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“IT IS time that our stories are told by us.” That was the narrative projected on Saturday as BlackBird Books hosted a dialogue that spoke about young female writers in South Africa.
The dialogue took place at Xarra Books in Midrand with a panel that included Chwayita Ngamlana who recently published her debut book If I Stay Right Here, Yamkela KhozaTywakadi who has published a number of educational works with the department of Education and Department of Arts and Culture and author Tumelo Moleleki, the author of a four-part book series including Her Heart and Their Hope and the master of ceremonies, a Bookworms Book Club member Lorraine Sithole.
Different topics were discussed, ranging from the accessibility of books in townships to bureaucracy, red tape in the publishing world and even the use of indigenous languages in writing. The topic that was discussed at length was the red tape in the publishing sphere and the roles that different entities play such as the author, marketer, publisher and even book clubs.
Tumelo Moleleki said that the cost of production needs to change and also distributors need to be more accessible. “When I was in the process of publishing my book I always had to pray that the rand stays weaker against the dollar since my publisher was based overseas so the cost of production really needs to change so that more authors are able to produce more work,” Moleleki said.
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