[Interview_2] Zukiswa Wanner

South African writer, Zukiswa Wanner is the author of The Madams (Oshun Books, 2006); Behind Every Successful Man (Kwela Books, 2008) and Men of the South (Kwela Books, 2010).

She is also the founder of the Read SA campaign, a campaign encouraging South Africa to read.

Her first novel, The Madams was shortlisted for the 2007 K Sello Duiker Award.

In this interview, Zukiswa Wanner talks about her latest novel, Men of the South, which has been shortlisted for the 2011 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize:

How would you describe Men of the South?

In an age where the world is battling with equal rights, Men of the South is a story of the struggles that modern day man is struggling to come to grasps with despite his apparent advantages over his female counterpart.

While, in retrospect, and to most readers, it may appear that my more powerful characters are the first two protagonists, the story was actually a backward thing and came about as a response to the world-famous 2008 negrophobic attacks in South Africa.

The first draft took me the usual two to three weeks it takes me to write but given that there is always edits to do before final publication date, I would say a year and a half.

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

I think it was the adjustment from being one male character to another. With three protagonists, I had to work very hard not to make the characters sound as though they were the same guy.

The way I wrote it was experimental as I had never written using the male voice in a novel before - let alone three male voices. So to make it work, I had to focus and do extensive research on the particular character I was working on at any point in time, id est the stay-at-home dad; the gay male in the closet; or, the educated immigrant forced to take a job that's below their qualifications.

Which aspects of the work did you enjoy most?

I think I really got into Men of the South and the characters in a way that I have not with any of my other books.

It was also the only book that I have since read post publication many times and enjoyed -- not as my work but as "quite an interesting piece of art."

I believe I have very far to go as a writer but, somehow, reading this book, for me, was like watching yourself in the mirror and thinking, "Wow. I am growing."

What sets Men of the South apart from other novels you've written?

What I mention above. The fact that it was the one book that I have written that I could read post-publication from beginning to end.

It is also my first book where I have not focused on women's issues (and that is not to say I am a post-modern anti-feminist female) but tried to understand the other side of the coin that is manhood. In some ways it was easy for me as I am a mother to a son and kept putting my son in the shoes of all the different male characters in my book.

The other two books have been focused on contemporary social commentary of what bothers me as a woman. So in some way, I think of Men of the South as the male answer to The Madams and Behind Every Successful Man but this time not as spoken by what some women might think is a biased male voice but more from another woman writing in a way she perceives menkind.

In what way is it similar to the others?

I think Men of the South's greatest similarity to my other fictional work is that its set in contemporary South Africa.

I have been referred to in some parts of South African media as Lit-Lite because the language is as accessible as that on television. My vision for books is making them accessible and enjoyable to people who would generally not pick up a book.

When I start preaching to the converted that are the literati, I think I will start thinking of myself as irrelevant.

That said, although the issues my characters deal with from the first book to the present are presented in a non-preachy way, they are not any less serious for that.

And, despite its setting, one of the other constant comments I have been told about my work from people all over the world is that although the characters are South African and mostly black, the readers can identify with the characters in my books. It is a revelation of the similarity of the human condition.

How did you chose a publisher for the novel?

I didn't so much as chose a publisher for Men of the South. I worked with Kwela for my second book (Behind Every Successful Man) and I had a good relationship with the whole team so we both didn't see any need to terminate it (and, I hope, they liked my manuscript).

What will your next book be about?

I am working on two manuscripts and I am not sure which I will let out first so I cannot for sure tell you what my next book will be about.

Related books:

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Related articles:

• In a Conversation with South African Writer, Zukiswa Wanner, Geosi Reads, February 17, 2011
• Reading 2010: Zukiswa Wanner (South Africa) [Interview], Wealth of Ideas, February 1, 2011
• Zukiswa Wanner, author of Men of the South [Interview, Book Review], by Janet van Eeden, LitNet, August 17, 2010 

[Interview] Petina Gappah

Zimbabwean lawyer and author Petina Gappah has been writing from an early age.

Some of her work has been published in anthologies that include Laughing Now (Weaver Press, 2008), Women Writing Zimbabwe (Weaver Press, 2008) and One World: A global anthology of short stories (New Internationalist, 2009) .

Her debut collection of short stories, An Elegy for Easterly (Faber and Faber, April 2009) has been described as "a stunning portrait of a country in chaotic meltdown".

In this email interview, Petina Gappah talks about her concerns as a writer.

When did you start writing?

Like most writers, I started writing as a child.

I was not, however, as precocious as some that I have read about who started writing at age 5 or 3 or even before they were born. I started writing at about 10 or 11, and my first published anything was a story in the St. Dominic’s Secondary School magazine when I was 14.

I started writing seriously in May 2006. I joined the Zoetrope Virtual Studio, a story I posted there caught the attention of an editor at the online journal Per Contra, I entered some stories in competitions, I did well in one competition, and when I was sufficiently confident, I looked for an agent who looked for a publisher on my behalf.

Becoming a published writer was not so much a decision as it was the consequence of my writing.

How would you describe your writing?

I write literary fiction. There are various kinds of writing within this broad genre, for instance, I recently came across the term hysterical realism, which I thought was a wonderfully apt description for a certain type of contemporary fiction. I will leave it to critics and others to further categorise my writing within literary fiction, but I am disappointed to say it is not hysterical realism.

Which authors influenced you most?

I never really know how to answer the question about influences, so I will say I have enjoyed reading many writers, and have been influenced by any number you can think of in different ways, from David Lodge to Charles Mungoshi, from J. M. Coetzee to Ian McEwan, from Toni Morrison to Paul Auster.

What writers write is as important to me as how writers live, the writers that I am trying to emulate are those who manage to combine writing with a full time, unrelated occupation, writers like John Mortimer who very sadly died recently, and P. D. James.

How have your personal experiences influenced your writing?

Most of what I write is based on something that happened to me, to someone I know, or something I overheard or read.

What are your main concerns as a writer?

My main concern, which is probably not as lofty as this question assumes, is to write every day, to finish whatever I am working on at the time, and to find time and space for the next bit of writing.

As I have a full time job as a lawyer, and I also have a young son, my biggest challenge is to find time to write. The solution I have found is to sleep as little as I possibly can.

Do you write everyday?

I try to write every morning before I go to work, I stop when I have to get my son up and prepare him and myself for school and work.

I work directly on my computer, sometimes transcribing from notebooks. When I revise, I find it easier to do so in longhand.

How many books have you written so far?

I have written one book, An Elegy for Easterly, which is published by Faber in April 2009 in the U. K. and Commonwealth and June 2009 in the United States.

It will also be published in France, Finland, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.

Easterly is a short story collection about what it has meant to be a Zimbabwean in recent times, it attempts to particularize through the stories of ordinary people what it has meant, on a day-to-day basis, to be part of a crisis that has gripped the attention of the world.

How long did it take you to write the book? And, how did you find a publisher for it?

I wrote the stories over a period of about one and a half years. They were written at different times, I had no idea I was writing a book, I was busy working on my novel. Then my wonderful agent Clare sent out the stories together with some chapters of the novel, Lee Brackstone and Mitzi Angel, two editors at Faber absolutely loved them, so the decision was made to go with them before the novel.

Why Faber? When they made the offer, I had no hesitation. In fact, I felt more than a little dizzy at the prospect of being a Faber author: Faber is just about the last of the great independent literary houses.

I received a very warm welcome from Stephen Page, Faber’s publisher, and the whole team has just been absolutely fantastic. The most wonderful thing about being published by Faber has been working with my two editors who are both committed, gifted and brilliant. If my stories hummed before, they sing operatic arias now.

The only disadvantage is that Faber is the house of T. S. Eliot and William Golding, of Ted Hughes and Ezra Pound, of Paul Auster and Orhan Pamuk. To paraphrase Stephen Page, the weight of the ghosts of Faber’s past is more than a little daunting. I can only hope that I will not disappoint.

What sets An Elegy for Easterly apart from other things you've written?

This is the first book that I have published, so unlike the other “novels” and book ideas in my head, notebooks or computer, it is word made solid, corporeal, concrete.

What will the next one be about?

My next book is called The Book of Memory. If all goes well, it will be published in August 2010. It is set in Salisbury/Harare between 1960 and 2000.

That is as much as I will say as I do not want to jinx it by waxing lyrical prematurely. The last novel I talked about enthusiastically died from all the exposure.

Who is your target audience?

I do not have a target audience. My work is for anyone who enjoys reading.

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

I would say it is being published by Faber. Oh, and being read, and approved, by J. M. Coetzee. That is a huge achievement.

Related resources:

• Author's website
• Author's blog
• Author's page, Faber & Faber
• Author's page, Macmillan Books
  

Get your copy of An Elegy for Easterly at Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk

Possibly related books:

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Related article:

[Interview] Zvisinei Sandi, Conversations with Writers, March 15, 2009

[Interview] Ivor W. Hartmann, author and editor-in-chief of StoryTime

Ivor W. Hartmann is a Zimbabwean writer, visual artist and literary activist. He is also editor-in-chief of StoryTime, an ezine that seeks to showcase new African writing.

In this email interview, Hartmann talks about the ezine and about how it is being received by emerging African writers.

What is StoryTime all about?

To quote the StoryTime About page mission statement if I may, since I put the effort into re-writing it recently:

The StoryTime African New Fiction FreEzine is all about new African fiction reading and writing. For our readers we provide a free weekly ezine showcasing the works of some of the hottest new African fiction writers. For our writers we endeavour to find them, and then encourage free online fiction publication at ST, as a multi-purpose means to improve writing ability and their exposure.

For the ST readers, my aim is to publish at least one great fiction story every week from an African writer, usually early morning Sunday (+2GMT).

I also do the occasional special edition on days like Valentines, or like the last one on President Robert Mugabe's Birthday. ST featured a cutting edge farcical story written for the occasion by Zimbabwean author Masimba Musodza ("Robin Hood & The President's Birthday Bash").

Also in the works is an annual ST Book Anthology called African Roar, which is set to be published by The Lion Press in early August 2009. It will then be launched at a new Zimbabwean Writers Festival in that same month being organised by The Lion Press.

For the writers, I actively look for new and established talented fiction writers to showcase at ST, and welcome all fiction submissions within the ST guidelines. Once the authors are accepted into ST, I then provide an interactive online home for them and their stories. Firstly, we showcase their stories by publishing them in the ST ezine.

In addition to that, for each ST author, I create a special author bio page that showcases them specifically. This includes an autobiography with their picture, all their stories at ST, and as many related links (I updated them monthly) to good content about the authors and/or their works. It includes, extra to the main ST feed, a specific feed only about them from ST.

The author page also gives them a space and the freedom to communicate with their readers in personal posts at their page, and in comments on the story itself. Taken all together, ST hopes to serve as a promotional interactive conglomerate of their online authorial presence and work.

How did StoryTime come about?

Like most ideas, this one grew out of necessity, or the dearth of good fiction-only magazines, coming out of South Africa and understandably, Zimbabwe. Not that there aren’t any, but they are fewer and far between in comparison to the rest of the world.

Frustrated as a new fiction writer madly writing with so few local outlets for my work, I started thinking about how I could remedy this dire situation.

Being strapped for cash back then (as a new-ish dedicated full-time writer and living in a new country), basically made me realise that a proper print magazine was out of the question to start with. So I took a look at online publishing which led me to Google's Blogger framework, and so the first incarnation of StoryTime was born.

Right from the outset my intention was to use the Blogger framework to publish a real ezine. I also definitely wanted to avoid personal blogging in the ezine and feature only fiction works, even if they were only mine to start with.

How long have you been working on the project?

I published the first ST ezine in June 2007.

Initially, I wanted to create a fiction ezine that would consist of an eclectic collection of world fiction, run directly by its authors for their readers, and create an online home for all the authors involved.

Over time and after gaining a bit of experience in this new field of online publishing, I came to realise what I wanted ST to be. That being, primarily a focus on the poorly represented and yet amazingly rich and diverse, fictional literature coming out of Africa and from the far flung African Diaspora. So I changed the ST emphasis to African writers only and the rest was history.

How do you find contributors?

I actively seek out talented writers and invite them to ST, and constantly look for free ways to promote ST and all our authors by all means at my disposal, on and offline. Then there's the relatively new development of the ST book anthology, African Roar, something I have wanted to do since the very beginning. In this regard I have just put out the call for ST fiction submissions to be published first in the ezine, and thereby gain entry into the selection process for the printed anthology. This came about thanks in no small way to Sarudzayi Barnes at The Lion Press, who secured us the funding to print publish with LP, from the U.K. Arts Council. Though in the long run I'd like the anthology to not only pay for itself, but also offer a decent percentage return for all the authors published in it.

Which writers are you currently working with?

This is a great question and maybe I can also explain something of how ST works. Firstly let me do the honour roll for everyone ST is actively working with:

Igoni Barrett, Adesola Orimalade, Ayesha Attah, Ayodele Morocco-Clarke, Beaven Tapureta, Chris Mlalazi, Colin Meier, Esi Cleland, Emmanuel Sigauke, Masimba Musodza, Nigel Jack and Sarudzayi Barnes.

It is these authors who have made ST what it is by joining, contributing and working with ST. Two members of prime contribution are Emmanuel, who is co-editing the upcoming ST anthology with me, and Sarudzayi, whom I mentioned earlier.

Now when I say our authors work with ST, what I mean is unlike traditional publishing, ST runs under a Creative Commons 3.0 licence (Attribution, Non-derivative, and Non-commercial). This means that in effect, the author joins ST and then together we showcase their work in the ezine, directly under their own names and copyrights. The authors then, forever, have complete access to all their works at ST and can edit them or remove them entirely if they so choose. This I feel is an important part of the capabilities of online publishing, giving the authors direct control over their work.

Hindsight can also be very illuminating, especially as one improves as a writer with each new work. At ST as the author you may make changes, normally reserved for a second revised edition in the print world. So the ST authors are their own editors, and I approve their works for publishing in the ezine as editor-in-chief of ST.

What challenges do you meet and how do you deal with them?

ST always presents many daily challenges which I try and deal with as swiftly as humanly possible. But I suppose the prime challenge from the beginning, has been my choice of the Blogger framework to publish ST for free. In doing so I have had to constantly search for ways to present ST as an ezine and not a generic blog. Luckily though, I am also a visual artist and have tried to make ST on the whole look as un-blog-like as possible. Not to mention the utter helplessness when faced with problems beyond my control, because it’s a free service. However, that's also the good thing about ST in its current form, apart from my own time and that of the authors; it's totally free for us and therefore our readers. This might change in the future, if we can ever afford a dedicated .com domain name and full website etc., which will bring its own set of new challenges no doubt. Though, unless we start printing a magazine solely, I'd like to keep the ST ezine free for the authors and all our readers.

There is also an inherent challenge in letting your authors have complete access to their works. One only has too view MySpace to see how out of hand this can get if left unsupervised. So behind each story I work a bit of hard-learned but simple HTML magic to make sure it complies with the ST layout standards, and doesn't jam the feed readers.

In general though, I have found the ST authors more than willing to help solve any problems that may arise, which makes life a lot easier.

How would you describe the standard of writing at ST?

So far, I think we have maintained a fairly good standard of writing at ST, but I can only believe that this will become even better as ST grows. It is also my intention with the first anthology to raise the bar significantly, by only print publishing the 'eclectic' or very best, of all the works published in the ezine since our beginnings. Subsequent to the first anthology it will be the best of that year.

Who is your target audience?

On the whole I'd say we already have enough variety to satisfy nearly every fiction genre taste, and so this would put us squarely in the fairly broad realm of all those who read fiction/literature magazines and ezines.

Furthermore, with our solid presence on Facebook and by using the Blogger framework, we are introducing ST and our authors to whole new generations of online fiction readers.

Which aspects of the work do you enjoy most?

There are quite a few reasons why I was motivated to start ST, but one of the big ones was to start communicating with my fellow Zimbabwean writing peers in Zimbabwe and those spread throughout the world. I had the idea that together we could do what artists are at least in-part meant to do, and that is being a voice for the voiceless; to bring to the world light, the very real catastrophe of our Zimbabwean situation through our arts, in this case, writing. Therefore, I have slowly but surely opened the lines of communication between several Zimbabwean writers and myself, and together we have achieved some measure of real progress. This is surely what I enjoy most, seeing and being a part of something greater than myself, which actually does cause positive change.

Ultimately, like most Zimbabweans, I have a great desire to return home permanently from what is effectively an economic exile.

What sets ST apart from the other ezines and literary magazines?

It would have to be the complete control the authors have over their work, and the strong sense of close community that ST engenders in both its authors and readers. We like to help each other out where we can, and most of us bring an existing entourage of readers to ST when we join. I believe it is this spirit of openness and community, tempered with real authorial control, which draws readers and serious writers to ST. This, therefore, raises the bar with the addition of each new talented writer, and our growing experience in online and print publishing.

Possibly related books:

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