Picture of Werner Labuschagne: provided
Short.Sharp.Stories is a platform showcasing established and emerging South African short story writers. For the 2025 anthology, Power: Short stories that light the dark, writers imagined “power” in fictional terms – how it influences and affects us, including political and personal power, and the ever-present issues of loadshedding.
In this Short.Sharp.Stories interview, Bongani Kona chats with Werner Labuschagne, author of the short story "The Killer", in which Marietjie, a mixed martial arts expert, takes her body to the limits.
Werner Labuschagne’s work has appeared in the previous Short.Sharp.Stories anthology, One Life (Tattoo Press, 2024), as well in In Other Stories (Karavan Press, 2024). He holds an MA in English, from the University of Johannesburg, having researched The Affective Turn in Post-Postmodern Literature. Werner is a lecturer. He spends most of his time marking university scripts from which writing offers a sweet, sweet reprieve. He is also a contributor to Woman & Home and Getaway Magazine. He lives in Joburg with his partner where they’re raising their two cats, Edgar and Zora.
You’ve had work published in One Life, the 2024 Short.Sharp.Stories anthology, and In Other Stories, a collection of flash fiction edited by Kerry Hammerton. And I wonder if I may begin by asking you to talk more broadly about your relationship with short stories, and how it began? Can you remember the first short story that rocked your world.
The first short story that converted me would have been one by Herman Charles Bosman, back in high school. What immediately struck me was his voice, the way he was able to capture "Afrikaans in English". Then you also had his unique, localised humour, and those plot twists that made his stories resonate long after you’ve read them. They were stories that respected your time.
Our English teacher, Ms Steele, loved Bosman and did plenty of them with us. One that I remember most vividly from that time would be "A Bekkersdal Marathon", in which a church’s congregation is stuck singing a very long hymn, whilst getting drunk on communion wine.
Aside from Bosman, who are some of your favourite short story writers? Please could you also share with us why you’re drawn to them? I suppose this is a roundabout way of trying to understand what you prize in short stories.
I can go on and on about George Saunders, who introduced me to the contemporary short story. In the opening story, "Victory Lap" to his collection, Tenth of December, there’s this bit of dizzying characterisation that took me aback. The immediacy with which he was able to capture a character, get in her mind, excited me. It’s playful yet precise, selecting words in a way that makes the most impact in the shortest amount of time. But I also love Saunders for his humanistic satire. A satire that says, "if you think she’s ridiculous, wait until we have a look at you". He calls fiction "empathy training wheels", and I love short stories for its breadth of perspectives and alterity, that it can level us all.
But a collection that I’ve been obsessed with more recently has been Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte, that came out just last year. It’s a dangerous book, a naked look at the rejects of society. But when you take in the collection as a whole, it too paints the short story as an empathetic project. It’s stunning that a single author is capable of exploring the insecurities, the pain, and emotional volatility of such a diverse cast of characters.
Your story, "The Killer", follows a mixed martial arts fighter as she prepares for a title fight, and was highly recommended by the judges of this year’s Short.Sharp.Stories competition. What was the inspiration behind the story?
My fascination with this story began with the idea of a weight cut for a fight. A relinquishing of the body’s power, right before putting the body’s power to the test. There’s an inherent conflict in that. That was the inspiration of the story and its exploration of "Power".
In any story, I think, power is a multi-faceted theme. There exists a power-imbalance, in ‘The Killer’, in the way our South African fighter is treated by the American champion. Marietjie, our protagonist, is made to drastically cut weight, having to make herself smaller, weaker, before she can fight. But also, Marietjie is weighed down by her past, haunted by grief and trauma. Despite her hunger and talent, the odds are skewed against her. The question becomes, is there a deeper source from which she can draw power, to restore balance?
May I ask to you about your approach to writing stories?
It’s a long, inconsistent process. If I dedicate myself to a piece, I try to work a little bit on it every day, but of course some days are easier than others. Ideally, I’d want to get out a first draft as soon as possible, then heighten immersion through research, then cut-cut away, sharpen. But it never ever goes that smoothly.
You bring us into this world of fighters and trainers with such familiarity and ease, and I did wonder how much research, if any, you had done for the story?
I’m delighted to get this feedback, as her reality is very far from my own, which, again, is what I love about short stories. I try not to get into any fights in my day-to-day life. But I do get stuck into rabbit holes, burrowing for more and more "useless information".
The research is almost ambient at the start, as I dedicate off-time towards learning about the subject. In this case, that’s reading fighters’ biographies, watching a lot of fights, and listening to commentators in the sport. Then when the draft has come along, I hit snags in the road where my knowledge is simply not sufficient. The research then becomes more intensive, but knowing what the story needs, I know what to look for to create the necessary immersion.
Marietjie has a tumultuous family history and has had to fight all kinds of battles, both inside and outside the ring. Please may I ask you to talk to us about the relationship between Marietjie and her late mother, and what inspired it.
Yes, it’s an interesting question because it wasn’t mapped out from the start. The inspiration of the story was a strenuous weight cut in preparing for a fight. I knew this would cause restlessness and shallow sleep, which I associated with nightmares. That was an entry point for me, but when I wrote this first nightmare, suddenly Maretjie’s mother appeared and kicked her in the head.
I assumed, at that point, that her mother objected to her being a fighter. I had to discover her grief and trauma as I went along, capturing her dreams as they appeared. But it’s cool because it made the big, title fight take the backseat. The real driving conflict of this story became much more intimate.
.......
I had to discover her grief and trauma as I went along, capturing her dreams as they appeared. But it’s cool because it made the big, title fight take the backseat. The real driving conflict of this story became much more intimate.
...........
When the song, "Angs Aanval" plays in the story, there’s a real intensity to it. Even though we don't have much time left, may I ask you to talk to us about the band Fokofpolisiekar and Marietjie’s relationship with it.
Yes, I guess this is a point of personal import for me. I love Fokofpolisiekar. This song is our protagonist’s entrance music. The title, "Angs Aanval", translates to panic attack. You get this rapid strum from the electric guitar, and the flam on the snare, right before the vocalist jumps in to screech the question "hoe lank, hoe lank voor ons hier kan wegkom?". How long before we can get out of here?
It’s a song that invades your nervous system and activates your fight or flight instincts. Marietjie is facing a losing battle, but the only way out is through. To me, Fokofpolisiekar is brilliant, and I’d say this is their loudest song. That’s what speaks to Marietjie, it resonates with the tenor of her tension, while drowning out her own thoughts with hardcore noise and aggression.
What would you like readers to take away from this story?
This is a tough one for me. I don’t view this story as didactic or moralistic. Not that I think short stories can’t or shouldn’t be that. But I’d say this story was captured by me, rather than told by me, if that’s not too pretentious. Maybe, if I took a shot at it, I’d say "find out what you’re fighting for".
Thank you so much for your time, Werner, and for writing this incredible story. As we wrap up, may I ask you what you’re currently working on?
Thank you for this opportunity. I’m plodding along with more short stories and organising them into a collection. I’m also working on extending one of my stories into a novel, so wish me luck.
BONGANI KONA is a writer, PhD candidate and lecturer in the Department of Historical Studies at the University of the Western Cape. His work has appeared in a variety of places including The Interpreters: South Africa’s New Nonfiction, Chimurenga, New York Times, The Baffler and BBC Radio 4. Most recently, he edited Our Ghosts were Once People: Stories on Death and Dying.
POWER is available at good book stores, or directly from TATTOO PRESS: joanne.hichens@gmail.com
TATTOO PRESS is an independent small publisher, specializing in contemporary South African short fiction.
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