Picture of Vuyokazi Ngemntu: provided
Short.Sharp.Stories is a platform showcasing top and emerging South African fiction writers. The theme of this year’s anthology is Fluid – freedom to be. Fluid, this year’s Short.Sharp.Stories anthology, seeks to engage fictional expression around identity, culture and society.
Karina Magdalena Szczurek conducts interviews with the respective short story writers.
Below is a mini-interview between Karina Magdalena Szczurek and Vuyokazi Ngemntu, author of the short story “Mirror, Mirror”, featured in the 2023 Short.Sharp.Stories anthology, Fluid.
KMS: Your work is being recognised across different genres. What do you think is the value of such competitions as Short.Sharp.Stories?
VN: The obvious appeal of writing contests lies in the opportunity to have your work published. This is especially true of such well-known anthology publications as Short.Sharp.Stories, whose impressive history ensures a wide, global readership. This also ensures that the works of lesser known writers like me get admitted into the literary canon. I can’t stress enough the importance of bridging access in this manner. Some of my favourite writers are writers whose works I came across while browsing a short story anthology whose lengthier works I’ve since been inspired to purchase! There’s also the rare opportunity of receiving professional feedback during the intensive editorial process. I’ve grown immensely from this, as someone with no formal training as a writer.
KMS: What attracts you to the short story?
VN: The ability to condense meaning. Whereas a novel allows you the liberty to invest in backstory and explore character binaries, extended timeliness and sometimes multiple viewpoints to get your point across, the short story requires a certain economy with words that allows for a more visceral impact.
.....
A novel allows you the liberty to invest in backstory and explore character binaries, extended timeliness and sometimes multiple viewpoints to get your point across, whereas the short story requires a certain economy with words that allows for a more visceral impact.
.....
KMS: What role does fictional representation play in challenging societal norms?
VN: The ability to see ourselves in our myths allows us to be critical of ourselves and the world as we know it. This encourages us to envision a better world, in which we too are better versions of ourselves in our interactions with one another. At the root of it all are empathy and transference.
KMS: Your main character, Mandla, does everything she can to be a good role model to young Nontle. Who are the role models who inspire you in real life?
VN: As cliché as it sounds, my mother continues to anchor me and show up for me in ways that make it possible for me to keep believing in my dreams. It’s been humbling to watch our relationship evolve from my rebellious teen years to now, when I’m a mother and understand the challenges and sacrifices that come with this role. I’ve been inspired by so many women in my life. For instance, if Malika Ndlovu got 10 cents each time my exasperated younger self reached out to seek advice, she’d have a small fortune! The generosity of spirit I’ve experienced from older womxn writers made me trust my voice more. Khadija Tracey Heeger reminds me to remain rooted in truth and trust in divine timing. Octavia Butler helps me craft new imaginaries and dare to dream of alternative realities. Nnedi Okorafor, NK Jemisin, Jamaica Kincaid, Tomi Adeyemi, Akwaeke Emezi, Tlotlo Tsamaase, Cheryl S Ntumi, Helen Oyeyemi, Yaa Gyasi, Rosanna Amaka: These are the black womxn whose writing invigorates my spirit! Lastly, knowing that Toni Morrison made her debut at 39 really fuelled my sense of hope as someone who – at 40 – is yet to publish a debut novel!
KMS: “Mirror, Mirror” is about our conflicted concepts of beauty. How would you define beauty?
VN: It’s a silent knowing, isn’t it? A quality that, though detectable to the external gaze, stems from somewhere deeper. A sense of enchantment with the universe that lives within us. Beauty thrives when we embrace ourselves in our entirety, unfettered by aesthetic value and social standards of desirability but content with our uniqueness.
KMS: You recently facilitated an open book workshop where you explored ways of using our intangible heritages to create authentic fictional worlds. Can you tell us more about the way your praxis works with storytelling?
VN: Yes, and we had a wonderful time, sharing and unpacking the stories life has gifted us! I’m obsessed with excavating myths from the communal well. Very seldom do I feel like I’ve created something unique when I write a story.
.....
Very seldom do I feel like I’ve created something unique when I write a story. Instead, my process feels something akin to a deep listening. The stories are in our childhood memories, our ancestral lore, our dreamscapes, our songs, in public transport, in the faces of the strangers we meet at public clinics, in the scents we pick up at the taxi rank and every other space we inhabit.
.....
Instead, my process feels something akin to a deep listening. The stories are in our childhood memories, our ancestral lore, our dreamscapes, our songs, in public transport, in the faces of the strangers we meet at public clinics, in the scents we pick up at the taxi rank and every other space we inhabit.
Acknowledging this, I begin to interrogate and make sense of the world. The workshop was particularly concerned with affirming the validity of our lived experiences and our belief systems as people of African descent, in the speculative fiction and African futurism spaces.
KMS: How did storytelling enter your life?
VN: It took me forever to acknowledge that it was always there. In a conventional black family setting, the grandmother passes on moral values and information related to one’s identity and culture. Having grown up without grandparents on either side, I missed out on this. My mom has always weaved stories seamlessly into conversation. Songs too. My father was more intentional with encouraging me to read. He had a bookshelf filled with Xhosa novels, and back copies from his Reader’s Digest subscription. By age 13, I’d read everything in the house, so he had to get me a library membership and buy me my first book!
KMS: What are you currently working on?
VN: My short story collection has been saturating for a while now and I’m nearly ready to find it a home. [Winks] As for the debut novel, I’ll let on it is at 4 000 words (it’s only been two years!) while I write more short fiction, take on enormous ghostwriting projects and do everything but finish it. Jokes aside, it’s taken me forever to define my voice and produce something that definitively says, “Hi, this is who I am!” That and the whole raising five kids thing. I’m finally ready, though.
Also read:
Short.Sharp.Stories anthology Fluid: interview with Alex Latimer, author of "YOLO"
Short.Sharp.Stories anthology Fluid: interview with Kingsley Khobotlo, author of "Against the grain"