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An interview with Ivor W. Hartmann
Conversations
with Writers
April 16, 2009
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/African_Writers/55636
Ivor Hartman
speaks to Conversations with Writers about StoryTime, his online
ezine to showcase new African writing, and his desire to tell the
world about the Zimbabwean situation through writing.
Conversations with Writers: What is StoryTime (ST) all about?
Ivor W. Hartmann: To quote the StoryTime About page mission
statement if I may, since I put the effort into re-writing it recently:
The StoryTime African
New Fiction FreEzine is all about new African fiction reading and
writing. For our readers we provide a free weekly ezine showcasing
the works of some of the hottest new African fiction writers. For
our writers we endeavour to find them, and then encourage free online
fiction publication at ST, as a multi-purpose means to improve writing
ability and their exposure.
For the ST readers, my
aim is to publish at least one great fiction story every week from
an African writer, usually early morning Sunday (+2GMT).
I also do the occasional
special edition on days like Valentine's, or like the last
one on President Robert Mugabe's Birthday. ST featured a cutting
edge farcical story written for the occasion by Zimbabwean author
Masimba Musodza (Robin Hood & The President's Birthday Bash).
Also in the works is
an annual ST Book Anthology called African Roar, which is set to
be published by The Lion Press in early August 2009. It will then
be launched at a new Zimbabwean Writers Festival in that same month
being organised by The Lion Press.
For the writers, I actively
look for new and established talented fiction writers to showcase
at ST, and welcome all fiction submissions within the ST guidelines.
Once the authors are accepted into ST, I then provide an interactive
online home for them and their stories. Firstly, we showcase their
stories by publishing them in the ST ezine.
In addition to that,
for each ST author, I create a special author bio page that show
cases them specifically. This includes an autobiography with their
picture, all their stories at ST, and many related links (I updated
them monthly) to good content about the authors and/or their works.
It includes, extra to the main ST feed, a specific feed only about
them from ST.
The author page also
gives them a space and the freedom to communicate with their readers
in personal posts at their page, and in comments on the story itself.
Taken all together, ST hopes to serve as a promotional interactive
conglomerate of their online authorial presence and work.
Conversations with Writers:
How did StoryTime come about?
Ivor W. Hartmann: Like
most ideas, this one grew out of necessity, or the dearth of good
fiction-only magazines, coming out of South Africa and, understandably,
Zimbabwe. Not that there aren't any, but they are fewer and
far between in comparison to the rest of the world.
Frustrated as a new fiction
writer madly writing with so few local outlets for my work, I started
thinking about how I could remedy this dire situation.
Being strapped for cash
back then (as a new-ish dedicated full-time writer and living in
a new country), basically made me realise that a proper print magazine
was out of the question to start with. So I took a look at online
publishing, which led me to Google's Blogger framework, and so the
first incarnation of StoryTime was born.
Right from the outset
my intention was to use the Blogger framework to publish a real
ezine. I also definitely wanted to avoid personal blogging in the
ezine and feature only fiction works, even if they were only mine
to start with.
Conversations with Writers:
How long have you been working on the project?
Ivor W. Hartmann: I published
the first ST ezine in June 2007.
Initially, I wanted to
create a fiction ezine that would consist of an eclectic collection
of world fiction, run directly by its authors for their readers,
and to create an online home for all the authors involved.
Over time and after gaining
a bit of experience in this new field of online publishing, I came
to realise what I wanted ST to be. An ezine that focuses primarily
on the poorly represented and yet amazingly rich and diverse, fictional
literature coming out of Africa and from the far flung African diaspora.
So I changed the ST emphasis to African writers only and the rest
was history.
Conversations with Writers:
How do you find contributors?
Ivor W. Hartmann: I actively
seek out talented writers and invite them to ST, and constantly
look for free ways to promote ST and all our authors by all means
at my disposal, on and offline. Then there's the relatively new
development of the ST book anthology, African Roar, something I
have wanted to do since the very beginning. In this regard I have
just put out the call for ST fiction submissions to be published
first in the ezine, and thereby gain entry into the selection process
for the printed anthology. This came about thanks in no small way
to Sarudzayi Barnes at The Lion Press, who secured us the funding
to print publish with LP, from the UK Arts Council. Though in the
long run I'd like the anthology to not only pay for itself, but
also to offer a decent percentage return for all the authors published
in it.
Conversations with Writers:
Which writers are you currently working with?
Ivor W. Hartmann: This
is a great question and maybe I can also explain something of how
ST works. Firstly let me do the honour roll for everyone ST is actively
working with:
Igoni Barrett, Adesola
Orimalade, Ayesha Attah, Ayodele Morocco-Clarke,Beaven Tapureta,Chris
Mlalazi, Colin Meier, Esi Cleland,Emmanuel Sigauke, Masimba Musodza,
Nigel Jack and Sarudzayi Barnes.
It is these authors who
have made ST what it is by joining, contributing and working with
ST. Two members of prime contribution are Emmanuel, who is co-editing
the upcoming ST anthology with me, and Sarudzayi, whom I mentioned
earlier.
Now when I say our authors
work with ST, what I mean is that unlike traditional publishing,
ST runs under a Creative Commons 3.0 licence (Attribution, Non-derivative,
and Non-commercial). This means that in effect, the author joins
ST and then together we showcase their work in the ezine, directly
under their own names and copyrights. The authors then, forever,
have complete access to all their works at ST and can edit them
or remove them entirely if they so choose. This I feel is an important
part of the capabilities of online publishing, giving the authors
direct control over their work.
Hindsight can also be
very illuminating, especially as one improves as a writer with each
new work. At ST as the author you may make changes, normally reserved
for a second revised edition in the print world. So the ST authors
are their own editors, and I approve their works for publishing
in the ezine as editor-in-chief of ST.
Conversations with Writers:
What challenges do you meet and how do you deal with them?
Ivor W. Hartmann: ST
always presents many daily challenges, which I try and deal with
as swiftly as humanly possible. But I suppose the prime challenge
from the beginning, has been my choice of the Blogger framework
to publish ST for free. In doing so I have had to constantly search
for ways to present ST as an ezine and not a generic blog. Luckily
though, I am also a visual artist and have tried to make ST on the
whole look as un-blog-like as possible. Not to mention the utter
helplessness when faced with problems beyond my control, because
it's a free service. However, that's also the good thing about
ST in its current form, apart from my own time and that of the authors;
it's totally free for us and therefore our readers. This might change
in the future, if we can ever afford a dedicated .com domain name
and full website etc., which will bring its own set of new challenges
no doubt. Though, unless we start printing a magazine solely, I'd
like to keep the ST ezine free for the authors and all our readers.
There is also an inherent
challenge in letting your authors have complete access to their
works. One only has to view MySpace to see how out of hand this
can get if left unsupervised. So behind each story I work a bit
of hard-learned but simple HTML magic to make sure it complies with
the ST layout standards, and doesn't jam the feed readers.
In general though, I
have found the ST authors more than willing to help solve any problems
that may arise, which makes life a lot easier.
Conversations with Writers:
How would you describe the standard of writing at ST?
Ivor W. Hartmann: So
far, I think we have maintained a fairly good standard of writing
at ST, but I can only believe that this will become even better
as ST grows. It is also my intention with the first anthology to
raise the bar significantly, by only print publishing the 'eclectic'
or very best, of all the works published in the ezine since our
beginnings. Subsequent to the first anthology, it will be the best
of that year.
Conversations with Writers:
Who is your target audience?
Ivor W. Hartmann: On
the whole I'd say we already have enough variety to satisfy nearly
every fiction genre taste, and so this would put us squarely in
the fairly broad realm of all those who read fiction/literature
magazines and ezines.
Furthermore, with our
solid presence on Facebook and by using the Blogger framework, we
are introducing ST and our authors to whole new generations of online
fiction readers.
Conversations with Writers:
Which aspects of the work do you enjoy most?
Ivor W. Hartmann: There
are quite a few reasons why I was motivated to start ST, but one
of the big ones was to start communicating with my fellow Zimbabwean
writing peers in Zimbabwe and those spread throughout the world.
I had the idea that together we could do what artists are at least
in meant to do, and that is being a voice for the voiceless; to
bring to the world light the very real catastrophe of our Zimbabwean
situation through our arts - in this case, writing. Therefore,
I have slowly but surely opened the lines of communication between
several Zimbabwean writers and myself, and together we have achieved
some measure of real progress. This is surely what I enjoy most,
seeing and being a part of something greater than myself, which
actually does cause positive change.
Ultimately, like most
Zimbabweans, I have a great desire to return home permanently from
what is effectively an economic exile.
Conversations with Writers:
What sets ST apart from the other ezines and literary magazines?
Ivor W. Hartmann: It
would have to be the complete control the authors have over their
work, and the strong sense of close community that ST engenders
in both its authors and readers. We like to help each other out
where we can, and most of us bring an existing entourage of readers
to ST when we join. I believe it is this spirit of openness and
community, tempered with real authorial control, which draws readers
and serious writers to ST. This, therefore, raises the bar with
the addition of each new talented writer, and our growing experience
in online and print publishing.
* Ivor W.
Hartmann is an author and editor-in-chief of StoryTime
* This interview
appears courtesy of Conversations with Writers. If you are a writer
interested in participating, please contact Ambrose Musiyiwa amusiyiwa@googlemail.com
Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.
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