"A certain "right way" of being a writer does not exist in my realm." A Quick Q & A with #WriterPrompt Winner Frances Ogamba

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We are fragments of time, and the universe. The bodies we inhabit, like trees, sand, pebbles, wind, and oceans, are passages. We walk through them until the end bell tolls for us, and we melt into susurrations and echoes, and tears, its salt our souls.

We once lived here, you and I, in this rectangular box placed deep in the valley. These surrounding hills grew on us, and it appeared as though we sank further into the ground. The stars knew our names, and the birds inserted them into the verses of their morning chants. Our footsteps are written here, in these sands. The stones may remember which are yours and mine. Does God know we owned here once with our kisses and the music we made with our thighs? Why are we suddenly strangers in a place that stood in our names? Why do pots clatter in the room we kept empty, and dogs bark in a yard that formerly brimmed with our silences? Do the newcomers smell us? Something has to hint to them the kind of people we were – your finger stamps on our room wall, the melted candle wax that caked on the staircase, the broken glass pane of the living room window. Do you think they smell our fear the morning those robbers accosted us, or our anxiety the day we saw a cut on my shin?

Did our laughter die with us, or does it ring in the indistinct sounds they hear?

#WriterPrompt is a regular flash fiction event we run on our Facebook page. Writers post stories in response to a picture, then workshop them with other participants and members of the SSDA team. Frances' bittersweet story of memories, old homes and our place in the cosmos, won. Here she sheds some light on her writing journey and what she's reading at the moment.

 

This is the third time your story has won a #WriterPrompt. What do you attribute your flash fiction success to?

FRANCES: In 2015 when I first learned of #WriiterPrompt, I thought I knew quite a lot about writing. Two years down the line, I have worked harder than I remember, staying up late nights just to read up what every writer in my library has to say. Yet, isn't it strange that I have found out that I know so little? I write these things because they are the best expressions of how I feel at that moment, without even knowing if they would be commended. Maybe it is the wide reading (which I think every writer should be doing) that moves my flash fiction forward. Maybe it is the realization that I know nothing, the further I delve into knowledge. Maybe it is both.

 

Which book, if any, have you recently read that captured your heart and why?

FRANCES: A book, Damage, by Josephine Hart, a dead author. She prised apart the details of the human mind and human nature. She accessed depths of man than she was allowed to. Let me give you an excerpt from the first page.

“There is an internal landscape, a geography of the soul; we search for its outlines all our lives. Those who are lucky enough to find it ease like water over a stone, onto its fluid contours, and are home. Some find it in the place of their birth; others may leave a seaside town, parched, and find themselves refreshed in the desert. There are those born in rolling countryside who are really only at ease in the intense and busy loneliness of the city. For some, the search is for the imprint of another; a child or a mother, a grandfather or a brother, a lover, a husband, a wife, or a foe. We may go through our lives happy or unhappy, successful or unfulfilled, loved or unloved, without ever standing cold with the shock of recognition, without ever feeling the agony as the twisted iron in our soul unlocks itself and we slip at last into place.” 

I do not know who else begins a story like this, but Josephine Hart does.

 

Can you tell us something about your writing world? 

FRANCES: I read more than I write. The aphorism 'write always' is not for me. Some rules and a certain "right way" of being a writer do not exist in my realm. I also think rejections are great. I look out for them. I still have a lot of work to do, so the rejections are awesome reminders of that. 

 

Frances Ogamba is a writer, poet and graduate of Foreign Languages and Literary Studies from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Frances is bilingual (English and French) and has run a Master's degree programme in Professional Translation at the University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria. She was selected for the 2016 Writivism Mentorship.

 

Interview by Catherine Shepherd

A Quick Q&A with #WriterPrompt Winner, Ifeanyi Abiodun Ibegbu

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Every month, Aunty Ifeka made her chickens walk through puddles of colouring, from which they emerged squawking, pink-shod and unmistakably branded.

Ezinne enjoyed watching their bright pink feet against the dull grey concrete, on the mornings when she let them out to wander in the compound while she cleaned out their coop.

One day, a chicken emerged with a limp.

It stood by the coop on the better leg, the left one, and watched her. She turned to see the round, seemingly startled right eye, focused on her.

"Why are you looking at me?"

For a second, a flicker of fear appeared in the glassy void of the eye, before the chicken limped away and back into the throng of the other wanderers.

What was worse was that, upon returning them to the coop, there was no longer a limping chicken.

That evening, Mazi Linus, the man with strange stories to his name, visited. He had been away for months and Ezinne wondered whether it was he who had stolen the limping chicken, causing it to disappear into his stomach on returning hungry from his trip.

She would have felt better if that had been the case.

When Aunty let him in, she could not say for sure which she saw first: his glistening sideward glance with a flicker of fear, the hint of a pink toe from the crack in his shoe, or the way he limped into the sitting room, leaning on his left foot.

#WriterPrompt is a flash fiction event run on our Facebook page. Writers post stories in response to a visual prompt and then workshop them with other participants and members of the SSDA team. This bout of story writing was especially competitive. Jason Mykl Snyman elaborates on the difficulty of choosing one story over all the others and speaks to Ifeanyi about what inspired her winning story.

 

"In the Chinese Zodiac, the year 2017 is marked as a year of the Rooster. The wise are the roosters of the universe, they awaken the unawake. You all know roosters, they herald a new dawn. New beginnings. For this prompt, we chose the image of the rooster – with its bright colours and its long tail and its fiery temperament – because we all need a new beginning. 2016 was a tough one, and though 2017 may have gotten off to a shaky start (for many, this year of Donald Trump’s inauguration will forever be remembered as the year of the Cock) – but hopefully, wherever you are right now, the sun is breaking over the horizon.
We weren’t looking for anything in particular in the interpretations of the prompt. I had a tough time choosing a winner this time, they were all so original, so well-written and so entertaining.
Here are some honourable mentions:
Osahon Ize-Iyamu gave us a beautifully crafted philosophical piece. Every line read like poetry, and it chilled us and moved us. Erhu Amreyan transported us into the mind of a tortured painter. Jeremy Gilmer turned the norms upon their head and gave us an often frightening piece with a surprising finale, and Zithulele Sibanyoni gave us witty wordplay in what was probably the most complete interpretation of a prompt I’ve ever seen.
However, I finally settled on the work of Ifeanyi Abiodun Ibegbu. She delivered a fun little story, well-executed with vivid imagery and it was simple enough in premise to keep me wanting more. The ending though, is perfection. Did Mazi Linus, the man with strange stories to his name, steal and eat the limping chicken and so take on its characteristics – or – was Mazi Linus the limping chicken all along? Only Aunty Ifeka and Ifeanyi will ever know – and I pray they never tell, because there’s real magic in this tale." - Jason Mykl Snyman

 

Ifeanyi, congratulations on winning #WriterPrompt 16. That was no small feat, considering the competition. Tell us a little bit about this story, where did the idea come from and what was the inspiration behind Mazi Linus?

IFEANYI: Thank you very much! I’m really thrilled to have emerged winner- it’s a pretty big thing to fully digest, haha! Initially, I wasn’t very certain where the story came from. A lot of my stories often tend to feel as though they simply strolled into my head, but I’ve given it deeper thought, and come to realise that my relationship with chickens had a lot to do with it.

They have always held some fascination for me, especially since I only really get to study them up close once a year. Christmas in Nigeria is often not complete without the purchase of a live chicken to be slaughtered on the Eve. Before it’s killed though, the chicken is almost a part of the family, having to be fed and watered all in the few days leading up to the slaughter. In the process of encountering these chickens every Christmas, I’ve come to notice this demeanour they have, with one eye keenly watching you, and their heads slightly cocked so that they appear to be deeply concerned and mysterious. When I think of chickens, it’s that stare that is evoked, and there’s a subtle human quality to it, and this is what I think gave birth to the person of Mazi Linus, who is both man and chicken. I guess it’s this personal history with chickens that was the subliminal source of the story- the way chickens look at you, and what it could mean, and playing around with what lies behind the glances.



Tell us some more about yourself. Where are you from, what do you do and when did your writing journey begin?

IFEANYI: I’m Igbo, from Onitsha in Nigeria. I’d say my life is currently in a kind of limbo - I’ve just completed a Bachelor’s degree and in a few months I’ll be compulsorily ‘serving’ the nation for a year. So presently, I’m just a reader, writer, internet crawler and gig-seeker. My writing is something I’ve carried with me through all the stages of my life that as far back as I can remember. As soon as I could write by hand, I started putting down the stories in my head. The compulsion has evolved though: I’ve gone from writing to re-create the things I read, to writing to escape reality, and just create the world I wanted to be in, and now, writing about the world that I know and have known, and really coming to terms with my knowledge and perception of this world. These days, it’s also the way I bleed.

 

What’s your favourite painting of all time, and why?

IFEANYI: This is a tough one. I haven’t extensively explored visual arts (just some random appreciation), but the Mona Lisa has held my fascination for a very long time, and probably won’t stop. I like the enigmatic quality of the painting - you can’t exactly tell what’s happening there, and it appears as if the woman in the painting is the only one who’s sure of herself. In a way, it mirrors my aspirations to be somewhat inexplicable, to be that person who has to let you in on the secret before you can really know it, and also to be someone who’s right in the centre of the turmoil, but still separate from it, with a very collected and self-assured manner. The Mona Lisa appears to have the kind of inner peace that I’m hoping to find.

 

 

Ifeanyi Abiodun Ibegbu is a Nigerian writer who finds both courage and solace in stringing words together, with the hope that this will help her make sense of life, and achieve success through their impact. When she remembers to, she blogs at www.lapenseuse21.wordpress.com. She loves art, sugar and sleep, and also enjoys talking and thinking.

 

 

Interview by Jason Mykl Snyman

'Empathy is, I believe, a critical part of writing.' An Interview with #WriterPrompt winner Jeremy Gilmer.

The Call

The first morning they arrived, almost no one noticed. It took a few hours before the panic started to sweep its wide broom across the open gasp of the planet. The dim shadow of the ring became clearer in view as it got closer, sparkles of light flashing across its beam, the slow turning and then the low hum that followed, they had our attention.

The television was abuzz with questions, they had spoken over high frequency channels, leaders scrambled to answer, they had asked for a person, someone to speak for all of us. We argued and fought, he should be American, Russian, Chinese, he should be a she! While they fought, the Ring repositioned, began to flatten out and spin faster, we could now see lightning flash within the circle, amazing blue and greens, the sound shook the earth.

I watched Xolani leave his small house, his family following behind. He was no higher than my elbow, school bag on his back. His mother was crying into her hands, but the boy had the look of a sea captain. Little Xolani who spoke every language I had ever heard, the clicks of his Xhosa perfect before he could walk, writing formulas on walls in crayon. He kissed his mother and walked into the road, eyes already gazing up at the ring that was now right over us. The gasps were drowned out by the terrible hum, as Xolani lifted into the sky.

#WriterPrompt is a flash fiction event run on our Facebook page. Writers post stories in response to a picture, then workshop them with other participants and members of the SSDA team. Jeremy Gilmer speaks to us about his writing life and Wole Talabi, the guest writer for this #WriterPrompt shares why he chose Jeremy as the winner.

 

"The #WriterPrompt was based on an image of something I have a particular fondness for – a Ringworld which is based on Larry Niven’s SF classic novel “Ringworld” and its sequels. The Ringworld in the novels is a cosmic superstructure, an artificial world with a surface area three million times larger than Earth's, built in the shape of a giant ring orbiting its sun, a million miles across and with a diameter of 186 million miles generating gravity via centrifugal force. This idea of a gigantic artificial world constructed around a star has been copied in many other media since, including the popular ‘Halo’ games. I find the image, and the idea of the Ringworld in general, to be incredibly inspirational, a visual reminder of the potential of mankind to alter the universe (hopefully) for his own betterment. Seeing the way this image was interpreted by the writers in this prompt, has been very interesting. 

I picked Jeremy Gilmer’s “The Call” – a nice story of alien arrival and the selection of a young boy name Xolani, to represent humanity at first contact. The classic structure is there and clear. The writing is strong and confident. Xolani is an interesting character, even if Jeremy only gives us a small sketch of him. There are clever uses of wording, like “panic started to sweep its wide broom across the open gasp of the planet”. The writing consistently evokes the right mood as it progresses. I also feel it has just the right combination of ‘showing’ and ‘telling’ to get the story across. 

As with all art, the selection of ‘best’ or ‘winner’ is highly subjective. I chose this story because the craft fundamentals are strong and because it links to the spirit of the prompt by ending open to the huge possibility and potential that comes with first contact. Perhaps the aliens, through Xolani will teach humanity to build a ringworld or something grander. These make “The Call” a nice little story." - Wole Talabi

 

What does writing mean to you?

JEREMY: For me, writing is a way to try and understand the world around me, and to try and understand myself. I am someone who has lived in various places and cultures, and where I fit in those times and places is always different and often changing. I am very surprised when I am in the process of writing something, the truths that come to light during the writing itself. I may believe that I think or feel a certain way about a story or an event, but as I write, things come to the surface that I had not considered, and the illumination that provides is a very large part of the process of creating and learning. For me, the process of writing is as much about learning as creating.
 

Who inspires your writing world?

JEREMY: The list of who inspires my writing world is too long for this format, but I will try to condense it. I was born in Canada but spent my first years in Nigeria. My mother made great efforts to incorporate local legends and folktales into the Western fairy tales that would put me to bed at night. Our house was always full of books, indeed as we travelled as a family, books seemed to outweigh our furniture. Both my parents were active artists. They both had a profound influence. As for writers, Chinua Achebe is obviously, for me, a giant whose shadow touches many creatives, not just writers, around the world. Ben Okri holds a very special place in my mind and heart, The Famished Road is a work I return to every few years. Helen Oyeyemi is amazing, but I believe there is not a young writer working today who has not been influenced by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Both her novels and work as a public intellectual has and is going to have an impact on so many artists for many years to come.

Leaning more to the West, I must say that Cormac McCarthy is a pillar of my reading and writing. Salman Rushdie, Zadie Smith, Umberto Eco, Italo Calvino, Margaret Atwood, David Mitchell. None of these names are in any way surprising, I think. I will say that the surge in short story reading and writing has been very inspiring. In that light, I would be remiss not to mention James Joyce and Chekov. Araby (from Dubliners) is my favorite short story, no work has grabbed me by the heart as that has.

Also, I am surrounded by artists, and not just writers, but painters, sculptors, potters, actors, engineers, graphic novelists, musicians. I think this wide frame of reference helps enormously in keeping the creative blood flowing, keeping the pilot light lit. 

And then, to come across a group like SSDA, and see not only the wonderful work, but the support and community that holds the whole thing together, that is hugely inspiring. Being able to share that with others, to see their delight in discovering a source of new writing and writers, it is magic.

 

What do you think it takes to be a good writer?

JEREMY: To be a good writer. That question is both very simple and very complex. Powers of observation, seeing and feeling the things, people and places around you. Due to my work I have travelled quite widely, and have had to learn to filter out the noise when I am overwhelmed by a place (The DRC comes to mind) and I need to focus on a few special details, or I will retain nothing. Listening to the music of the speech of a place, of a people. The thump of the ground, the rhythm of a city, you must retain these things and be able to sing them back in a way that is somehow coherent to the reader.

Empathy is, I believe, a critical part of not only writing, but being a human being living among others. You must be able to reach out and touch the experiences of the people around you, and those of yourself. A writer must explore how he thinks and feels about any given moment, any experience, and be open to the idea that those responses can and will change over time.

Above all, a writer must write. Write, write, read, write and write some more. Write on scraps of paper. Write notes to yourself, poems, essays, stories, just write. You will only sharpen the tool set by using it. I think course and classes can be invaluable in certain ways, especially in the community they provide, but I do believe that one hundred hours spent writing is more valuable than one hundred hours spent listening to lectures about writing.

Write.

 

Jeremy Thomas Gilmer was born in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada and spent his childhood in Canada, Europe, Africa and the Caribbean. He has worked in a number of different occupations, from climbing instructor to construction, soil mechanics and engineering. He has spent the last twenty years working on international mining projects in South America, Africa and the Arctic. He did not attend University. He has recently relocated to Fredericton, New Brunswick. His short story ‘Congo River, County Antrim’ was long listed for the CBC Canada Writes short story prize in 2015.

'A true artist says the most by saying the least...' An Interview With #WriterPrompt Winner Zithulele Sibanyoni.

Three little birds

With only a day to go before he was due to submit, Josias woke up low on motivation but high on optimism. The story had to be written - and written yesterday! He had been burning the midnight oil for days only to achieve the same result - nothing.

He played and sang along to Bob Marley's 'Three Little Birds' while fixing himself the strongest cup of coffee, a refreshing departure from the high-end weed of the past few days. 'Every little thing is gonna be alright,' he sang out loud. A true artist says the most by saying the least, he thought, drawing inspiration from the musical genius. Just then it hit him. "Three little birds!" That was going to be title of his story.

It was at the secluded countryside spot half an hour's drive away that he found his mojo. The gentle hum of river was calming and the cool breeze detoxifying. More encouraging; tweeting melodiously from above the eccentric tree he had found and nestled against, were three little sparrows - as if cheering him on for the honour of being written about.

Nothing had changed when he awoke from a rejuvenating nap. The big tree's weed-like leaves still looked a peculiar mixture of sweet pink and bright yellow. Three little birds still chirped merrily from above - and pooped all over the pages of his notebook - the story. Only his cellphone was missing.

#WriterPrompt is a flash fiction event run on our Facebook page. Writers post stories in response to a picture, then workshop them with other participants and members of the SSDA team. Zithulele Sibanyoni, our winner, shares his editing tips and some of his favourite authors with us.

 

"Zithulele is a dedicated #WriterPrompt participant. His critique and encouragement of his fellow writers on the platform map how much he has grown as a writer as much as his stories do. I chose Zithulele's story because it has a lightness of touch and so much writerly humour.  His story captures how so many of us feel about our writing. There have been many times I've woken "low on motivation but high on optimism". And really, it's motivation that counts.  I think we can all relate to – and laugh at ourselves in – this story.  Laugh at our ambitions, failures and how our inner critics "poop" on our most inspired words."  – Rachel Zadok on choosing the winning story.

 

What role does writing play in your life and why?

ZITHULELE: Writing gives me a sense of duty to reflect society and its realities. Societal realities are like facial blemishes - they have to be seen to be corrected - and the writer - quite like the mirror does - brings these blemishes to the fore for correction.

 

Who are your favourite authors or books?

ZITHULELE: K. Sello Duiker for the ability to tackle complex subjects in a manner that is simple and easy to relate to. My favourite book of his is 13 Cents. Zukiswa Wanner for the ability to make one laugh, reflect and cry in one book. Men of the South is my favourite one of hers. Niq Mhlongo for the ability to write with great pacing from page one to page two hundred and whatever. Way Back Home is the book of his I enjoy the most.

 

Can you give us 3 basic editing tips that have helped your writing?

ZITHULELE: Show, don't tell 2. Less is more 3. Unless it adds to the story, it has no business there.

 

Zithulele Wiseman Sibanyoni started writing poems in 2011 and short stories in 2014. His work has been published by FUNDZA, a South African based literary trust. Zithulele is also an active participant of #WriterPrompt. His ultimate dreams are to have one of his short stories published in a Short Story Day Africa anthology, to eventually win the Caine Prize for African Writing as well as publish his own novel.

 

Interview by Catherine Shepherd