Tiah Beautement's Blog, page 96
June 20, 2013
June 19, 2013
On sleeping
I find out a lot about myself by sleeping. Dreams, they are who I am when I'm too tired to be me. —Jarod Kintz, This Book is Not for Sale
June 18, 2013
On Cloudstreet
Tim Winton, Cloudstreet - Thank you, Lady Luck, you rotten slut. It was probably time now to pack a bag and buy a ticket, but hell, there was the kids and everything. - - The pig snuffles, lets off a few syllables: aka sembon itwa. It's tongues, that's what it is. A blasted Pentecostal pig. - - Climbing the stairs, Dolly had the old question come back. Bad mother, or no mother at all? Christalmighty, she should know the answer to that one by now. - - The house sighs in the night but no one lets themselves listen. Except...
June 17, 2013
An interview
This post originally appeared on BooksLive on 16 June. An interview conducted by elves In honour of Youth Day the elves caught SSDA’s YA/ kids coordinator Tiah Beautement in between workshops, packing, Father’s Day and other SSDA madness to ask her 21 questions. 1. How did you end up working for Short Story Day Africa? I am the wrong person to ask. Rachel Zadok and Colleen Higgs sent me an email. I told them they didn’t want a person like me. (Long story.) Anyway, they refused to listen to my excuses and insisted I was hired. The pay is zilch,...
June 14, 2013
On Short Story Day Africa in the news
Short Story Day Africa has gone global and getting noticed. AFRICA IN WORDS: Now in its third year, Short Story Day Africa sets aside the shortest day (or night) of the year – this year it’s June 21 – to celebrate African short story writing: the wider initiative brings writers and readers (established and not so), booksellers, publishers, teachers, and school children together, creating a range of platforms for the many voices that might tell these stories, to encourage and get them out into the world. And Short Story Day Africa are clear about their aim to widen access to...
June 13, 2013
On black & white
Black stories are best told by black writers — this needs to be said. Whites already dominate nearly every aspect of South African cultural life, so for them to be putting words into the mouths of black characters seems like an act of arrogance. And As Zukiswa Wanner, one of South Africa’s most prominent young black writers, has said, “No-one should tell a writer when to write, what to write, how to write, where to write or indeed, who to write. It only ever becomes a problem if your character does not sound genuine to people of his/her demography, which...
June 12, 2013
On writing
Writing is like sex. First you do it for love, then you do it for your friends, and then you do it for money. ― Virginia Woolf
June 11, 2013
On Editing
This post originally appeared on BooksLive on 11 June 2013 On Editing I watch people’s eyes widen with disbelief, ‘You’re going to teach the kids what?’ Editing. Rewriting. Doing it all over again. ‘Even the seven year olds?’ Especially the seven year olds. I wasn’t introduced to the true concept of rewriting until I was in high school. Even then, it was presented more as a method to catch spelling and grammatical mistakes. To this day, I do not understand why this skill isn’t given greater emphasis. In maths one of the first things I was taught, after the basic...
June 10, 2013
On why
The truth is, I write for more self-serving reasons - that is, I write for myself. I write because I enjoy stories and make-believe. I write because if I didn't, I'd probably go crazy. Thus I write about questions that disturb me, images that mystify me, or memories that cause me anguish and pain. I write about secrets, lies, and contradictions, because within them are many kinds of truth. In other words, I write stories about life as I have misunderstood it. - Amy Tan, The Opposite of Fate
June 9, 2013
On language
By speaking our languages we are doing more than stringing words together; we also learn about the underlying culture and influences. Honorific speech systems that exist in many Bantu languages are reflective of social structure, traditions and respect accorded to elders. These are intrinsic and complementary elements of culture and language. Furthermore, each language carries with it the history of the people who speak it and the areas it is spoken in. - Bwalya Chileya, How Language Connects Us
