Meet ... Zukiswa Wanner
The 'Meet' Series is my chance to interview anyone I would love to meet that is involved in African literature. This month is extra special as I have had the great pleasure of meeting two wonderful authors.
I am extremely happy to announce that first in my two-part extra special 'Meet' series is Zukiswa Wanner - journalist, essayist and author of several novels, including the shortlisted K. Sello Duiker 2007 novel The Madams and the shortlisted Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2011 novel Men of the South. Wanner is also one of the Hay Festival's Africa39 authors. Hope you enjoy!!!!
I’m
a great fan of Lauren Beukes’ and also love her weekly guest blog, ‘The Spark’.
It was through it I learned you also write kids books. What draws you to
writing for children and how do you find it different than writing for adults?
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| Photo Credit: Fungai Machirori |
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself
(where you’re from, what you do, any fun details)
I was born in Zambia to a South African father and a Zimbabwean mother and I now stay in Kenya. I am a full time writer but when I’m not writing, I am
reading or hanging out with friends.
What was the first piece you ever wrote?
I studied Journalism in school so I can’t recall. The first piece I ever
wrote when I considered myself a writer would be my second novel, Behind Every
Successful Man (when I wrote my first novel I considered it a collection of
thoughts and was pleasantly surprised when I showed it to someone and they
wanted to publish it).
What draws you to writing?
The need to tell a story.
What do you do when you are not writing?
I read a lot. I hang out with my partner and son. I travel. I have a
little project that I’ve been pulling with my nine year old son since he was 3
where I take him to a different African country every year.
On Novels
You have written a number of books covering various
themes, from Men of the South which
was nominated for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Award (Africa Region) and
looked at the lives of three men in Southern Africa to Behind Every Woman, about a husband and wife’s relationship, but I
wanted to focus a bit on your latest novel, London
CapeTown Joburg:
What was the inspiration behind it?
I think of LCTJ as my socio-politico commentary of a country I love from
1994 to 2010 (the two common high points in my nation’s history). It was
important to me that that there’d be an outsider looking in perspective thus
the narration of Martin and Germaine.
LCTJ is
told from 3 perspectives - the returned exile, Martin O’ Malley; English
artist, Germaine Spencer; and their mixed race son, Zuko - how did you find
writing from different perspectives? And dare I ask, who did you have the most
fun writing?
It was a bit of a challenge but I had had practice with Behind Every
Successful Man (which I think I didn’t do as well as in LCTJ) as well as with
Men of the South. Martin often surprised me. He is generally a chilled out guy
but every now and again he’d say some really crazy witty stuff. I used my son
to give authenticity on Zuko. I would get him to read some parts so that I
could know whether a boy his age would be able to speak in that voice so that
was fun too (I didn’t work with him all the way to the sad part though).
This is a love story, yes, but it’s more than
that and you deal with a lot of heavy stuff – race, family relationships, abuse
- and I’m going to come out and say it, I was extremely sad after reading the
opening sentence to LCTJ and felt I
couldn't go on. What was the thought process behind that and how was it writing
about Zuko’s suicide and a parent losing their child?
I was challenging myself as a writer. I wanted to write the sort of book
that’s linear but not quite. So, a reader finds out at the beginning that Zuko
is dead, how then do I work through the rest of the book to ensure that the
reader is entertained enough throughout the book and somewhat forgets that Zuko
dies so that when they get to the end it’s again a bit of a punch in the gut to
remember the beginning.
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| Interior Relations by Ian Van Coller |
Okay, I fibbed a bit, I did have one question
about another of your books - Maid in SA.
First, let me say I have only read extracts of it, but when I first heard about
it I got really excited about it (my PhD thesis focused on domestic workers in
Lagos). I also recently found out that your novel ‘The Madams’ also tackled the
relationship between a black domestic worker and her black employers:
What made you want to write about domestic
workers in South Africa?
The
African continent has an emerging middle class which often has liberal
credentials. Often they write and talk about justice, fairness, equality but
too often too, their relationships with their domestic workers does not embody
all these ideals. This has always fascinated me thus my seeming obsession with
domestic workers and their madams :).
On
Publishing, Being an Author and African Literature
As an author, what’s the toughest criticism
and best compliment you have received?
The toughest criticism was from a fellow South African writer, Richard de
Nooy, who thought an affair between the domestic worker and her male employer in
The Madams was ‘unrealistic’. It was tough because although you and I know it
happens, it showed how much of a cultural chasm we have in South Africa. Black South
Africans were on some, ‘yes, we have seen this,’ but to Richard it was
inconceivable. The greatest compliment would have to be from a Singaporean friend’s
mother who speaks mostly Mandarin. She read Men of the South and thanked me
because she said she understood it and liked it.
You not only write novels, you are also a
journalist and have written for magazines and newspapers, which is the most fun
medium to write in?
It definitely is novels. I find them liberating. I can say the sort of
unPC things I can never say in articles as voices of my characters :).
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| Refilwe - Wanner's re-telling of Rapunzel |
Lauren is an absolute gem and is not only a great friend but an amazing
and generously spirited writer. I wrote for children because I was asked to by
an organization promoting children’s literacy with an emphasis on our own
stories in SA called Nalibali. I love challenges and getting out of my comfort
zone so I did two books. Writing for children is different in that you have to
get the language right and put oneself in a child’s mind. So I observed my son
and my neighbour’s children a lot on mannerisms, language etc.
Lists
are a huge part of the literary world and Twentyin20 and Africa39 are a couple
of the lists you are on, what are your thoughts on ‘list culture’ and also as
an author, what is it like to be on these lists?
I am honoured to be on the lists as it makes me more marketable but I
don’t take them that seriously as I know many writers who are as good or even
better than me who didn’t get onto those lists. Angela Makholwa and Thando Mgqolozana come to mind.
You
are the founding member of ReadSA literary campaign and a judge for Writivisms’
Short Story Prize, so what are your thoughts on the state of African literature today?
Literature
from the African continent is at the most exciting place it has ever been in
history.
I am a great lover of African
literature, could you suggest a book, new or old, that people should read?
Flip, I can suggest tons but I’ve just finished Ghanaian writer Ekow
Duker’s White Wahala and that is a definite must read. Duker’s writing is fast
paced and has some keen observations.
On
Being a Booklover (Questions I’ve always wanted to ask authors)
What are you reading right now?
I’m currently reading Zakes Mda’s Rachel’s Blue
which was just launched at Open Book.
Is there any particular author
(living or dead) or book that influenced you in any way either growing up or as
an adult - and why?
Every writer and every book I have read has
influenced me. The good books yell out to me the type of writing I would like
to aspire to do and the bad works teach me how not to write.
Which, novel or character in a
novel do you wish you had written?
Benjamin the donkey in Animal Farm. He has the sort
of cynicism that appeals to me.
Have you ever judged a book by its
cover (i.e. bought a book based on its looks)? Which?
No. But I judge a book by it’s blurb and first
page…and it is almost every book I have bought not written by authors I know.
Hard copy or e-book? Bookstore or
Amazon?
Hard copy and bookstore. I’m just old fashioned like
that (plus, I tend to take books to bed and wake up with my hand in an odd
position – something I can’t do with a Kindle).
Final
question (I promise)
What’s next – can we expect a new
book soon?
Not soon but in the next two years. I am currently doing research for a book I think I may call Stony River. I have a rough idea of what I wanna do with it
in my head but I suspect it will come out very differently after all the
research gathering and the writing begins.
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