S07 E09 Zakes Mda
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Zakes Mda is one of South Africa's best known and most awarded writers. He is a novelist, playwright, short story writer, and painter. A Professor Emeritus of English at Ohio University, Zakes now lives and works in Johannesburg.
He joins Fiona Snyckers and Gail Schimmel to talk about how his earliest inspirations were Casper the Friendly Ghost and Xhosa mythology.
He explains why he often uses the first person plural as a narrative voice and why he is currently digging into the archives of Durban's iconic rickshaws.
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He joins Fiona Snyckers and Gail Schimmel to talk about how his earliest inspirations were Casper the Friendly Ghost and Xhosa mythology.
He explains why he often uses the first person plural as a narrative voice and why he is currently digging into the archives of Durban's iconic rickshaws.
For more details about the books, movies, series, and podcasts that are discussed on the show, sign up here for our weekly newsletter:
https://mailchi.mp/icon/the-hidden-lives-of-writers-newsletter-signup
Ask your writing-related questions here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc8i1_vFmUwsd7E_nvPgQOtqEscvZIircT0imdHm_qYJK5eXA/viewform
Fiona and Gail would love to hear from you. Please join the conversation here:
Email: hiddenlivesofwriters@gmail.com
Instagram: @thehiddenlivesofwriterspod
Twitter: @hiddenwriterpod
YouTube: The Hidden Lives of Writers
Threads: @thehiddenlivesofwriters
Facebook discussion group: The Hidden Lives of Writers
Chapters
- 00:00 Introduction and Writing Week Updates
- 03:35 The Moth Live in Johannesburg
- 05:57 Watching Bugonia: Horror as High Cinema
- 07:02 Introducing Zakes Mda
- 09:46 Painting as Creative Reset
- 11:32 The Notebook and Early Writing Process
- 13:41 Plotter or Pantser?
- 16:03 Oral Tradition and Comic Books: Early Influences
- 21:07 A.C. Jordan, First Publications, and the First Paycheque
- 26:05 Exile, the PAC, and Studying Art in Switzerland
- 30:09 The Communal Voice in Ways of Dying
- 32:33 Deciding to Stop Writing Novels
- 35:30 Famo Music and the Return to Fiction with Wayfarer's Hymns
- 38:09 The Rickshaw Novel: Durban's Lost Culture
- 44:58 Writing Non-Fiction: Biography of Krisani
- 47:30 The Heart of Redness Plagiarism Controversy
- 53:24 Writing for Children and Ancient African Civilisations
- 56:11 The Zulus of New York: Research and Sarah Bartman
- 01:03:09 AI as a Research Tool and the Class Action Lawsuit
- 01:08:26 Human Creativity vs AI-Generated Content
- 01:10:17 Current Reading: Building Worlds Brick by Brick
- 01:13:21 Reflection
