Reading 2010: Novuyo Rosa Tshuma (Zimbabwe)

We present one of the most talented young writers from Zimbabwe, Novuyo Rosa Tshuma, an award-winning short fiction writer whose work has appeared in numerous anthologies. She is a student currently pursuing her studies at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. She was the winner of the Intwasa Short Story Competition 2009, and this year she attended numerous writing events and workshops, including the Caine Prize African Writing Workshop 2010 (in Kenya), the Farafina Summer Writing Workshop with writers like Nic Mhlongo, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Binyavanga Wainaina and others. She also attended book launches in South Africa and Botswana,and her short story, "Big Pieces, Little Pieces" appeared in African Roar 2010, which I co-edited with Ivor W. Hartmann.



This reading list says a lot about the quality of the works she read in 2010, but it is the way she talks about her reading that's revealing of the type of writer she is becoming--a powerful prose stylist to watch.


Novuyo Rosa Tshuma's 2010 Reading List

Jelly Dog Days by Erica Emdon
An Elegy For Easterly by Petina Gappah
Harare North by Brian Chikwava
Many Rivers by Christopher Mlalazi
Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Work In Progress and Other Stories Caine Anthology 2009
A Life in Full And Other Stories Caine Anthology 2010
On Black Sisters' Street by Chika Unigwe
The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna
Palace Walk by Naguib Mahfouz
The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
The Boy Next Door By Irene Sabatini
September Sun by Byrony Rheam
Writing Now Weaver Press Collection
The Engineer of Human Souls by Josef Skvorecky
The Purple Violet of Oshaantu by Neshani Andreas
Black Docker Sembene Ousmane

Interview with Novuyo Rosa Tshuma

1.Thank you, Novuyo, for sharing information about your 2010 reading. You read some of the most talked about contemporary books by writers from Africa. Particularly, you read some of the most famous Zimbabwean books published in the last two years. Tell us your experience reading these books, how you liked them, how they influenced your own process as a writer?

The reading of contemporary African literature was a deliberate exercise on my part; my focus this year has been mostly on that delicate term ‘African writing’; I am fascinated by the writing and the writers themselves. It is always interesting to discover the two; I love to google authors whose works I have enjoyed and try and learn as much about them as I can.

I have found the literature to be quite addictive; obviously it has influenced my writing and it is this influence that I was searching for and it has made the reading experience all the more fascinating. I enjoyed most of the books I read, and that is because they were generally a deliberate selection on my list; I hardly buy a book willy-nilly (as books are expensive in South Africa). I usually buy a book that I have read enough about to wet the reading glands, or that has been recommended by somebody with similar reading tastes. I like to sample an excerpt online if it is available, read a review or two, read about the mind behind the work, and then finally go out in search of the book. Sometimes you attend a book launch and stumble upon an absolute gem, such as Erica Emdon’s ‘Jelly Dog Days’, a book with an amazing ability to tear at the emotions, and I think that is because of the way it seems to do so without apparent intention.

Influences influences! Well sometimes as a young writer one’s heart tends to be in a state of flutter, yet to find nesting in a particular writing mould that one can claim as ‘one’s own’. And this mould need not have a definition, it can shift with the demands of different stories and so forth. I have been a couple of writers a couple of times! There are works that you read and they leave you stupefied, you fall in love with different writing styles, and it is not so much the style itself as it is the writer’s excellent execution of it that makes the work breath taking, and thus there are moments of writing infatuation. But, what this reading has done for me is open me up to the different literary writing styles out there, giving me room to experiment and discover who Novuyo the writer is, and that’s what you want at the end of the day as a writer, your reading influences should gravitate you towards yourself, and the only way for them to be able to do that I think is for you to read different authors and get a sense of the scope and depth that is out there (and that means I have yet more reading to do; I shy away from magical realism, for example), and the possibility that this scope and depth are limitless, that really, if you can do it well enough, you can bend words and coax them to do just about anything you may want them to.

2. You also ventured out and read books from other places, some of which I have read many times, titles like The God of Small Things, The Kite Runner, Black Docker, and Palace Walk. How did you like these very popular literary titles?

For me, ‘The God of Small Things’ gravitated and even transcended the literary experience. I think Kiran Desai’s word play in ‘The Inheritance of Loss’ is very similar to Arundhati Roy’s in ‘The God of Small Things’. I was stupefied by the linguistic gymnastics that Arundhati Roy performed in the book, and, more importantly, how she performed them with such confidence and consistency of quality as to make them actually work very well. That is one book I read where the storyline took the back seat and I was just taken by the use of language. She could have been writing about anything, or nothing, and I wouldn’t have cared; so great was her linguistic prowess.

I did not like the character of Ahmad in ‘The Palace Walk’; he is a depiction of chauvinism and his wife Amina a certain type of naivety that borders close to a certain stupidity; but it tells of a certain era in Cairo and the careful, detailed writing was of a quality that made the reading experience very enjoyable. I was surprised by how I was at times able to sympathise with Ahmad whom I generally despise.

Black Docker is such a striking piece of work which delivers in its short 120 pages precise and powerful punches. Storyline carried the heart of the tale here, the stark theme of the damnation of the black man in an ugly era is so poignant and delivered with a directness which makes the story so affecting.

3. While we are on literary titles, did you read with a preference for certain kinds of books over others? Does the genre matter in what you choose to read?

I tend to shy away from magical realism; I find it difficult to read. I have two of Ben Okri’s titles on my shelf and well, I am still staring at them. I love what is sometimes termed as realist fiction. I love tales with political infusion, direct or implied. And in politically volatile societies everything becomes political; you find that even without intention political satire manifests itself in simple human routines.


4. You attended several workshops last year, and in your reports about them, you mentioned that you would always end up acquiring new books by fellow writers. How important is it for contemporary authors to read other contemporary authors?

Well, it’s good to read fellow writers if only to enrich your own reading experience both as a reader and a writer. You meet interesting people and you become interested in their writing, or you meet people whose works you have read about and you get the opportunity to acquire these works. However I do not believe in reading other authors just to ‘support the writer’. My primary interest is in the work; it must be demand to be read, the writing must work for itself to garner my genuine interest as a reader. Reading needs to be an enjoyable experience. I never remember bad books, except how bad they were, and at that I never finish a bad book; too much beautiful literature out there.

5. Which books do you prefer reading most, the contemporary or the classics?

I am a sucker for contemporary works.

6. What at are your reading plans for 2011?

Diversify diversify! I would like to dilute my African literature with more literature from other parts of the world. I have joined the Dambudzo Marechera craze-wagon. I am looking for his works (not easily accessible here in South Africa) and I would like to go through them in the coming year. I have read a few excerpts and the man’s mind is as fascinating as they say. He promises not to disappoint.

7. What else would you like to share about your 2010 reading process. Could you, for instance, talk about some of the titles you read?

Memorable titles, besides the ones I talked about above, are Aminatta Forna’s ‘The Memory of Love’. Clear, crisp and patient writing. Her characters garner the strength of their characterisation from her strong description of their surroundings, or rather how they interact with their environment. It is a book that demands great interaction from the reader. A particular story I enjoyed from ‘Work in Progress and Other Stories’ Caine Anthology 2009 was ‘You Wreck Her’ by Parselelo Kantai; the writing is vigorous, not so vigorous as to be violent but just, vigorous. A memorable line: ‘You learn how to move your waist and your inner-thigh muscles while holding your shoulders completely still, your face communicating that you are appalled at what your buttocks are doing’. Anybody who has seen those Rumba dancers will tell you that here, the writer captured them with an accuracy and vividness that delights and surprises. From Petina Gappah’s ‘An Elegy For Easterly’ I ejoyed the short story ‘The Mupandawana Dancing Champion’; humour, politics and some good old vigorous dancing come together for a memorable read.



My reading process follows no particular pattern; if a book is mildly interesting I will read it alongside one or two other works; if it captures my reading soul I take it wherever I go and read it every chance I get; if it is unpalatable I will not finish it (torture, to read a work that does not stimulate but dulls the reading spirit!). I may read a book carefully, and later read memorable passages over and over again, but I do not reread books. I try not to mix my writing with my reading; I can interchange my writing with my reading but prefer not do both as the same time, as immersion in a book disengages me from my writing.