller.

MacLean greatly influenced my Fairest.

Have your personal experiences influenced your writing in any way?

Yes, my personal experiences can be found in much of my writing. Some I've been unable to conceal!

What are your main concerns as a writer?

My concerns as a writer are plenty. I hate organised religion, for instance, and know Africa might never get over the damage these 'faiths' have done to our spiritual and even moral fibre(s). In Saints and Scarecrows, I vent my anger at this and give my reasons which I am 100% sure nobody can dispute to win over me.

I am motivated to write by looking at all the wrongs we as man do fellow man unnecessarily. I see apartheid practiced amongst us Africans in extents nearly, if not as bad, as the Boers did in South Africa.

Do you write everyday?

I don't write everyday. I even spend months without noting down anything. The reasons for this are many but one of them is that I've been disillusioned with writing.

However, I have more than 20 books projected in my head! Writers' block? Maybe.

I want to try my hand at screenplay writing. There is money there.

How would you describe your latest book?

My latest (last) book is Of Saints and Scarecrows which came out in 2001.

I always find it easy to write on the subjects I choose. Of course, I put in a lot of research. I don't see any aspects of my book(s) that I don't find enjoyable.

My last book is a novel that touches on carnal love between a Ugandan Muslim trader and a Munyarwanda (Rwandan) Catholic nun exiled in Uganda. I can say I started that book two decades before the Rwanda genocide, but I cannot prove that I predicted most of the causes since my publishers only accepted it long after the horrors.

If you do decide to continue writing, what will your next book be about?

I have projected four novels. One is to be titled The Dekabusa Autopsy and is a thriller involving a Ugandan secret agent operating in Nairobi who uncovers a plot by a group of post-apartheid South African supremacists who want to use East African politicians to bring back a sort of colonial rule.

The second novel, Flight of the Termites takes place during the last days in power of Field Marshal Idi Amin Dada. The war that ousts him starts in Tanzania and enters southern Uganda. In a southern Ugandan town, an Arab man has left behind nearly a ton of gold and several precious stones. He hires an Idi Amin army deserter to collect together a number of men to pick this stuff from the deep south and bring it to Kampala before it crumbles...

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[Interview] Gisela Hoyle, author of 'The White Kudu', Conversations with Writers, October 3, 2009