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Inspiration is everywhere - Interview with Ivor Hartmann
Upenyu Makoni-Muchemwa, Kubatana.net
March 15, 2011

Read Inside/Out with Ivor Hartmann

Ivor W. Hartmann, is a Zimbabwean writer, editor, publisher and visual artist, currently based in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is the author of Mr. Goop (Vivlia, 2010), and was nominated for the UMA Award (2009), and awarded The Golden Baobab Prize (2009). His writing has appeared in StoryTime, African Writing Magazine, Wordsetc, Munyori Literary Journal, Something Wicked, Paulo Coelho's Blog, Sentinel Literary Quartley, African Writer, and the anthology African Roar (StoryTime, June 2010). He is the editor/publisher of StoryTime, co-editor/publisher African Roar, consulting editor African Writing Magazine, contributing editor Sentinel Nigeria, and on the advisory board of WINZ - Writers International Network Zimbabwe.

How did the StoryTime e-zine come about?
Back in 2007 when I decided to return to the realm of fiction writing (after a nearly two decade absence), I rapidly realised how very few outlets for African writers there were. So never one to bemoan a situation without a solution, I looked into the cheapest and quickest way of starting a literary magazine. Thus the StoryTime Literary eMagazine (ISSN: 2072-9359) was born in June 2007.

What do you look for in a potential StoryTime story or author?
There are two things I look for from the StoryTime submissions: a good story well told, and a subsequent willingness to polish further with the editor.

What future do you envisage for StoryTime? Would you want it to become a magazine?
StoryTime is now nearly exactly where I wanted it to be from the beginning. In that, it provides an international platform for African fiction writers in all genres, and its overall content serves as the pool for the annual ‘African Roar' book anthology. Though there are of course still quite a few more objectives I have in mind, but the initial ones have been achieved and are being maintained.

StoryTime is already a lit mag, but if you mean a print mag, then no, I don't think it will ever be a print mag. I feel the annual anthology ‘African Roar' serves the print sphere well, as does StoryTime the digital sphere.

As a publisher of African authors, do you have any favourites and why?
If you mean African authors in general there are way too many for me to name. If you mean in terms of African authors I have published (I'm not going to play favourites and name names), then I'd have to say I am a fan of any African writer that pushes the boundaries of the current African literature scene. This means I have a soft spot for those who venture into territories that have not been previously well-explored by African writers in English.

You are the administrator of the Dambudzo Marechera Facebook fanpage and are compiling an anthology to honour him. What was your first experience of Marechera's writing? Why did you start the fanpage?
I first read Marechera when I was thirteen (House of Hunger), and found his writing to be the freshest and most insightful I'd ever read; mainly because it addressed me as an African, specifically in the country I was born, raised and lived in. It was because of this experience that I decided to try my hand at writing. So in effect, I can directly attribute Marechera's works as instrumental in me becoming a writer.

Being a long time fan, I noticed that there was no dedicated and updated Marechera presence online. So shortly after I joined Facebook in 2007 and saw how the fan pages worked I decided to start one for Marechera and keep it updated. Seeing it was going well I thought it should become an official page and so contacted Professor Flora Viet-Wild of The Dambudzo Marechera Trust. Flora agreed to affiliate The Dambudzo Marechera Trust with the page and make it official. So as it stands the page is the only officially dedicated page to Marechera online that is continuously updated.

Then this year I noted that the only tribute anthology dedicated to Marechera had been in back in 1988 "Dambudzo Marechera, 4 June 1952-18 August 1987" shortly after his death. So I thought it was high time another one was published and set out to create one, which is still in process and we'll see how it goes.

Which genre of writing do you prefer to read in your leisure?
I read fairly voraciously and so there is no one specific genre I read more than others, my only requisite is that it is good writing (though you can also learn from bad writing too). As a writer I feel it is a fundamental requirement to be as well read as possible.

What is your opinion on writing and writers in Zimbabwe?
I think hard times often produce great writers, and Zimbabwe is no exception to this. We have seen in the last fifteen years a whole range of new writers coming to the forefront of the Zim Lit scene, and they are pushing boundaries that perhaps they would not have pushed were things otherwise. It has also meant that a quite a few Zim writers are writing from exile (be it political or economic), and this has given them a unique perspective, and safety zone, from which they can write without fear of recrimination. That said there are also many writers in Zim who are on the frontlines, and yet despite this have fearlessly engaged the problems in Zim through their writing. That said the Zim situation has obviously flavoured the writing, so apart from a few exceptions we are seeing a majority of political writing, which is to be expected, but does mean other themes are not being explored as avidly.

Mr. Goop has been awarded the Golden Baobab prize for literature. Why did you choose to write a Young Adult story? What inspired that story? Was it difficult to construct the complex world that Tamuka inhabits? Would you want to see that story translated into film, and in what form?
I wrote ‘Mr. Goop' specifically for TGBP which had two categories (Children and YA), and this made me to enter into writing YA which I had not done previously.

The story was inspired by myself at twelve years old and the friends I had then. I took a few months beforehand to remember this time in detail and put myself into that mindset, as well as researching the various themes I wanted to explore. From that point onwards the story evolved naturally within the boundaries and themes I wanted to explore in the story.

Writing sci-fi is fairly demanding, as not only do you have to research very well, but then you have to take that research and make many educated guesses to envisage what the world would be like at the time of the story. In this way you begin to build the world of your story before you write it, and if you do it well it becomes naturally complex when you set down to write. So you create a world and hold that creation in your mind as a constant reference when you are writing. But also importantly, you have to be open to change as the story develops and takes on a life of its own or you, 1) get bored, or 2) don't allow the awesome power of one's imagination to run free.

I have been approached by several directors/producers who wanted to option Mr. Goop into various visual formats, but so far nothing concrete has come from it. So for the time being Mr. Goop remains in the written world. That said, ultimately I'd like it to become a 2D animated TV series, and possibly a full-length feature, at some point. But, until then I am pushing ahead with a series of illustrated Mr. Goop books that follow Tamuka chronologically as he grows up, which I am in the process of writing.

You are also a visual artist. What is your preferred medium and subject matter?
These days I am purely a commercial artist and work in the digital realm, which helps fund my writing time. But, back when I was a non-commercial artist my preferred medium was oils on canvas and I focused on abstract-surrealism, which I'll return to someday but only as a hobby.

As a creative person what inspires you?
I think it's more a question of what doesn't inspire me, as I am daily inspired by what I see, read, and experience personally. It could be anything really, the glint of sun off a wet road, the smell of rain, a great line of writing. . . . We live in such an amazing world it's hard not to be inspired on a daily basis if you are observant.

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