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An interview with Brian Chikwava
Mildred Kiconco Barya, Pambazuka News
June 04, 2009

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/African_Writers/56713

Brian Chikwava is a Zimbabwean writer. His novel Harare North was published by Jonathan Cape in 2009. He lives in a matchbox-sized flat in London. He eats fish but only on some days. He is also a staggeringly good cyclist.

Mildred Kiconco Barya: Why do you write?

Brian Chikwava: I write because that's what all bums do when they find a moment of solitude. That was a very useful attitude when I wrote Harare North.

MKB: At what age did you start writing creatively?

BC: I must have been 14 when I attempted a film script. I wrote half a dozen lines and had a sore head. I gave up.

MKB: Describe your writing journey.

BC: You could say it's marked by a lot of groping in the dark, full of grunts and yelps.

MKB: What are the thematic concerns in your writing?

BC: It's a mixed bag, I must admit. That's because I just write what I feel like at the time and never really think too much. Maybe if I look carefully there is a running thematic strand but I don't want to look yet.

MKB: What inspired you to write Seventh Street Alchemy?

BC: I just happened to have a lot of time on my hands then and was trying to learn the short story form. But I also was surrounded by interesting people.

MKB: How did you know about the Caine Prize?

BC: I heard about it when it was launched at the Zimbabwe International Book Fair.

MKB: What was your initial response when you won the Caine Prize?

BC: I calculated the number of rickshaw rides I could afford to have around Covent Garden, London. I remember it was just over 3,000 rides, including a high-quality English whip.

MKB: What has been happening or not happening since winning the Caine?

BC: I've been writing Harare North.

MKB: If you were to rewrite your submitted story what would you change?

BC: I'd take out a lot of sloppy writing there.

MKB: How often do you revise or redraft your stories?

BC: Until I'm bored.

MKB: What's your take on writing?

BC: I need a long time to think about this.

MKB: How do you deal with a writer's rejections?

BC: I take a 15km walk, find a bar, buy vodka and talk to a few complete strangers for a while. There is no problem that this cannot solve.

MKB: Apart from writing, what else do you do and why?

BC: I don't even think I write. I'm always trying to blag my way through things.

MKB: Forty years from now where do you see yourself?

BC: In heaven, with good old God.

MKB: What's your best quote?

BC: I stopped having any once I found they were quotes crowding my head and I didn't have opportunities to use them.

MKB: Which five authors do you admire most and why?

BC: Every time I come up with five names I feel terminally stupid for having left out this or that author. It's easier to pick the ones that one loathes.

MKB: List your favourite five books.

BC: Ditto.

MKB: What's your vision?

BC: I'm still working on it.

MKB: What genre do you read most and why?

BC: I read anything and everything that passes under my nose.

MKB: If you were to make a wish right now what would it be?

BC: To be able to fall asleep at the touch of my nose. I'm a bit of an insomniac.

MKB: If you were to have powers of a genie what two things would you change?

BC: I would turn myself into a benevolent dictator and consign a few world leaders to the gulag.

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