An Interview with Bryony Rheams, author of This September Sun

We continue today with our interviews with new authors, which began about two weeks ago. Today we interview the fifth author in the series, Bryony Rheams, author of This September Sun. Bryony Rheams was able to make some time to answer some questions for ImageNations. Soon after its release, This September Sun has won an award for first book in Zimbabwe. 

Can you tell us something about yourself (place of birth, school and anything in between)

I was born in Kadoma, Zimbabwe in 1974. We moved around a bit in my early years before finally moving to a mine just outside Bulawayo when I was about eight. I went to school in Bulawayo, completing my A levels in 1992. I then went to the UK on a gap year and also spent another year working in Zimbabwe before going back to the UK to go to university.

Which writers or people have influenced your writing?

Doris Lessing and Virginia Woolf

How would you describe your style of writing?

People tell me my writing is very easy to read, conversational in tone. I like using first person narrator who builds up a relationship with the reader.

How difficult was it for you to become publish?

AmaBooks were familiar with my work, so they were keen to read This September Sun when I told them about it. However, finding a publisher outside of Zimbabwe has proved quite difficult. I think that publishers have quite set ideas about what they want from Africa in terms of storylines.

How did you feel when you saw your name on the cover of the book?

It was very exciting. I felt a huge sense of accomplishment.

Tell us something about your book, This September Sun.

It's basically the story of the relationship between a young girl, Ellie, and her grandmother, Evelyn. Evelyn is not your conventional grandmother: she separates from her husband and finds herself a job, a flat and a boyfriend. Ellie finds herself as the go-between her grandmother and the rest of the family, who all feel she has done the wrong thing. Ellie eventually grows up and goes to live in the UK, where she studies literature. She longed to leave Zimbabwe, but now finds the UK cold and lonely. She returns to Zimbabwe on hearing that her grandmother has been murdered and is assigned the task of going through her things. On discovering Evelyn's letters and diaries, she discovers another side to her grandmother and unlocks some long-concealed family secrets.

What particularly motivated you to write this novel?

I started off with the first line which came to me after a conversation with friends in which someone said that the British flag was burned at Brady Barracks in Bulawayo at Independence in 1980. Then I wrote the first chapter and thought, what now? It all came from there.

What do you intend to achieve with your writing?

At the moment, my motivation is almost purely financial. I want to have enough money to stay at home and spend time with my young daughter and write without pressure of a job. I don't have any particular message, but I do feel that I had something inside of me that needed to be expressed and now I've done that I think my next book might be quite different.

Has being published changed your life?

Not dramatically, but it's very nice when people tell me that they've really enjoyed reading the book.

Who are your target audience when you write?

I don't think of anyone in particular and I know that a wide variety of people have enjoyed my book. It seems to have an equal appeal to those who also grew up in Bulawayo around the same time, but is not limited to them.

What do you intend to add to the Zimbabwean Literary-Scape, which I see to be growing day by day?

I'd like to think that I've opened a different perspective onto white Zimbabwean life and also shown that subject matter need not be limited to poverty, AIDS, suffering and the like.

What is it that makes Zimbabwean writers stand out? For instance, Irene Sabatini won the 2010 Orange Prize for New Writers with The Boy Next Door.

I haven't actually read Irene Sabatini's book so I can't comment on that score. I think partly there is a longer history of writing in Zimbabwe than in other countries, Zambia, for instance, and so Zimbabwean writing has had time to develop. I also think there has been greater interest in Zimbabwe over the past ten or so years because of the political and economic situation there. Times of crises traditionally spawn good writing as well.

Your book has just won the Zimbabwean Book Publishers Award for 2010. What does this mean to you? And does it put some pressure on you regarding your next novel?

I was pleased to win the award as it means my writing is valued, especially in my own country. Yes, I do feel the extra pressure to get on with writing another novel.

What do you do apart from writing?

Mainly look after my two daughters. That doesn't leave me much free time! I love reading, though, and enjoy taking the opportunity to curl up with a good book. 

Where could we get copies of your work, outside Zimbabwe?

At the moment in the UK, it is available through Books of Zimbabwe. It is on sale in certain bookshops in South Africa and Zambia.

Any work in progress?

Yes, I have started my second novel and also have lots of ideas for a third.

Bryony's Book Award

I opened my blog to find good news. I serialised new books from new authors and that included Bryony Rheam's This September Sun. This morning I got to know that it has won the the 2010 Zimbabwe Book Publishers Award for First Book...

The book is available at the Books of Zimbabwe website. It is also available from independent bookstores within Zimbabwe and South Africa and would be available at amazon soon. However, if you cannot get a copy please direct your email to amabooksbyo@gmail.com.

Extracts from the book, This September Sun, and other amaBooks publications, could be read from their website here.

ImageNations contacted Bryony and she has accepted to be interviewed here... Look forward for this interview.

Two From Zimbabwe: Tendai and Bryony

African literature has come a long way. It has moved from the periods where one could count the number of writers on ones fingers to today where quality works are produced almost everyday. Now, no one has the excuse of saying that he or she never had the opportunity of reading books by people of the continent. Before jumping fully into African literary works, I used to say that books written by Africans are too difficult to read and that they seemed to be meant for the big 'L' literature genre. Besides, having been born in a small town where there were no huts I was worried that almost every African book I picked had to deal with huts and fireside issues. The trend has changed and today we have writers writing on varied subjects and I don't mind reading about the 'Huts and Fireside' stories because I know there are others that write about other issues. Good.

Within the past week or two I have come across five new first novels by five different authors from three different countries. I would talk about them in series. Today I present the Zimbabwe duo of Tendai Huchu and Bryony Rheam. 

The Hairdresser of Harare by Tendai Huchu

About Tendai Huchu: Tendai Huchu was born in 1982 in Bindura, Zimbabwe, He attended Churchill High School in Harare and from there went to the University of Zimbabwe to study Mining Engineering. He, however, dropped out in the middle of the first semester, found work briefly in a casino and from there drifted from one job to the next. Four years later he returned to university and is now a Podiatrist living in Edinburgh, Scotland.

The Hairdresser of Harare is his first novel.

About The Hairdresser of Harare: Vimbai is a hairdresser, the best in Mrs Khumalo's salon, and she knows she is the queen on whom they all depend. Her situation is reversed when the good-looking, smooth-talking Dumisani joins them. However, his charm and desire to please slowly erode Vimbai's rancour and when he needs somewhere to live, Vimbai becomes his landlady.

So, when Dumisani needs someone to accompany him to his brother's wedding to help smooth over a family upset, Vimbai obliges. Startled to find that this smart hairdresser is the scion of one of the wealthiest families in Harare, she is equally surprised by the warmth of their welcome; and its is their subsequent generosity which appears to foster the relationship between the two young people.

The ambiguity of this deepening friendship--used or embraced by Dumisani and Vimbai with different futures in mind--collapses in unexpected brutality when secrets and jealousies are exposed.

Praises for The Hairdresser of Harare: 

"Like very good dark chocolate this is a delicious novel, with bitter-sweet flavour"

"A subtle and refreshing story of life in contemporary Harare ... a novel of morality, prejudice and ambition told with humour and tragedy" Brian Chikwava, award-winning author of Harare North

Tendai Huchu has accepted to be interviewed on this blog, so please just watch this space. However, until then you can visit his website. Visit weaver press for your copies.

This September Sun by Bryony Rheam

About Bryony Rheam: Bryony was born in Kadoma in 1974 and lived in Bulawayo from the age of eight until she left school. She studied for a BA and an MA in English Literature in the United Kingdom and then taught in Singapore for a year before returning to teach in Zimbabwe in 2001. She was part of the British Council sponsored Crossing Borders creative writing project and has had short stories published in several anthologies, including all three volumes in the Short Stories from Bulawayo series and in Long Time Coming: Short Writings from Zimbabwe. Bryony won the Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo Short Story Competition in 2006.

This September Sun is Bryony's first novel.

About This September Sun: According to The Zimbo Jam, the novel is a chronicle of the lives of two women, the romantic Evelyn and her granddaughter Ellie, from the time Evelyn arrives in the country in 1946 to the present day. 

Growing up in post-Independence Zimbabwe, Ellie yearns for a life beyond the confines of small town Bulawayo, a wish that eventually comes true when she moves to the United Kingdom. However, as with many Zimbabweans, life there is not all she dreamed it to be... read the rest at The Zimbo Jam.

Praise for This September Sun

A beautifully executed story about Ellie's painful journey of discovery through her family history. The writing in This September Sun, poetic at times, fires a clear warning shot across the bows of world literature to announce that Bryony Rheam has arrived to claim her rightful place--Christopher Mlalazi

An Impressive first novel by an accomplished writer that contains both romance and mystery--Brian Jones (one of the directors of amaBooks)

The novel is currently available in throughout Zimbabwe.

Get these books and enjoy the read.