Conversations with Writers

Arthur Ernest Gwagwa was born in Chivhu, Zimbabwe. Currently, he lives in London where he works as a mental health and family solicitor. In this interview, Arthur Gwagwa talks about his books, His Story & Her Story (The Lion Press, 2010) and Turning Point (The Lion Press, 2010): How would you describe the two books have written so far? His Story & Her Story ( The Lion Press , 2010) is the product of combined semi-autobiographies which attempt to tell the stories of migration and related issues in a very imaginative, creative and interesting manner. It goes on to discuss general critical social issues in black and ethnic minority communities of Britain, France and the USA as well as issues of ethnicity, race and culture in former colonies such as Zimbabwe, Jamaica and South Africa. The book also conceptually analyses the stories of migration from a social science perspective and it shares some well-tested ideas and concepts that would help migrants, black peopl

Belinda Hopkins is a Director and Lead Trainer at Transforming Conflict , a centre for restorative justice in education. She is also the author of Just Care: Restorative Justice Approaches to Working with Children in Public Care (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2009); The Peer Mediation and Mentoring Trainer's Manual (Optimus Education, 2008) and Just Schools: A Whole School Approach to Restorative Justice (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2003). In this interview, Belinda Hopkins talks about the work she is doing: How did you first become interested in Restorative Justice? In some ways I have always been interested in a restorative approach when working with young people – although in the early days I would not have used the phrase ‘Restorative Justice’ or ‘restorative approaches’ My first experience of teaching, in the field of English as a foreign language, radicalised me in terms of thinking of my students as autonomous, self-directing partners in their learning. Having s

Michael McIrvin has five poetry collections, two novels and a collection of essays to his name. His latest novel, The Blue Man Dreams the End of Time (BeWrite Books, 2009) has been described as an implicit indictment of the use of murder and torture by modern nation states. In this interview, McIrvin talks about his writing: When did you start writing? . My most recent book is a novel, but I have also published poetry collections, and that genre was my first calling. I started writing poetry at age 12 after my first crisis of faith. I read the Bible like a cabalist in my search for answers, every syllable, afraid I might miss some truth hiding there. When I reached the last page, I started over; but this time I only read Genesis , Revelations , and the Psalms , the Christian creation and destruction myths and the King James’ version of poetry — the good bits in my 12-year-old opinion. In fact, the intersection of language and mythology remain important to both my poetry and my prose.

By Carrie Oakley You’ve published your first book ... what next? This is a question I’m sure many (if not all) writers have faced at some point or the other in their career. The quest and drive to publish their first book consume most of their time and energy during the start of their career. They feel on top of the world when they know it is going to see the light of day and when it’s out and in stores, the exhilaration is like nothing else. However, the rollercoaster does have to come down after touching the highs, so it’s back to earth with a bang once your first book is behind you. Now it’s time to take stock and plan what to do next. If your book is doing well and selling like hotcakes, you’re definitely going to find the motivation to keep going ... maybe even write a sequel or a spin-off to ride on this one’s popularity. The adulation you gain is an addiction, and you cannot seem to get enough of it. So you settle down immediately to write the next book, and motivation is never