Witsies with the writing edge: June 2023
- Wits Alumni Relations
Catch up on recent publications by alumni.
Little Secrets
by Gail Schimmel
Pan Macmillan South Africa, 2023
Johannesburg-based Gail Schimmel (BA 1995, LLB 1997) is the CEO of South Africa’s Advertising Regulatory Board. Her first book was a children’s book Claude & Millie (2007) and she later went on to produce eight further novels: Marriage Vows (Kwela 2008), Whatever Happened to the Cowley Twins? (Kwela 2013), The Park (Pan Macmillan 2017), The Accident (Pan Macmillan 2019), Two Months (Pan Macmillan 2020), Never Tell a Lie (Pan Macmillan 2021) and Chasing Marian (Pan Macmillan, 2022). The plot of her most recent novel circles around a seemingly happily married couple Ben and Monique Klein. Their lives are turned upside when “Ben meets Daisy. And Rosie meets Margie.”
When asked how she manages to juggle two careers, SchimmeI said: “I feel very lucky. In my day job, I use language for logic and to achieve some good things; and in my writing, I use language to make up worlds and have fun. Language and thinking are common themes, but they are very different at the same time.
“Writing is important to me because I love to entertain people and I almost need to write. But my day job is stimulating and, I achieve really important things.”
The Weight of the Shade
by Michael Boyd
Karavan Press, 2023
Michael Boyd (PGCE 2014, MA 2021) is an English teacher at St John’s College, who grew up between Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa – before moving to the UK to study film, literature and art at the University of Kent.
The Weight of the Shade is his debut novel, which is described as a “haunting gothic tale that explores the bearing of the past on our lives and whether we can ever escape the circumstances thrust on us.”
In an interview at the book’s launch Boyd explained the title: “The paradox of weight having shade is that it refers to the fact that we all carry a burden that other people can’t see. Like being under a shadow, a burden is seemingly weightless to the outside world, but affects us nonetheless.”
In April this year his short story Mama Blue was shortlisted for the 2023 Commonwealth Short Story Prize.
W is for Witness
by Karen Lazar
Quartz Press, 2023
Dr Karen Lazar (BA 1983, BA Hons 1984, MA 1988, PhD 1996) is a part-time lecturer in the School of Education at Wits. Her doctoral research was based on Nadine Gordimer and she spent many hours interviewing the late Nobel laureate. In 2001 she suffered a post-operative stroke that left one side of her body paralysed. She published a memoir Hemispheres: Inside a Stroke (Modjaji, 2011) as well as a book of poetry Echoes (Quartz Press, 2021) about her experience.
In her latest novel W is for Witness (Quartz Press 2023) she challenges the reader once more with innovative perspectives. Set in the heart of Johannesburg suburb Linden, a hadeda is the predominant witness and perfect narrator: beady-eyed and garrulous. The novel is described as satirical and quirky: “a mischievous hybrid of intertext, cyberstalker, contemporary social critique and a touch of Wordle”, by the publisher.
Professor Michael Titlestad (BA 1986, PDipEd 1986, PhD 2003) gave the novel high praise: “I read this wonderful contemporary satire with increasing glee. The writing is witty, the literary playfulness deft, the exhortation to look and listen, constant. The narrative team’s depiction is infectiously exuberant, whilst the failures of the inhabitants of the neighbourhood in which the story and its keyword unfold, are painfully familiar. This unique tale makes possible a spirited but sceptical she who is tired of Linden is tired of life.”
When Three Sevens Clash
by Percy Zvomuya
Mbonga editions, 2022
This collection of non-fiction essays, photography, and comic art, draws on contributions from several generations of artists, to celebrate the 77th birthday of exiled Zimbabwean musician, Thomas Mukanya Mapfumo. Mapfumo was a leading singer of chimurenga music, the music of the struggle and championed Zimbabwe’s war for independence.
“The title of this magazine comes from Joseph “Culture” classic Hill’s 1977 album Two Sevens Clash…That title was selected in the spirit of continuing to make the connections between Africans at home and those abroad that Mapfumo himself had first started making in the 1980s. But there was something personal in the clanging class of sevens: Thomas Mapfumo, who was born in 1945, turned 77 in July, the seventh month of the year: three sevens clash,” editor Percy Zvomuya (BA Hons 2005) writes in the introduction. Zvomuya is a respected writer and critic who has contributed to numerous publications such as New Frame, Chimurenga, Mail & Guardian and The London Review of Books.
The format of the volume gives the nod to former literary and cultural magazines such as Staffrider and Chimurenga and received a glowing review from veteran writer and jazz critic Gwen Ansell: “Beyond the power of the contributions to make us think, though, Three Sevens also looks good and reads well…And the writing is gorgeous.”
Meditation for Business: A step-by-step guide for leaders and the people they lead
By Hansika Metha
Quickfox Publishing, 2023
Hansika Metha (BSc 1996, BSc Hons 1999, MBA 2017) is an executive in a high-functioning multimedia company. She says: “I suffered typical challenges of a stressful work environment: like managing expectations of stakeholders, delivering against tough deadlines, finding innovative ways to solve difficult problems. So, I started and along this journey I learned how meditation could help me enhance my performance in all these other areas.”
Through this book, she shares results of her own study and practice of meditation. She offers examples of top global CEOs who meditate and includes research to back the benefits. The book also provides simple, step-by-step guidelines for more than 60 different techniques – from easy to advanced – that you can practise and enjoy. Whether you have just five minutes to spare, or 50 – choose an exercise that fits any schedule and desired outcome.