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Beaven Tapureta Bookshelf
Writer Virginia Phiri on Saturday July 11, 2015, steered a writer’s workshop for this year’s edition of Short Story Day Africa Prize which has ‘Water’ as its theme. Sadly, the workshop ran as the Zimbabwe writing community is still grief-stricken at the death of poet Freedom T. V. Nyamubaya.
And only God knew that the next day after the workshop (July 12), the day would not end for writers before they heard saddening news again on the death of renowned poet and novelist Chenjerai Hove.
The short story writing workshop was held at the Alliance Francaise in Harare and its 12 participants were drawn from local writers’ associations, namely Zimbabwe Women Writers (Harare Branch) which also co-ordinated the workshop, Writers International Network Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe Writers Association. Participants were a mixed bag of unpublished and newly published writers.
Before the start of the workshop, a minute of silence was held as a mark of respect for the late poet Freedom Nyamubaya, who died at Chinhoyi Provincial Hospital on July 5. Nyamubaya published and performed her poetry. Her main works are poetry anthologies “On the Road Again” (1985, ZPH), “Dusk of Dawn” (1995, College Press) and she also featured in short story anthologies such as “Writing Still” (2003, Weaver Press). Nyamubaya was also a passionate farmer, development worker and peace activist.
Afterwards, the workshop gradually gained steam. It was the award-winning author Ursula K. Le Guin, who once said that collaborative workshops and writers’ peer groups had not been invented when she was young and she observed that the workshop is worth any writer’s time and commitment as a springboard for growth. “They (workshops) are a wonderful invention,” she said. Even the elderly Zimbabwean writers who had no such resources as the workshop (and internet) when they were beginning to write, value the workshop as a good place for fresh writers to learn new writing skills.
The design of the Short Story Day Africa workshop did well to trigger stimulating discussions and encouraging criticism. Its objective was not merely to prepare writers for the prize but to equip them with some skills for future use in their careers. With Virginia Phiri, the workshop was “short and practical”; it lasted for four hours only.
Speaking soon after the workshop, Phiri, who is author of three novels, said she had been touched by the enthusiasm which participants exuded and also thanked Short Story Day Africa for having confidence in herself and teammate Batsirai Chigama, a performance poet and writer who chairs the Harare Branch of Zimbabwe Women Writers.
“The response to the workshop in such a short space of time has been overwhelming. We will take the workshops and the theme of water further because it has opened our minds,” said Phiri.
During her interaction with participants, she spoke about certain simple habits that get new writers into problems with their craft. One such habit is attempting to write and edit one’s story at the same time.
She helped participants to understand the guidelines of the Prize so that they do not get disappointed by a silly mistake which could be avoided.
Part of the workshop roadmap was to share possible themes that can be gleaned from the main theme of “water”. It was worthwhile to note the imaginative power of participants as they used their localities to explore and develop unusual story angles from which to write about water.
Another element of short story writing which was discussed is “the opening of a story”. Phiri said that a common blunder that many budding writers make is actually ignoring the writing tip that the story’s beginning acts as the bait or the hook that gets the reader to continue reading.
As participants read out the opening sentences/paragraphs of their draft stories, one could easily observe the participants’ different approaches to short story writing which Zimbabwe is yet to see should new writers get more of these training workshops to sharpen their skills.
Understanding genre, characterisation and editing steps were also discussed in the workshop and the participants actually took home for further study some printed guidelines on various parts of short story writing.
The Short Story Day Africa Prize is calling for stories on the theme of Water and is running until July 31 with a first prize of R10 000, second prize R2 000 and third prize R1 000. The Prize says that “winners will also win an online creative writing course” and that “any African citizen or person part of the African Diaspora, as well as persons residing permanently (granted permanent residence or similar) in any African country, may enter”.
Short Story Day Africa is based in South Africa. The organisation “has established a day, June 21 – the shortest day of the year – on which to celebrate the diversity of Africa’s voices” and it networks with “writers, readers, booksellers, publishers, teachers and schoolchildren from all over the globe to write, submit, read, workshop and discuss stories – and foster the love of reading and writing African fiction”.
Although the workshop, dubbed “Writer Flow Workshop”, got participants up in high spirits, some dark shadow was rocking in the background of the writers’ community. It would reveal itself soon as somewhere in Norway, exiled and award-winning Zimbabwean writer Chenjerai Hove was battling with a liver ailment. On Sunday July 12, Hove died.
A sad loss coming a week after another loss, leaving us to wonder “Oh why, Oh Lord” – that it has so happened that we have been deprived of two dear writers at such close intervals.
Chenjerai Hove, according to his contemporaries and admirers in the book industries, was one of the established writers who made the Zimbabwe International Book Fair shine in its early years. His novels and poetry is known among students in Zimbabwe and across the world as he travelled on a mission to showcase what he was made of – literary genius.
His well-known poetry and fiction publications include “And Now the Poets Speak”, a poetry anthology he co-edited, “Up In Arms” (poetry), “Red Hills of Home” (poetry), “Bones” (novel), “Shadows” (novel), “Rainbows in the Dust” (poetry), “Ancestors” (novel), and “Blind Moon” (poetry). Among other awards, he won the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa for his novel “Bones” in 1989. Hove was offered writer-in-residence positions and lectured at various universities abroad.
Born in Zvishavane on February 9, 1956, he went to Kutama College and Marist Brothers Dete and, later, earned degrees from the University of Zimbabwe and University of South Africa.
The poet, in his own words, said:
One day
When I shall die
Only spare
A secret tear for me
In a secret place
Without a shadow
– C. Hove in “Blind Moon”, 2003
Online Reporter