#WomenCrushWednesday #WriteTips

A publisher, a poet and a writer dispense advice today. And it turned out to be a #WCW to boot. We hope you are inspired by their diverse viewpoints to get writing, to refine your style and share your work with the world.  

Nyana Kakoma

A good editor is on your side. I have met a lot of writers that get defensive when the word “editor” is mentioned. They tend to think that editors are there to just change and destroy everything they have written. But a good editor acts as a writer’s best reader and knowing that they are on your side as a writer eases the process of bringing out the best out of your writing.

Juliane Okot Bitek

Ha, ha, ha. That I should have any writing/editing tips for anyone to follow. I can share what works for me that I have emulated from others.

1. To write well, you must read and read widely.

2. Good work takes time. It might emerge in spurts or even pour out all at once, but even that is the product of time. Be patient.

3. Edit your work. Or have someone else look at it with keen eyes.

4. Not your parents, though. That could go many ways. They might be: oh my god, you’re the best writer in the whole world! (That’s no good). They might go: ya, it’s okay. But when are you going to get a real job? Maybe you can write when you’re retired. (That’s no good, either). Or maybe they’ll go: why don’t you write like xyz who has made movies out of their novels and are now famous? What are you planning to do with this poem/short story/chapter… (That’s no good). Or maybe they’ll go: I don’t know what to make of it. Or, I’m busy. Or, show it to your sister. They understand you better. (Also no good). Your parents might not be the best critics even though they might claim to love you the best and want the best for you. Same with lovers.

5. There are no words so sublime that they cannot be edited out or re-written. Words are tools, not God. Even though we have been taught that in the beginning was the word and the word was God… Ya. (I write this with the humility that any good work requires an excellent editor. Mine was Peter Midgley whose light hand made 100 Days shimmer).

6. I believe that words, like food, must not be wasted. The mark of a good writer is that whose work flows seamlessly as if it was easy. The good writer is absent; all that exists is the world created by the reader and the words on the page. I really, really aspire to that and I recognize that it is a goal not an achievement.

7. Not everything we write must be published. Sometimes words emerge like a prelude to something else. Be patient with your own writing and with yourself.

8. Read some more. Read for content and read for strategy. Note the interesting ways that different artists craft their work. See how you can work your own way out.

9. If you have an inclination towards other works of art, and can, check out other forms of expression. I’m often really inspired and drawn to abstract paintings. What I cannot possibly do on a canvas I try to do in my poetry.

That’s it. That’s everything.

Rahla Xenopoulos

JUST WRITE, WRITE, WRITE, WRITE. Write with love, with friendship, with self-encouragement and abandon. My writing teacher used to say, “if you write with your hand it goes through your heart, if you write with a computer it goes through your head.” So, I’m a believer in hand writing.

Fuck spelling, grammar and most of what you learnt at school, write what’s in your heart. You can correct and edit later.

Also, you can’t write if you don’t read, and if you read trash you will write trash. Read good literature.

'I like to explore what the absence of love can do to a living being.' Akwaeke Emezi interviews Nana Nyarko Boateng.

Another Wednesday, another writer tagged! Writer to Writer, A Game of Writer Tag continues. Akwaeke picked Ghanaian writer Nana Nyarko Boateng. In conversation, Nana opened up about the personal nature of her writing, and having a foot in both camps - writing and editing. 

AKWAEKE: To jump right into the deep end, what parts of yourself do you put into your writing?

NANA: I am not sure how to answer this, I think for me, it’s been the parts that I hadn’t discovered yet or hadn’t fully accepted. So, when I write about a broken character, I all of a sudden realise that there are parts of me that are broken too. And when I write about a happy carefree character, I see in me how I desire happiness or the ways in which I have that level of happiness in my life too. You started with a rather tough question, go a little bit easy on me.

My mother waited for us by the door. She lived with eyes that only saw mouths and teeth of people. Every Sunday night, we lined up for her inspection –our powdered armpits and pepsodent-fresh breaths were cast in our show for her approval. We were eager to sing in chorus with the television set, “Captain Planet he’s a hero, gonna take pollution down to zero…” 

AKWAEKE: What are the themes that you find yourself most drawn to in your work?

NANA: I am drawn to finding the pieces of ourselves that exist in everyone else. I have an obsession with love.  I like to explore what the absence of love can do to a living being. I have written about sexual and physical abuse a lot, loneliness, mental illness, people who seem to be aware of something more than what exists in this physical realm. I have been told that the kind of images I create can be extremely disgusting. Well.

We had watched Captain Planet in our next door neighbour’s room until one day his colour television set went off right after the show’s signature tune and never came back on. The catechist’s room was always dimly lit; he never opened his windows except for the one that faced our shared bathroom. The day the TV died, he was reading a newspaper with his green torch light. He wore a harrowing frown as he circled words in the newspaper with his black pen. He had forgotten to force us to get on our knees and say the Lord’s Prayer. 

AKWAEKE: How does your role as an editor play into your own writing?

NANA: It’s a terrible jinx. I face my own work with a certain level of ruthlessness that can be paralyzing. An editor’s work really begins when the writer is done with several drafts and is ready to show it to a different pair of eyes. In my case, the editor is always here with the writer, interrupting the flow or just simply being impatient. Maybe, the only upside to this is that, the editor challenges me to do better. I have seen some breathtaking passages that naturally raise the standards for me. I can’t stand graceless, weak writing, particularly when it’s my own. So, when my work is not ready, I sit here and torment myself.

That galling prayer was the sacrifice we made if we wanted to watch his colour television set. We had always begun our prayers with the sign of the cross and he insisted that we thank Jesus for blessing us with the opportunity to watch television in colour. We had run out his room, that Sunday night, all six of us, like stray cats when the television died with a zip sound. 

AKWAEKE: What qualities do you look for in writing that you consider excellent?

NANA: I admire greatly the power of simplicity. When writers convey images, stories, events, feelings in a way that just can’t be overlooked, I pause and bask in it. I can appreciate as well what is presented in a complex manner so far as it works.

Also, because I am first and foremost a poet, I do like concrete words and language that has rhythm. If you make me see, feel, smell, taste the blood and the sunshine, you’ve got me. I do like humour too, a lot actually, particularly when it is used in a situation where humour isn’t usually seen.

We had entered Kwesi’s parents’ living room panting like dogs.  As we struggled for sitting space on the tiny living room floor, we knew we were too dirty to go elsewhere for comfort. We could have run to our bigger living room when the adverts were showing but my mother was most certainly not going to allow any sweaty kid in. 

AKWAEKE: What are you working on at the moment and where can we find your work?

NANA: I am working on a short story collection. I actually finished it a few months ago but I am having a hard time letting it go. It’s terrifying. I will set it free before the year ends, though, so help me writing gods.

You can find my work mostly on my computer, ha ha! Well, I have both poetry and short stories in several anthologies including Lusaka Punk and Other Stories, Rhubarb, A Publication of the Mennonite Literary Society and According to Sources: A Poetry Anthology. I think some of my poetry will appear in the Aké Review this year.

Kwesi’s parents’ had a black and white television set and that night it became clear to us that Captain Planet was to be watched in colour. So, the following Sunday night we bathed and smelled of Saturday Night Powder before 6.30pm, all six of us. Captain Planet was in red, white, yellow and green again but my mother made new rules. We now had to brush our teeth too if we were going to sing aloud in her living room.

On Nana's Bedside Table

I am reading Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi and I am re-reading A Squatter’s Tale by Ike Oguine.

Editor's Note: The text in italics is excerpted from Nana's short story, Small Holes.

Nana Nyarko Boateng is a writer, poet, and editor. Her poetry and fiction has appeared in several publications including: Lusaka Punk and Other Stories, The Caine Prize for African Writing 2015, Reflections: An Anthology of New Work by African Women Poets , Summoning the Rains, and Look where you have gone to sit: An Anthology by New Ghanaian Poets.

Nana has over a decade of experience working in diverse roles in communications as well as literary and media organizations. She has taught creative writing workshops in schools across Ghana and at the University of Lomé. Nana is the founder and CEO of Gird Center: A Writing, Editorial, and Training Services Company based in Accra, which supports writing and writers.

Akwaeke Emezi is an Igbo/Tamil writer and video artist based in liminal spaces. Born in Umuahia and raised in Aba, Nigeria, Akwaeke holds two degrees, including an MPA from New York University. The Miles Morland Foundation recently awarded her a 2015 Morland Writing Scholarship for her second novel The Death of Vivek Oji, currently in progress. Her debut novel, Freshwater, is forthcoming from Grove Atlantic in the winter of 2018. She can be found at http://www.akwaeke.com/. 

Interview by Akwaeke Emezi a.k.a. @azemezi

#WriteTips: Three Writers, Three Perspectives.

Earlier in the year we were lucky enough to interview Yewande Omotoso, Mahtem Shiferraw and Edyth Bulbring - three writers who are equally talented but have quite different styles. They gave some insight into the writing process and self-editing and hopefully some of these gems inspire and challenge you.  

Yewande Omotoso

On Writing

- Give yourself permission.

- For people who “don’t have time to write” carry a notebook everywhere. Sure you might not have chunks of hours available but everyone has a few seconds to take down a sentence or two – this is writing. 

On Editing

- Edit with the question, “Does this belong? If it wasn’t there would they miss it?”

Mahtem Shiferraw 

- Things that really helped me: read your work out loud. A lot. Always. Distance too; learning to distance yourself from the work & give it enough room to breathe.

- Always inquire. What does the work want to be? Measure the work within the parameters of itself, not of others' work. Don’t be afraid to take it apart, and by that I mean: do take it apart. Don’t kill your darlings, but extract them, & place them somewhere else; you never know what they will blossom into.

- Share your work with peers, family, friends, co-workers; it’s always good to hear how your work is reflected in the world.

- Sometimes it’s good to begin things in the middle and work your way around a poem/story.

- And the golden rule: read. Read everything & anything. Reading will not only make you a great writer & editor, but a wonderful human being too.

Edyth Bulbring

1. Cut, cut, cut (Less is more)

2. Don’t be scared of a good adjective or adverb

3. Be very scared of an exclamation mark!

4. Use simple words

5. Avoid long sentences

 

'Sound informs mood which in turn informs rhythm.' An Interview with Peter Kagayi.

Today we shall listen to poetry

While seated comfortably

Yesterday we listened to guns coughing

    - Listening To Poetry

Peter, your poetry collection is the first book to be published by Uganda's new publisher Sooo Many Stories. Reading your collection I was reminded of a line by Lidia Yuknavitch, "Words carry oceans on their small backs." One of your main themes is poetry, in itself. The words, the poems, can be violent. These are not works of passive narration, but poems that want reach out and physically alter the reader. Can you talk to us more about this?

I want to write a poem

Spewing bullets

Into children's heads

So when people hear it

They run and hide.

   -  I Want To Write A Poem

PETER: My poetry in a way references how the history of my people has been memorized, and how I have re-encountered it. Then I re-imagine it, as a poet today. In my country there is a clique of people who refer to themselves as ‘The NRM Historicals’. They are recognized as founders of the rebel group that brought the current ruling regime in Uganda to political power in 1986. Part of that clique is a man who once was a poet before he joined “the liberation struggle”. He is now a retired army general. Still alive, and still a serving minister in the current government, to me he is the ‘I’ in the poem ‘I Want to Write a Poem’. The grim irony of a poet who discharged more bullets than poems hangs over his face every time I see him.

I realize how insignificant one’s life is when it cannot be traced in history. I always ask myself what would happen if our past encountered its future, in the presence of our present. What is memory? Can it be customized, patented? Should it? Who owns our history as a people? Do we belong to the past, or the future? But words are inert; dead things only given life by usage of the user. As a writer that is where I fall in line. What are questions to me, appear to be responses to the reader. But I do not write to alter reality, I only question it. The reader answers the questions their own way.

Strange things whisper in my ears

Voices of karma

Sounds of Sutra

   - "Wamma It's Just a Thought"

There is a persistent stereotype that African literature is shy about writing about sex. Yet your poetry goes there, in the forms of love, abandonment, control of the body (including the female) and violence. How do you view sex and sexuality's role in your poetry?

So Mr Foreign Aid, you relax all day in our tropical atmosphere

With a glass of Chardonnay in your hand,

With two boxes of condoms below your bed

  -  The Modern King Leopold

PETER: I think sex is abundant in African literature! Why do people think it isn’t? Maybe it isn’t written about in a way they would want it to be but sex is alive in African literature.  Where I come from it is written about, and some of the most engaging of metaphorical expressions in everyday life are about sex. My writings are not straying off the toed line. They merely weigh in on an experience we are all familiar with somehow but share perspectives of it which are not normally discussed often. The poem ‘The Modern King Leopold’ talks of sex as a political weapon of mass destruction. The poem ‘Have You Heard the News?’ makes reference to sex as a toll of servitude. In other poems (‘Nothing Happened’) sex is a form of estrangement and loneliness; in others it is the warmth of companionship.

Sexuality, on the other hand, has been the cause of a socio-cultural rife in my society. From the State attempting to sanction how women should dress (‘The Headline That Morning’), to how children believe marriage to be (‘A Family Portrait’) and sexuality, especially of the female kind, has started many debates. However in poems ‘You Hurt My Toe You Idiot’ and ‘If it’s Yours, Touch it’, the female voice responds to the social attitudes men tend to visit women with in my society. As for the poem ‘Woman’, the persona recognizes how ephemeral life has become and calls out to the woman to save humanity.

Yet I love rain; it makes me

Un-run time, and I am a child again.

- "Rain"

In the post My Writing Process you say, "Rain has a strong force on my writings." Your poetry has a distinct rhythm, sound, as you mention in the same blog post, a begging to be read aloud. Does the attraction to rain have something to do with its beat? Or is it more complex than that?

PETER: I once read, I think I was 10, of how a province in Somalia had not received rain for over 15 years. When eventually it rained, children asked their parents what the water from above was. That story made me think of rain differently. Something that casual to me was a miracle to someone else. I remember pitying those children. But even as a child I always loved playing in the rain and although the feeling has stayed with me, I have lost the imagination of infantile fun. As for the rhythmic expressions, the poems about rain I wrote when it was raining. Sound informs mood which in turn informs rhythm. The difference is in my maturity I learnt that rain has a destructive tendency with it, so my adulthood keeps me tucked away from it.

Truth stuck to roof of my mouth

Like peanut butter

-    "Tonight I Dance With The Devil"

It is rare to find poetry collections published by mainstream publishers. Poetry is typically given space by commercial magazines and zines (both paper and online) and independent publishers, most of whom have little to no marketing budget to promote the poets. Where else can people enjoy poetry?

PETER: It is true published poetry is hard to find in our bookshops. But one thing for sure is poetry is abundant but in other forms. Poetry is no longer being just 'read;' it’s also being 'heard' and 'watched' in various performance spaces and now on screen; it's being animated; it's being recorded as well in music studios across the continent... Nowadays searching only for page poetry is self-limiting. As it should be, poetry lives now beyond book collections. One has to find it where it is alive. In my country, page poets are fewer yet the poetry culture is becoming more vibrant in performance poetry spaces. In fact, page poets are turning themselves into performers because people are more eager to watch/listen than read poetry. Thus if one is looking out for poetry, page poetry is less than a third of what is out there. The performances have made it easier to find poetry. One just has to know where to look.

Also, for me poetry does not only exist amongst poets; it can be searched for in music, theatre, open market retailers, visual art, nature, the sound of cities, and in the eyes of everyday people.

Each of us has a story

Untold

That will remain dead

Uknown

   -  Crowd Traffic

Please could you introduce us to some African poets you enjoy for our readers to explore.

PETER: Of the 'African' poets I have read, I wish poets from Africa were first identified by his/her specific nationality. Without proper identification we are denied the opportunity to discuss the glorious diversity of the writing, never mind the rich history of creative writing itself in each society. One normally hears classifications such as French writers, English poets, American poets, Russian poets, Indian poets but it's never the same with writing here. Why? I think poets from Somalia and poets from Nigeria aren't similar in thematic concerns, not even style; nor are poets from Senegal when analogized with poets from Kenya. Each country has its own diverse poetic cultures. South African poetry or Ethiopian poetry or Algerian poetry or Senegalese poetry or Ghanaian poetry; if all were classified as just 'African' imagine all the rich history lost in the classification!

Also in each country are writers writing from home and those writing from the diaspora, and their treatment of themes is different really. How can all this be understood if all is underscored as just as 'African'?

It is upon this background that I ask, instead of sharing 'African' poets,' I tell you of some Ugandan poets I know: Moses Serubiri, Lillian Aujo, Ngabire Emmanuel, Gloria Kiconco, Bob G. Kisiki, Kampiire Bahana, Daniel Nuwamanya, Natozo Karen Wamasali; Daniel Omara, Angwech Faith Kirabo Wacha; Moses 'Mist' Laku (alright he is Kenyan, but he lives in Kampala) Kiggundu Sharon, Nakireza Benard, Surumani Manzi, Jason Ntaro, Xenson, the Kimbugwe sisters, Edwin Ruyonga, Kabubi Herman, Harriet Anena, Balunywa Ibrahim, Rehema Nanfuka, Beverly Namboozo, Nick Makoha, Julian Okot p'Bitek and George the Poet Mpanga.

On Peter's Bedside

I have been reading poetry collections mostly. Remi Raji's A Harvest of Laughters, Dami Ajayi's Clinical Blues, Juliane Okot Bitek's 100 Days, Timothy Wangusa's Africa's New Brood and Rushongoza Begumya's Will the Gun Bark if I'm Kissing its Muzzle?

Peter Kagayi is a Ugandan poet, high school teacher and the founder of Rhymers Poetry Club at Nabisunsa Girls School. He has served as the Anglophone Coordinator at Writivism and President of Lantern Meet of Poets. He is also the founder and curator of the regular poetry platform 'The Poetry Shrine' at the National Theater in Kampala and has supported various groups of young poets. This year his poetry production, 'The Audience Must Say Amen' adapted from his debut poetry collection, The Headline That Morning and Other Poems will feature at the 2016 Kampala International Theatre Festival.

'For me, life is political.' An Interview with Harriet Anena.

Harriet Anena grew up during the LRA's reign of terror. She is a poet, journalist, writer, farmer and survivor.  Tiah caught up with her to discuss her latest volume of poetry, A Nation in Labour. 

 

Tiah: You have a poetry collection out, A Nation in Labour. In an interview you stated that it began as a form of therapy while looking for answers. Now that it is published, can you say that the act of writing was therapeutic and led you to answers? Or did the poems take you to places outside your intentions?

Harriet: Writing the poems was immensely therapeutic, especially the ones under the “Scratching Destiny" section of the book. Here, I explore my experiences as a child who lived through the LRA insurgency in northern Uganda and the post-war period. Today, I still keenly watch how people are piecing back the torn pieces of their lives; but also the post-war challenges such as child-headed homes, land disputes, crime, alcoholism, etc. All these issues feature in my writing.   

Tiah: Hilda Twongyeirwe has been quoted as saying, "Men have been there for too long, let’s have some space.” Is poetry providing the space you need? Or are you finding that your poems are being confined by being interpreted as through a male prisim?

Harriet: I believe that words, whether weaved as poetry or prose, can always find space to survive and thrive; one just needs to find out the how. In Uganda, some of the most incredible poets are women – Rehema Nanfuka, Beverley Nambozo Nsengiyunva, Melissa Kiguwa, Lillian A Aujo, to mention but a few. It is these women and a couple of other writers, who steady my hands as I put pen to paper.

Basing on the feedback I have received following the publication of A Nation In Labour, I’m even more convinced that words can tear down any confines within which they may be caged –whether it being political, gender or economic confines. 

Tiah:  There seems to be a constant debate if politics should be present in poetry (or even ficiton). But as a woman, myself, I struggle to understand how any woman's writing can be non-political. Especially in the unending debates of how women's writing should be classified and interpreted. Or is it possible to divorce politics from the pen?

Harriet: I think it depends on how one defines politics. For me, life is political. There are poems that I tag as ‘political’ in my collection, because they explore issues to do with governance of the country, party politics, defections and electioneering, etc. But when you read the poem I bow for my boobs, for instance, it tells you a story about a woman fed up with her husband’s daily drunkenness and failure to provide for the family. She feels powerless and can’t punch the man back. But when she stands before the mirror naked and looks at her breasts, a thought occurs to her that these could actually be her weapon.  She prays to her breasts to “turn into stones” so she can “pelt her husband” and send him to the grave. One can argue that this is a social or relationship poem, but there is family politics involved, where the man and woman exercise power in their own way, and we clearly see one as the governed (oppressed/frustrated) and the other as the governor (oppressor). 

Tiah: Following that, does 'African poetry' also create a box that hems your writing in?

Harriet: No. I write whatever my hands, heart and mind tells me to. If a reader or a reviewer wants to give it a label of ‘African poetry’ or ‘Acholi poetry’ then that is their business. I write and allow my work to live its life once its published.

Tiah:  Lastly, what question do you wish I'd asked? Please answer it.

Harriet: I wished you’d asked me what else I do outside writing poetry. I know of friends who say they don’t have time to write because they have full-time day jobs which they can’t quit because, well, writing can’t pay bills.

But I have a full-time job and I’m a farmer too, and in between the busyness, I ensure I find a seat at the table of my life for poetry or prose to sit. It’s tough, but doable. 

On Harriet's Bedside Table:

I have been reading The Secrets of the FBI by Ronald Kessler and Crossroads, an anthology of non-fiction by Ugandan women. I also read at least one short story or flash fiction or a poem a day. The internet has made it all so easy to access creative works. 

Harriet Anena is a poet and writer from Gulu, Uganda. She is the author of A Nation In Labour – a collection of social conscience poetry. Her poems have also been published by Prairie Schooner, Lawino Magazine, African Writers Trust, African Sun Press, Babishai Niwe Foundation, The Real G Inc, among others. In 2013, she was shortlisted for the Ghana Poetry Prize.

Anena’s short stories have featured in the Caine Prize anthology 2013, Sooo Many Stories, Bookslive and Writivism, among others. She finds great pleasure in bullying words for poetic pleasure.