Writers Consider the Love of Writing at the Close of Time of the Writer 2012

by Sharlene on Mar 26th, 2012

The closing night of the 15th Time of the Writer Festival was played in by husband and wife guitar duo, Rick and Gill Andrew. Andrew had launched his brand new book, Guitar Road, at the Wellington Tavern, an hour previously.

South African writer Zukiswa Wanner facilitated the first session, a conversation between Cynthia Jele, author of Happiness is a Four-Letter Word, and Kgebetli Moele, author of Room 207 and The Book of the Dead. Although the theme for the discussion was “Inner City Stories”, the writers adeptly tackled a range of subjects.

Wanner began by asking Jele if she is as forgiving as her protagonists, to which Jele replied that she is not, and that her characters’ empathy is plot-driven. Similarly, Moele denied that the protagonist of Room 207 is based on him. When asked if he believed that writers should write full-time, Moele responded that he became known as “the hobo with the manuscript” in his community as writers are not regarded as “normal”. Jele revealed that she recently quit her 9-to-5 job, not so that she can write full-time, but to start a business as a management consultant. However, she does find that her new occupation affords her more time to write.

The conversation became impassioned when Wanner asked Moele and Jele what they thought authors should be doing to encourage South Africans to read. Jele summed it up neatly when she said that authors must “write for ourselves. The financial gains are secondary. We must get people interested in reading”. One of the session’s most interesting questions came from a woman in the audience who asked about the pirating of books, and whether the authors thought this would be a way of reaching more people. She won a set of Moele and Jele’s books as a spot prize.

After a brief interval, the crowd gathered again for a session on Reggae writing. Nigeria’s Chris Abani facilitated a stimulating discussion between Jamaican authors Kwame Dawes and Colin Channer. When asked about the aesthetics of Reggae, Channer spoke about the symbolism of the Rasta, who is “small but has the power to resist”. Dawes added that Rastas have constructed a positive bridge to Africa.

Channer continued, saying that Reggae has “freed us up” to write the Jamaican voice authentically, with nuance. He said that the development of Reggae created a narrative model which incorporated erotic, tragic and philosophical aspects, without conflict. Abani asked Dawes how he felt about Reggae as poetic form, to which Dawes answered that Reggae is his “drum and bass”; it is both foundational and transformative.

It then emerged that Dawes and Channer both taught Abani at a series of “Afro-style” writing workshops in London, something which explained the warmth with which the trio communicated.

Dawes advised an aspirant writer in the audience to “treat your books as you would treat a child – giving it the best shot in life, forgetting yourself”. Channer said that, for him, writing a book “is about love, if you love it you will stay with it through good and bad”. Channer surprised his audience by claiming that the writing and revision advice came from his dentist, who described how he was going to file Channer’s tooth down to the gum before building it up again.

Channer concluded the session with a second quote, this time from Nobel Laureate VS Naipaul, who famously declared that “you write a novel one good sentence at time”.

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Tweets from the closing night:

#TimeoftheWriter #zukiswawanner “I have been to many festivals in the world and this is the best one” @lebomashile @karabokgoleng

— Time of the Writer (@TimeoftheWriter) March 24, 2012

#TimeoftheWriter #kgebetlimoele “As a writer you are not normal -I became known as a hobo with a manuscript in my community” @JeleCynthia

— Time of the Writer (@TimeoftheWriter) March 24, 2012

@kwamedawes in discussion about reggae – asks what’s the opposite of hyperbole #colinchanner answers “low-perbole” #TimeoftheWriter

— Time of the Writer (@TimeoftheWriter) March 24, 2012

#colinchanner Best lesson on revision came frm dentist “I’m going to file your tooth down&then build it up again.” #TimeoftheWriter @BOOKSA

— Time of the Writer (@TimeoftheWriter) March 24, 2012