Interview with Cynthia Rumbidzai Marangwanda, author of Shards
In 2023, I read a wonderful novella titled Shards, published by Carnelian Heart Publishing. I didn’t know exactly how to review Shards, but it blew me away. Author Cynthia Rumbidzai Marangwanda kindly agreed to answer some questions about the book, and about writing in general.
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Jacqueline for HRB: Thank you for speaking to me. I enjoyed Shards tremendously, and found it sharp, pithy, and powerfully feminist.
How did you come to write Shards? What was the inspiration and process, and what was the road to publication?
CM: Thank you for this opportunity to talk about Shards; I am glad you found it an enjoyable read. The idea to write Shards came about somewhat spontaneously for me. It was back in 2013 and I had been performing poetry for a number of years. I was growing weary of the performance poetry scene and wanted to expand my creative horizons. I found myself naturally gravitating towards writing prose since my grandfather, J.W. Marangwanda, was an author, and I wanted to follow in his footsteps.
So an idea came to mind to write a story based on the experiences of an unconventional young woman living in 21st-century Harare, who was grappling with an ancestral calling. I wanted to capture a side of Harare that was more fringe and alternative, a side that I had been exposed to as part of Harare’s arts scene. I also wanted to portray the alienation, identity crises, and disillusionment of the younger generation in post-colonial Zimbabwe - the so-called “born-free generation”- a descriptor I find somewhat ironic. On the other hand, I also wanted to show the brilliance, radiance, and nascent potential of Zimbabwean youth; and also write about the often misunderstood subject of African spirituality in a creative way. Being a poet I decided to write the story in a kind of poetic, stream-of-consciousness, surrealist style - I think of it as free-form writing.
Soon after I started writing Shards I found out I was pregnant and stopped writing. I continued writing soon after giving birth and eventually finished. I was literally juggling breast-feeding, being a new mom, and writing a book - an experience I do not recommend hahaha! The road to publication was not easy. I sent my manuscript to some publishers and got rejected. I was disappointed and losing hope of ever getting published, when a family friend with an independent publishing press called LAN Readers read my manuscript and agreed to publish it - something I am so grateful for. The first edition of Shards was published towards the end of 2014. Shards was out of print for some time when, in 2022, I connected with Samantha Rumbidzai Vazhure, a dynamic woman and publisher, who graciously agreed to republish Shards through her publishing company Carnelian Heart Publishing. The second edition of Shards was released in March of 2023.
HRB: The first thing that struck me, and powerfully, was the connection of Shards to Marechera. Please tell me about your experiences with his work, and why he's such an influence in this book. Did you mean for this to be a tribute to him?
CM: During the time I wrote Shards I was deeply immersed in Dambudzo Marechera’s work, particularly his books House of Hunger and Black Insider. To me his writing leans towards prose poetry and this was something I resonated with as someone who is first and foremost a poet. There is a freedom in his writing that I find liberating and highly inspiring. His command and use of language, the inventiveness and singularity of his writing, is unparalleled. I also love how subversive and fearless his work is. To me Marechera represents the infinite possibilities of what literature can be and the endless frontiers of language. I didn’t intentionally set out for Shards to be a tribute to him but it was definitely influenced by his work.
HRB: Who was the audience you had in mind when writing Shards?
CM: I did not explicitly set out to target a specific audience, but in hindsight I think Shards is a sort of love letter to the born-free generation which I belong to - a lost generation in limbo between the past and the present, tradition and modernity.
HRB: You have a strong female protagonist who does unexpected things. Was it important to you for her to have this strong voice? If so, why?
CM: It was a no-brainer for me that she would have a strong voice. Being as complex and non-conformist as she is, it was inevitable that her voice would stand out and have power. I deliberately made her unconventional, eccentric and independent-minded because that is the kind of female protagonist or character that I am drawn to and want to put out into the world. I am not an admirer of docility or conformity in women so naturally my protagonist in Shards was going to be unapologetically authentic. In my own life my late mother and paternal grandmother were women who were not afraid to be assertive and go against social conventions; my maternal grandmother, who is still alive, is the same way, so that may explain my inclination for a strong female protagonist as well.
HRB: One of the great highlights of the novella for me is the soliloquy towards the end. How did you come up with this?
CM: That part just poured out of me. I am not sure I was fully conscious when I wrote it, it felt as if I was in a trance, almost like automatic writing. The words just spilled out one after the other, they practically wrote themselves. I do remember it being very cathartic to write that particular part, like a purging or releasing.
HRB: Shards feels to me like it would make a wonderful play. Can you see it on stage?
CM: That’s a very interesting thought. Yes I can see it on stage, as more of an experimental and avant garde production. I would love to see how it could be translated for stage.
HRB: Can you see Shards as a set book in schools?
CM: That would be a dream come true and a great honour for Shards to be studied by youthful minds in schools. I’d be keen to know how they would approach and interpret it, and whether they relate to its themes or not.
HRB: You won a NAMA for Shards in 2015. Did this change your relationship to writing?
CM: Winning the NAMA was very unexpected. The nomination was great enough, and then to actually win was amazing and surreal. It boosted my confidence significantly as a prose writer and affirmed to me that I had a story that resonated with others. It was a very important affirmation for me and it gave me impetus to continue writing. To this day it remains one of my proudest artistic achievements.
HRB: Although Shards is your first published novella, I assume you'd been writing for some time before that?
CM: Yes I had. I started writing at the age of 9 and I have been writing pretty much non-stop since. Stories, poems, songs, journal entries, random musings and observations, essays. I am constantly writing. Writing is my native tongue. In high school I was popular for my stories that I wrote in exercise books and shared with other students. From about the age of 19 I started to write a lot of poems and that eventually led me down the path of being a spoken word poet. I have been writing for as long as I can remember.
HRB: What are your thoughts about the Zimbabwean publishing landscape?
CM: I think the Zimbabwean publishing landscape is growing and making strides. I see a lot more publishers who seem to be eager for new work than in the days when I first wrote Shards. Self-publishing also seems to be on the rise, which is great because writers are choosing to take the reins and be masters of their own destiny. The arrival on the scene of publishers such as Carnelian Heart Publishing has given talented Zimbabwean writers a chance to be published and get their work out there, which is beautiful and necessary. I am more optimistic about Zimbabwean publishing than I was a decade ago, and I hope this is only the beginning of greater things to come.
HRB: Apart from Marechera, do you have any other favourite Zimbabwean writers?
CM: I love Tsitsi Dangarembga, Yvonne Vera, and Petina Gappah. I think they are literary giants; I look up to them so much.
HRB: What do you do when you're not writing?
CM: I am a mother and a wife. Motherhood is a full-time job to me which I take very seriously. I am very spiritual, so I spend a lot of time connecting and communing with my spirit, which makes me something of a loner. I am also a cultural heritage activist, with a focus on decolonising Zimbabwean sacred sites.
HRB: Do you have anything else in the works?
CM: After a very lengthy hiatus, I have new fiction in the works. I am superstitious, so I won’t say much else for fear of jinxing the work hahaha. I also have some creative non-fiction about African spirituality which I’m figuring out.
Just to add: In Shards I approached Harare as a character, especially the city centre and surrounding areas. Harare is not just a backdrop or setting, it is as much a living breathing character as the human characters in the story. I am Harare born and bred, and I have a deep attachment to its urban landscape. So I tried to bring out the essence, atmosphere, and personality of the Harare I know as vividly as possible. It was my way of paying tribute to the city I love so much.